Spring Lake

There are two notable things about this oft photographed scene...Spring Lake taken from the Spike Walk above it.  The first thing is that between foxtail season, still in full swing, but the goats have been hard at work, my knee flare-up and Spike's surgery we haven't  been up there in months. I wasn't sure if I could make it, but I did fine, and it felt good to get up there again. I think Spike agreed. His tail certainly indicated that he did. He needed quite considerable combing with a fine tooth comb to get out the tiny burrs which gather and stick in his ears, bib and tail but they are not the threat posed by foxtails as they don't travel.

The second thing is that it is already August, but the lake is still clear of algae, toxic or otherwise. The lake is bigger than it looks, parts of it out of shot or behind trees. In hills on the other side of the lake is the neighborhood of Fountaingrove which was very hard hit in the Tubbs fire in 2017. A close look will show that although it was slow to recover, and a lot of people elected not to rebuild,  they are finally rebuilding the fire station, brand new when it burned in the fire,  and doing elaborate landscaping and sidewalk repair on the verges and the median strip of Fountaingrove Blvd. which we travel  at least once a week. We speculate every time we drive there about the massive amount of work being done in this upscale area of town when other areas continue to languish. I suspect it has something to to with PG&E reparations payments.

In our garden, I tackled the salvias which were threatening to take over the landscape. Several of them were so heavy with tall bloom spikes that they fell over but continued to bloom, threatening some less aggressive plants. I wound up with a big pile for the compost which John will painstakingly cut up into tiny lengths. 

As I sit writing there is a hummingbird paying one of its regular visits to the succulent flowers outside the door and a doe and her fawn are making their regular passage along the fence behind the house. What I can't see, which is a blessing, is the old camper truck parked behind the bunker house. Janet is trying to block her view of the house which is right behind hers but it is a difficult problem because it is uphill from both of us and would require something very tall to block  it from view. It doesn't look like the people living in it are going to do much landscaping.

The weather has been reasonable the last few days with highs of 85F (29.5C), cooler in the mornings and evenings. We're going to try a new venue for our wine this evening...in the fire garden which is slowly growing up. The fig tree is loaded with figs but they're not ripe yet. The lemon tree is still struggling, but it isn't dying either so we may have lemons yet this winter.