in the yard

(looking out to the garden from inside the house)

If you know me well, you'll know I'm not a gardener, but much to my mother's delight, as I've gotten older I'm at least appreciating plants and flowers a bit more than I used to.  It's been fun to see what surprises our new garden is giving us.  When we first moved in this rose bush was quite tall, with a few roses on it, and then the gardener came and cropped it right down small, and I was like, "Oh no!" . . . but it has come back to life, and with lots more flowers on it.

Left over pink roses from a church event we went to, and I had the privilege of taking them home to enjoy in this cute new water jug I was given by one of our Kiwi visitors :)

An interesting plant in the back yard, which attracts Humming Birds, which are so fun to watch!

A larger than usual lizard that Nige found by the garage door one afternoon.  He text me to say there was "a huge lizard out front, and bring something with you to squish it".  I brought with me a plastic brush and shovel . . . which didn't do too much.  When Nige was pressing down on his back, he did show us he had a nice set of teeth.  So, later that day I googled to see if I could find out what he was, as he was VERY different from the lizards we usually see in our yard, and it turns out he is/was a San Francisco Alligator Lizard.  Our friends have wondered if he was someone's pet!  Oops! Well, he ran under some bushes that day and we haven't seen him again.

Nige has getting out on his fairly regularly, and has found a group that goes out on Saturday mornings, and some of the guys from FBC are joining him with this group also.  So he is enjoying the riding, and the fellowship with friends from church.

This is how the weather is over here.  It's sunny, warm, and very dry.  We're very thankful for air conditioning . . . in the house and the car.