Agricultural Fare

It's time for the annual 4-H Agricultural County Fair.

The pig races are adorable!

It's amazing how seriously these farmers take their jobs.

A baby goat nibbles on youngest daughter's shirt!

Much as I am happy to see her, I see forebodings of disaster on her horizon, and it terrifies me.

There is no way I can pretend that this view from the fair to the fields is anything other than looming disaster.

Declining Trees Spell Gloom for Planet?

Gloom?

More like Doom...

And the burgeoning population of a hitherto scarce beetle that is attacking coffee plants is also blamed on warming. Don't these scientists know that ozone increases the susceptibility of plants to insect attacks? The NYTimes ran a story today titled "Pondering Sculpture Under Manhattan Trees" with this picture:

I'm so sorry, but those trees are dying. The ground beneath is fake, plastic - not green, growing grass. The Times also did a piece on Mark Twain's visits to New York, with the following marvelous quote about Wave Hill, an estate where he stayed with views of the Hudon:

“I believe we have the noblest roaring blasts here I have ever known on land; they sing their hoarse song through the big tree-tops with a splendid energy that thrills me and stirs me and uplifts me and makes me want to live always.”