Summer's Height; the three of them

Just before the end of July on the famous grandchild visit. These are the three youngest near the daylilies S planted around the house several years ago.

And later that same day, the same lovely children were looking for ripening raspberries in the grass,: Samantha is holding the turkey feather that she lost before she got home, and mourned greatly until she went to bed..

We are really blessedly lucky in the lives we live! The new Harper's Magazine has an article on a herd of rogue elephants, which, instead of roaming in an accustomed annual pattern in search of seasonal foods, have discovered that rural villages in India have caches of food and native beer in villages and homes. So. led by their crafty matriarch, they have destroyed entire villages, in search of Good Eats. Some of these villages have now been given up by the inhabitants. Human elephant conflict is responsible for about 400 people deaths and 100 elephant deaths in India each year. Elephants are protected and also revered as being an avatar of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god. \
D
hruba, the specialist in Human Elephant Contact profiled in the article, travels from village to village to instruct people on the best ways of dealing with the problem without so much loss of life.

Here is what he has to say, " It is difficult to prove an elephant's intelligence. They don't have a monkeylike intelligence. 'Intelligence' isn't even the right word. It's more like wisdom. They can sense things. They know what to do. They'll take whatever a situation offers them and use it to their best advantage. And they don't aggravate situations. Unlike monkeys." Harper's Magazine, August, 2013, page 65.

There is a poem in here somewhere, filled with pity for both people and elephants. Good night and sweet dreams!