Queen Anne's Lace "Bird's Nest" Phase

I am becoming something of a fixture near the patch of Queen Anne's Lace growing next to the footpath by the soccer field. Anybody looking out their back windows the last few mornings will have seen me lurking down there with my camera, sometimes on the ground, sometimes knee deep in weeds, always looking for a better angle.

Today's phase follows the full bloom, shown a few days ago against the blue sky, when the clusters of tiny white blossoms turn to seeds, and the seed bearing "arms" begin to curl in upon themselves.

The guys finished digging out the pond yesterday afternoon. At least we all declared it finished, even though there is still an incredible amount of reinforced concrete which supported the two foot high walls and the bottom. As soon as David does some plumbing and hooks up the pump we can fill the hole with dirt and get on with the fun part!

To that end, Dana went with us to our favorite nursery in Petaluma, where we all agreed in the car on the way, we would "just look". We thought we might need a "garden decor item" to camouflage the patched stucco on the back wall where the shelf and the tile were, or maybe some grasses….

Dana had to squeeze into the car amidst the forest of plants we bought, including three pots of "eyelash grass", some handsome red sedge-like grass, purple teucrium, and a number of succulents. I hope they can grow in concrete like the wonderful Queen Anne's Lace….

"I want to thank everybody for their good wishes on my second blip birthday yesterday. Some of your thoughtful comments brought tears to my eyes. I certainly couldn't have done it without my faithful subscribers and the wonderful folks at Blip Central. You are my rock. In the two years of change and adjustment that have followed our move from Berkeley to Sonoma County, you have been my anchor in a sometimes stormy sea. I feel that I have a whole world of new friends and I look forward to getting to know you all better. With a little luck I hope some of us can actually meet in person. I would travel a long way to meet up with a fellow blipper. "