In summer, the song sings itself. ~William Carlos Williams

One of my giant sunflowers lifts its golden face to the endless summer sky.

In direct contrast to the pictures on my earlier post, this is what awaited us in gorgeous San Diego! As I walked the miles of beaches (while Rod attended to business)I enjoyed such sights as a childrens surf class (mothers at the ready with their videocams!) as well as a slightly older "child" out on his boogie (or surf?) board with a paddle in hand, trying to navigate the waves!

Driving back from San Diego last tuesday we witnessed some of the bleak and charred scenery along the freeway north of LA. According to just one article I have read about fires in San Bernadino County alone, two fires that had merged (Sawtooth and Millard) destroyed over 86,000 acres. In the Sawtooth fire 221 structures were lost. These fires were burning in an area with large expanses of dead trees that were killed by pine bark beetles.

Try as I might can't get any pictures to upload today, arghhhhh&$!*$#!
Is it my computer or the site? Anyone have any suggestions?

“According to reports, Fidel Castro is alert and being briefed. And I'm thinking, why didn't we get a president like that?" ---Letterman

Just north of San Simeon, on the coast, we came across this large community of Sea Lions, fun to watch, many frolicking in the surf, others snoozing on the sand.

Entering the Big Sur area are numerous campgrounds, some B&B's, and other delightful accommodations, as well as small cafe's and art colonies such as this one. We stopped for a snack and wandered around before continuing north to Monteray. Be sure to click on the pics to see more details up close and personal :)

Beatin the heat in Cali! Not that we wouldn't have liked a bigger pool, but being rentors now our options were more limited. I am sure the landlady would have used our sizeable damage deposit to replace any lawn we killed had we put a larger pool in our back yard! This "spa size" was just the ticket, fit our front deck perfectly, added some bamboo screening for privacy, some plants, and voila! (thats my Canadian coming thru!) Without this baby I am sure most of July's heat wave (did I mention earlier in this blog that temps averaged 114 degrees for almost 3 weeks? If I did it bears repeating!) would have been spent indoors! This was just the ticket, many an afternoon was spent with a cold drink and my book, on a "tube"!

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" The heat wave (temps averaging 114 degrees for almost 3 weeks in July) didn't help my garden this summer. Stunted the growth of some plants, but the melons did well, also the zuccini and various herbs. Verdict is still out on the corn, tried to keep it watered, it became a 3 or 4 times daily ritual, but looks like some is coming on nicely. So CB, how does YOUR garden grow? I can't remember, is ASH a fertilizer or just inhibits the suns rays???