Oy, oy, oy ...

:: Look how brilliantly Australian plants do here! This huge wattle bush is down in the canyon where I walk the dogs, just at the end of our street. The place is full of birds and I have no idea what any of them are yet, apart from the hummingbirds.
Things rustle in the undergrowth here just like they do back home - only here you have to watch out for rattlesnakes. And after dark, coyotes will venture through the canyons and into ordinary quiet suburban streets just like ours. It's odd living where there are predators.
And among all the other Australian native plants that are thriving here - eucalypts (Americans don't know the term gum trees, and seem to have little awareness of gumnuts), tea tree, roo paws, bottlebrush - are these ...

... and they are almost everywhere. They are put to great use on steep banks along the freeways and just as a sort of universal groundcover. You see way more of them here than I ever saw at home.

:: And while I'm talking of walking the dogs, here they are ...


... Nipper squinting in the sun this morning, and ...

... Yoshi (coyote-bait as we call him) trotting along on the sandy path.

:: Well, I do know from the odd comment and emails that a few of you are reading this! I was wondering ...

:: On my bedside table: Next to all the vitamin pills ('Hers Over 50'), fish oil tabs, glucosamine tabs, Caltrate pills (to help stave off incipient osteoporosis), tissues and hand cream is The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which I bought to read on the plane home from Chicago. The writing is spellbindingly good. It was number one on the NY Times bestseller fiction list, I saw today.
And my new Oldie arrived today - so that'll keep my weekend happy.

:: Dave's just got in from work - so I'm off to fry a steak or two. See ya!