Brilliant yellow flowers

Trying to see if I can capture the brilliance of these flowers on an overcast day without going crazy with Pixlr filters. Result: not really.

Flowers and shadows

Flowers in the afternoon sun, on the dog walk.

Springing to life again

I cut open a squash, itself from a volunteer plant, to discover it starting all over again.

The next day, an equally enthusiastic onion.

Must be spring.

Because orders.

Time has told. Despite the tree now posing no threat, they arrived early this morning to destroy it. Why, I asked. Because orders.

And so, just like that, the end of a tree that sprouted around 1936.

Cutting down The Tree

Our neighbor had requested the removal of a dry, dead tree for four years. Yesterday they showed up and removed it (was to the right, half the height of this one) then started cutting branches off this beast. I can’t remember how many times over the years that I heard of a storm approaching, and photographed this tree, expecting to see it on the ground the next day. It had two parrot nests. No parrots were harmed, but a few of them flew around afterwards, squawking loudly (as they always do anyway).

Now that the wind resistance is drastically reduced, the tree should be no threat. Does that mean they’re through with it? Time will tell.

No tocar la leña

Somebody who obviously doesn’t have a chainsaw has decided that the tree that fell six weeks ago is now their property. Couple days ago a woman, presumably from the house behind, was scrawling on them with a piece of charcoal NO TOCAR LA LEÑA.

Don’t touch the firewood. Long-dead pine that will probably burn like cardboard. OK lady, it’s a deal.

If a tree falls…

Long expected, this huge dead tree went down in a windstorm last week, taking with it a parrot nest. I saw one dead parrot, and of course there could be several more.

The tree had a double trunk. One side fell on one side of the power pole, and one side on the other. But the power line was still there! How was that possible?

It took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out that the power company had already been out to repair the line: note the shiny new clamps on the darker pole….

Volunteer squash

The rest of the harvest from my strange volunteer hybrid squash plants that grew out of a non-compost bin.

Pampas grass

Crazy plant

The crazy plant: I took a picture when it was almost the height of the fencing. It was very pretty, very symmetrical. Then it reached my height, and then the gutter, and then some of the branches fell over. Their ends then turned skyward and kept growing.

I suppose I should get rid of it, but instead I’m amazed by it, growing out of a tiny bit of sand that rarely gets water.