July 2017 ending

After a stretch of hot and humid days we had a perfect Sunday for a walk.



I took these shots at Lake Lynn in Raleigh, NC.



Not much to say but I like to post at least a couple of times a month so later I can look back on the timing in nature.



We've had so much rain that in some regards this looks more like spring than summer.



With the heat if we hadn't had a lot of rain the vegetation would look a lot droopier.



If anything we've had an over abundance of rain for many years.



I still haven't forgot what a bad drought we had from around 2005 through 2008.



In 2007/2008 the local newspaper would say how many days were left before the reservoir would be used up.



Since the Falls Lake is a 12,410 acre reservoir it's incredible to remember that.



Fortunately it never did dry up and as I said if anything we've had an overabundance of rain for years now.



That's not true for the whole state but it is for where I live in the NC Piedmont but of course with weather it can always turn on a dime.  

Happy Independence Day

In honor of independence day the words for this post are borrowed from the preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Indenpendence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;

and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,

it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I'm also rather fond of the first amendment of the U.S. constitution:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.