Western Fence Lizard

He looks like a little dinosaur, but he was stoned by the sun and didn't even notice me poking my camera at him until I told him what a beautiful blue belly he had. He opened one eye and regarded me for a moment, then closed his eye again.

We must have hundreds of these living in our dry stone walls, eating insects, doing pushups on the rocks and thoroughly entertaining us. I have noticed that many of them
are missing all or parts of their tails. I doesn't seem to phase them.

I spent a couple of hours in the garden today, pulling out dead ice plant and scrambling around on the rocky slope pulling out the ever  present euphorbia seedlings and the tinder dry narcissus leaves. The fact that the rocks were hot as a stovetop, and I was wearing flip-flops probably didn't help as I inched around on my bottom, hoping to avoid the pointy agaves and the pincushion-like aloes.

Our Passiflora is blooming and also growing into the siding, underneath the deck and threatening to breach the office windows. We saw a wisteria yesterday at Western Hills Garden that was climbing hundreds of feet up into a redwood tree. They seemed to be coexisting quite amicably, but it will be interesting to see who wins out in the end--I'm putting my money on the vines, although the redwoods are among the oldest living things.

A propos of my vacuum cleaner meditation of June 10th, I received the following  from a Berkeley friend:

After years of searching for the truth, wandering the earth seeking oneness, our humble monk discovered that enlightenment can be had in the most unlikely of places. While ordering a hotdog from a food truck and being unsure what to order, the server said, "Why don't I make you one with everything?"
"You can do this for me?" asked the astonished monk.
As he ate, he smiled and pondered the mysteries of the universe, and discovered that he was feeling true bliss.
Finished, the monk paid, and after patiently waiting he asked, "My change?"
"Sorry Bro, Change comes from within", replied the server.