Satisfying Saturday

One of the rare Saturdays off for me. Actually, now that I've started working nights again I'll have every other Saturday off. I spent the day in the garden, after two hours of sleep. Who needs to sleep when it's the weekend, right? Anyway, first, I just had to buy more flowers.




The orange, airy looking ones above left are Salvia coccinea or Coral Nymph. I'll have to remember to save some seed. They're great looking, aren't they? Can a person ever have too many flowers?

The garden was performing today...






A Red Charm peony made a gorgeous explosion on the path...



The Italian Bugloss are blooming. I love these tall blue flowers. So does this bumblebee. I didn't get a good picture of him because the little bugger wouldn't hold still long enough.





A hummingbird also visited the bugloss this afternoon, and me without my camera at hand! Actually lots of visitors today. Three herons, or perhaps the same persistent heron three times, seriously eyeing the pond fish. (No fish missing so far.) We built our pond according to "heron proof" directions. Meaning with steep sides and a too deep to wade depth. But, one never knows. The fish have managed to stay alive for years, so no point in worrying now. We've lost a couple fish to raccoons though. One thing we refuse to do is put up netting or electric fencing to protect the pond fish. It's a pond. It's supposed to look natural. If the fish get eaten, (and trust me, I would mourn them) we'll buy cheap goldfish and call it "feeding the wildlife." I would not want to harm a heron, raccoon or kingfisher over some pond fish.
I also enjoyed watching a robin take a bath in the stream today.

Scarface doing some doggie sunbathing.



I just finished reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. I really like Connelly's Harry Bosch novels. The Lincoln Lawyer has Mickey Haller as the protagonist and he's great. Now I'm in the middle of The Whole World Over by Julia Glass. I'm really enjoying it also. Fiction time for me, I guess. Although, waiting in the wings I have Kickboxing Geishas - How Modern Japanese Women are Changing Their Nation by Veronica Chambers and Leonardo and the Mona Lisa Story - The History of a Painting Told in Pictures by Donald Sassoon.

Dinner will be shrimp cocktail along with Boursin cheese and Solaz wine. Great combo! (The wine bottle is empty only because I'm decanting it. I swear!)



And just a note...I guess my bicycling to work is rubbing off. Kim started biking to work this week also. Pretty cool.