It doesn't feel right today to talk about anything other than the fate of the Gulf of Mexico and all the folks who live and work there ~ all the beautiful creatures who depend on man to clean up their environment.

BP's so-called "Top Kill" is underway to stop the deluge of oil spewing into the Gulf. According to BP, It will be 24 hours before success or failure is known. Meanwhile, entire areas of Louisiana's protected wildlife marshlands are dead according to CNN.

Update thirty-some hours later ~ the outcome of the procedure is still uncertain.

For whatever reason, the process at one point was stopped ~ later restarted.

Photo: Looking into the jaws of an alligator, Gaterland, Orlando, Florida.

Arizona, Louisiana and Mississippi

7:00 p.m. BP has just announced that the "live video feed" will continue throughout the so-called "Top Kill" on Wednesday, May 26.
For what may in fact potentially be the most tragic environmental disaster of all time, let us engage the world's best minds.

These beautiful scenes are from Boggy Creek area in Kissimmee, Central Florida Everglades. We are reminded that three coastal states are now declared Fisheries Disasters by the U.S. Department of Commerce in order to make available Federal Aid.

Photos: by Lorna (You may have to click on photo to see the bald eagle in lower photo.)

"What we can do is create renewable, cleaner energy sources for the twenty-first century. Instead of subsidizing the oil industry, (the previous U.S. administration's energy policy has been focused on subsidies to big oil companies and expanded drilling -- coupled with token investments in the development of alternative fuels.), we should end every single tax break the industry currently receives and demand that 1 percent of the revenues from oil companies with over $1 billion in quarterly profits go toward financing alternative energy research and the necessary infrastructure....it could be the vehicle by which we train an entire new generation of American scientists and engineers and a source of new export industries and high-wage jobs."

The AUDACITY of HOPE, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Barack Obama, Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House, Inc., 2006.

Florida's Strange and Beautiful Creatures

Florida's Wild and Wonderful Creatures.

Observing the devastating effects of the Gulf oil disaster, we are appalled at BP's apparent inability to deal with it.

In his 2006 bestseller, The AUDACITY of HOPE, Barack Obama writes, "It's hard to overstate the degree to which our addiction to oil undermines our future. According to the National Commission on Energy Policy, without any changes to our energy policy U.S. demand for oil will jump 40 percent over the next twenty years. Over the same period, worldwide demand is expected to jump at least 30 percent, as rapidly developing countries like China and India expand industrial capacity and add 140 million cars to their roads."

Tomorrow: What we can do to create renewable, cleaner energy sources for the twenty-first century.* p.169,The AUDACITY of HOPE, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Barack Obama, Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House, 2006.

Photo: by Lorna, Orlando, Florida. For larger image, please click on photo.

E. Pauline Johnson (1862 - 1913)

E. Pauline Johnson, Canadian poet, writer and performer, was born on the Mohawk Indian Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. Daughter of a Mohawk chief and an English gentlewoman, Pauline took to the stage telling in prose and poetry the story of her people.

When women seldom travelled, Pauline travelled coast to coast nineteen times and crossed the Atlantic three times performing in her buckskin "Indian" outfit and bear claw necklace or one of her elegant silk evening gowns.*

In response to The Neat Little Bookshop post, MARSHLANDS, May 19, Laurie Miller wrote, "The old girl's a far better poet than she's usually assumed to be.
Get over our wise snootiness about the 19th-century diction: our conventions will sound quaint to our great-grandchildren and hers may be regarded as "classic". Thanks for posting the poem."

Thank you Laurie, we agree. We welcome and appreciate your comments. Please email lwalker@mountaincable.net

*Flint & Feather, The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake, Charlotte Gray, HarperCollins, 2002

Boggy Creek ~ Kissimmee Florida

Travelling on an air boat. Sightings of alligator, bald eagle, ducks, herons, egrets, grazing farm cattle and the strange teacup snails.

Boggy Creek, Kissimmee, Florida ~ We simply have NOTHING like this along the Grand River. On the Grand, we see willows, maples (no moss), fiddleheads, herons, turtles, carp, catfish and Canada geese.

Our customers are clearly aware that we are preoccupied with holiday events. We will share a few of the highlights over the coming weeks!

Krista Schaus ~ Coach and Champion Light-Weight Powerlifter, Owner of Defining Edge Fitness Inc.

• Congratulations to team Carol Brady, Ashley Werner and Sonja Bedic. All took home medals from the Canadian Powerlifting Union's National Championships held in Quebec, April 7 to 11. (Powerlifting includes the squat, bench press and deadlift.)

"It was their first national competition and they faced very strict judging," said coach, Krista Schaus.

http://www.definingedge.ca/ Check out Krista's WebMag.
Photo of Krista, photographer Scott Walker