August 1

Rain again. The skies are pressing down on the fruit trees, already laden with apples and peaches, and the trees press toward the earth in turn. The stewardship committee at the nature preserve voted secretly whether or not to kill some trees they think might die in order to finance an attempt to save some other trees they think might die. They vote in secret on everything important now, since the gas drilling debate ended in hatred and shouting.

Cancer is eating

up my friend. Peach tree splits and

falls--too full to live.