A Succulent Seat

We went to the nursery this morning in search of a few flowers to put in the planter where we unceremoniously ripped out a half dead plant we called "Mr. Spikey". There seems to be a surfeit of pointy, spiky plants in our garden and we were looking for something softer and friendlier. King Nursery is a small family owned nursery in the middle of town, specializing in all things that bloom. This chair whose seat was repurposed into a planter took my fancy, although there is no place for it in our seriously spa-like garden. What it needs is a sense of humor!

This afternoon we went to a party given by my South African friend, Anne, for her husband's 70th birthday. They just bought their house in July and have done extensive remodeling so we have al lot to talk about. It seems that the people we bought our house from were universally considered to be unfriendly and standoffish. Not a hard act to follow for us, since all we had to do was show up, thereby proving that we are neither. We have a lovely group of neighbors and spent a pleasant afternoon learning all the neighborhood gossip and trying to remember everyone's name.

Our street is geographically quite unique with the creek on one side and the hills on the other, the views up the canyon from the house where the party was, to our more open view of vineyards and hills. Across the street, the houses are right on the creek. Further up the mountain, there are some people who live on 40 acres of land, With all this variety, we are still just five minutes from the grocery store and 15 minutes from downtown Santa Rosa.

Taking our leave from new friends, we came home armed with all kinds of information about water softening plans, the owner of the land behind our house and the chances of his being able to sell it, and whether our little street will ever move inside the city limits.