Out of the Ashes...

...the sunflowers, not the derelict half finished house. Not many houses can be called derelict before they are ever finished being built! The black plastic used to cover the roof but has now mostly blown off. We are now considering vine and shrub options for our newly built see through wire fence, since this is not particularly what we want to see. The upper portions of the house were placed on the foundation (which had been sitting seemingly abandoned for a couple of years) in a grand production of cranes and big trucks about a month after the fire. 

Today is Mothers' Day but as Jim, who usually cooks Sunday dinner for all of us, has gone to visit his mother who can't travel, we have stepped up. I went to the store quite early to avoid the rush, but it was full of men with flowers in their shopping carts. The produce department was well stocked with beautiful looking produce and I bought more veggies than we can possibly eat  unless I start making creative salads....

With apologies to all the lambs we see gamboling in the fields and even in a local winery, I bought beautiful lamb chops for dinner. I practically had to mortgage the house to pay for them but John is going to barbecue them. And we are going to sit outside...my favorite thing.

It was lovely to sit outside at our friends' house last night. Their large garden is surrounded by a variety of green trees and conifers and was alive with birdsong despite a German shorthair pointer and a Portuguese water dog running around. I realized how much I enjoyed being surrounded by natural vegetation with not a sign of burned leaves, black stumps or scraped earth.

Ziggy the pointer belongs to our friends, and Pingo the water dog (who ran straight into the pool when he arrived) came with the other couple who our friends met at the dog park. the dogs are also great friends and their owners became a bubble early on as neither couple had children nearby. We are now all fully vaccinated and we all sat outside to eat. It was delightful, the weather was perfect and I was able to park in their nightmare steep driveway in such a way that I didn't have to back up and turn around in the dark after a couple of glasses of wine. Ziggy met us at the bottom of the driveway and jumped into the car when John got out to head him off so I could back up to park. Having him sitting on my lap certainly solved the problem of not being to see him!

We're looking forward to sitting outside tonight in more perfect weather. The only thing marring the perfection is mosquitoes!