Fauna and Flora

Spoiled for choice today as I planned to use the picture of the sunflowers on steroids growing next to the olive tree, and the streletzias going ballistic under (and in front of ) the office/craft room/ Pilates studio window.  But look what we encountered first thing this morning on the Spike walk...

Using goats to mow steep hillsides is a win/win situation for everyone. They eat the grass (and even the poison oak) and their dropings fertilize the area. Sheep are used similarly in the more level vineyards that don't require billy goat dexterity. Everyone but Spike, that is....He could hear the goats but had no idea what they were. He wanted to find out, but he was separated from them by an electrified fence and was being kept on a very short lead by John. We walked up to the meadow in a damp fog where he ran around with his usual abandon, and decided to go back the way we came because there was (possibly) less steep terrain on which to have to control him. He did manage to touch his nose to the electrified fence which put a stop to his shenanigans . He walked quite docilely the rest of the way back to the car.

We were bemused by the fact that four older guys with dirt bikes were convening inside the Trail House...with their bikes. They were virtually interchangeable...all of the same short, stocky, potbellied build. None of them took their helmets off inside not did they appear to have bought any coffee during the time they stood in the middle of the floor with their bikes. John was complaining that they were taking up four places in the small parking lot when 'they could easily have parked next door and ridden their bikes' I pointed out that he  could even more easily park next door and walk on his own two feet but he remained a curmudgeon....

A handsome grey haired lady at the next table was enjoying a 9am beer. I couldn't see what her companions were drinking.

While we sat and chatted with Gail and Bob we saw a lady in flowing purple skirts a fitted purple vest/corset like thing with matching purple headgear that defied description, and later, a trans person with carefully coiffed purple hair in two little bunches. The purple lady came back and we saw her surprisingly young looking face. The trans person never did, and we also missed thee old gentleman with the small dog that we see most days. 

We interrupted our discussion about the wildly over the top production of Agatha Christie's 'Evil Under the Sun' with Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg among others, to comment on how nice it was to see such diversity walking past the window of the Trail House.

We stopped by to visit Blake on the way home and were cheered when he came to greet us, tail wagging. What a change from Sunday night when we were really afraid he wouldn't make it through the night.  Still no word on what on earth happened to him, but for now he seems to be recovering. 

I sat out on the porch in the emerging sun and listened to the guys next door packing up and getting ready to go home for the long holiday (Memorial Day) weekend. They sounded more talkative and much more jolly than I have ever heard them. After they all left Spike and I walked up to the back gate from which we could get a good view of the progress so far. I've put a picture in extras mostly for my own record since it has been such a puzzle. The master plan is beginning to emerge....