Not in My Neighborhood

 They were predicting snow overnight.  1 - 3 inches.  Of course, they mess up the forecast on a regular basis, but, they could be right...  So I decided to do my grocery shopping a day early.

I prefer a store in neighboring Farmington Hills.  A further drive, but a larger, well-stocked store.  I got home at lunch time, put the groceries away, and heated some leftovers for lunch.

The birds had done quite a number on the suet cakes in the feeder, so I got online to the local garden center to see what they had in stock.

And then the sirens started.  I figured there must be an accident close by.  The main road is just a few hundred feet away.  But then more sirens, and fire trucks.  When I came home there were crews on the road trimming trees interfering with electrical power lines.  I had even thought I should blog about it.  Maybe something had happened to a crew member.

But the noise stopped close by.  Was something happening at the synagogue on the corner?  I had feared that for years.

So, I got online to see if anything had posted on social media - the watchdogs of the world.  And then the phone rang.  One of my sons was stuck on the road with dozens of police cars racing by.  He got on social media and said there were reports of an active shooter at the synagogue about one half mile down the road - the one I just drove past, Temple Israel.  My polling place for elections.  They have hosted Michigan Week breakfasts in years past.  I attended a wedding there.  This is really happening in my community.

The helicopters arrived.  After three hours of them buzzing overhead, my head was spinning.  Every news channel was reporting on the incident.  I had shelter in place alerts on my phone.

If you live in the States, you may have seen coverage.  I even saw it on the BBC website.  There is no excuse for the hatred and outrage we see in this world.  War needs to cease.  I do not want it in my neighborhood, or in yours.

These photos were taken from images on my TV.

It is now 10 pm and helicopters are still overhead.  Enough already.

Invasive Species

As a follow-up to my most recent post about invasive species I decided to repost one of my 2011 rants about purple loosestrife.  I also mentioned the dreaded buckthorn, which I am still dealing with!!!

The Invasion of the Galerucella Beetle: Good-bye Purple Loosestrife

No, that is not the title of a new summer movie.  It is what is happening in one of my flower beds.

When I first planted my flower beds back in the 70s, I bought a plant called 'Morden's Pink' Lythrum.  Little did I know that this plant was a member of a very invasive wetland species, the purple loosestrife.  Hey, it was the official Township flower at the time and grew along all the roadside.

When I came into public office in 1988, one of the first things I did was ask the Township Board to change the official flower to the Trillium grandiflorum.  By then, I had learned that Minnesota had already declared the plant invasive.  It took some convincing, but we got it done.

Several years later, the Township's Parks Department released the Galerucella beetle to destroy the plant.  All of the specimens growing down along the branch of the Rouge River behind my house have long since disappeared.  My one plant has kept on growing, with me removing the flowers before they go to seed and digging out any young plants popping up.

That is, up until this year.  The beetles have arrived and are slowly but surely eating the entire plant.  Fortunately, these beetles are not supposed to destroy anything else.  I hope.

I've watched all of the Emerald Ash trees behind my house die off from ash borer.  I know you have seen signs on the highways telling you not to transport firewood. 

Perhaps someone can come up with something that eats buckthorn.  And only buckthorn.  It would save me a ton of work.