High water, lilies & Michele Bachmann

Dwaine Clanin's work for the Lucas County Conservation Board in developing and maintaining the Cinder Path has been recognized with the installation last week of a new marker at the Chariton trailhead.

The polished granite marker recognizes Clanin on its south face and serves as welcome on the north, a neat addition to the path.

That's the good news --- the bad news is the fact areas of the northern part of the trail are under water again after heavy rains last week and over the weekend, a recurring hazard because of its Chariton River valley location. I made it less than a mile in before turning back because of high water yesterday.

There are other signs of our water-logged status. A combination of high wind and saturated soil has taken this tree down along the trail and the Shelton Marsh pond has spread to cover a great deal more ground than it usually does.

Providing it stays dry this week, as predicted, the water will drain --- but it's still a good time to utilize the southern reaches of the path rather than the north.

Back home, the lilies are nearing the end of their show. I still like the old-fashioned orange day lilies best, but this yellow variety is attractive, too. It lacks the hardiness of the old orange favorites, however. Given an inch, the old lilies will take a mile. The yellow lilies are slow to expand their territory.

I'm not sure what variety of lily these are --- something my mother planted years ago. They're beautiful, but top-heavy on slender stalks.

Just about out, too, are Easter lilies brought home last year after serving their purpose at the church and recycled into a flower bed.

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And then there's Republican Michele Bachmann, who announced her candidacy for president in Waterloo yesterday, where she was born, telling a Fox News reporter that “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”

Unfortunately for Bachmann, John Wayne (born Marion Robert Morrison), was a native of Winterset, not that far northwest of here and about 150 miles from Waterloo.

The only John Wayne connected to Waterloo was John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer, who lived in Iowa for a time before moving back to his native Illinois where he murdered somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 young men, burying many of them under his house. It's not clear what the implications of his spirit would be in a Bachman presidency.

Bachman seems to be the most historically illiterate within the GOP field, something that perhaps can be attributed to her education in Minnesota (where she moved as a child) or perhaps to Oral Roberts University, where she earned her law degree.

She previously has relocated Lexington, Concord and Plymouth Rock from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and declared that the "founding fathers" ended slavery, overlooking the fact many of them were slave-owners and apparently forgetting all about the Civil War.

One of the difficulties of the wingnut end of the GOP spectrum is that it would endorse a rock for president if "born again" were spray-painted on it. Poor Michele, a lovely person I'm sure --- just not bright, bless her heart.