04-26-2015 California's dream!

California's dream: getting that nice steady rain we do seem to get on a regular basis.

No complaint here; I am a big fan of nice steady rain and not just because I was born in a rainy country! I know how quickly our 98° summers can totally parch the land.

Other god news: I saw my first hummingbird two days ago. No way of knowing if he/she was just coming back to a place it knew and looked forward to or if it was just lucky!

Spring snow: dogwood petals.

The "beard" of the bearded iris.

Oh, did I mention that the very first blooms appeared on one of my cherry tomatoes? Talking about taste of summer! Now patience needs to set in; it'll be close to July 4th before I sink my teeth into one of those!

04-14-2015 Pollen pollen and more pollen!

But we also have some of the most comfortable temperatures around 60/70 without humidity or mosquitoes.

                             Moments to be thankful for!

The first batch of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and bush beans is in the ground.

Next tasks: more weeding and trying to take some control of my raspberry and blackberry patches. They seem to grow and expand by the minute!

Beauty returns to dust!

Even lichen can be pretty (here on bluebird box)

UFOs!

Acer palmatum

Hardy orchid

Fiddle heads

Chervil in bloom

Bamboo shoot. Those grow several inches a day!

The last of the winter leeks.