Basil Cam...

 ....wouldn't that be neat?  Time-lapse photography of herbs "hatching".  I'm just amazed by this little miracle every spring. Cooking with fresh herbs is so easy (if you can cook with the dried stuff....you can cook with the fresh stuff!) and growing them is too.   You should try it.   Seriously!  You'll love it.  
This year I am growing basil, cilantro (I hate the smell of it on my hands but it's sooooo good in fresh salsa!), and I'm trying rosemary for the first time (it costs a fortune to buy it fresh in the store and a packet of seeds costs less than a bunch of (wilted) herbs!)  And we always plant some romaine lettuce.  

I can never resist the poppy although the foliage never makes it through our windy, monsoon rainy spring weather....the stalks are sprawled all over the driveway...every single year....but I just can't give up on them.  They're too spectacular :)  Some years I remember to put a bungee cord around the plant before the rain hits.  This year?   ...not so much.

And we had a bit of a "spritz" this morning.  A bag of garbage floated by and got stranded in the middle of the road.  I was as amused as one can get at 5am. The dog was not happy about the storm...I always thought she was indifferent.  I think she sneaked into my room...I thought Craig was walking around but apparently he took her collar off when the constant jingle that accompanied her restless pacing was keeping him from going back to sleep.   Hmm.

Every year I buy a few annuals. I don't plan to buy many...it just sort of happens.  I suppose it is inevitable when you wander around the garden centre for a few days.   I love perennials because they're low maintenance....we suit one another that way...but annuals are great for a few pots on my patio (close to the tap...I wasn't kidding when I said low maintenance !)  There is always something different out there in the garden centre and I think...I just want to try that one.

I really like lobelia. No...I LOVE lobelia, and it reminds me of my friend Rita.  I love things that remind me of people.  She once told me the story of how she loves lobelia too, but that it's so hard to keep in our warm (okay...stinkin' hot) summers, especially in planters that get a lot of sun. Her sweet man wondered why she keeps buying it?   And still we indulge, even in things that aren't practical.  There is a bit of shade conveniently provided by the railing of the deck, and the little spot or two at the back of some of my planters around the yard for some of these pretty little flowers.  .A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do :)

My eyes love to see these pretty things.   These ordinary everyday little miracles; seeds that burst with new life, and flowers that bloom in places that they shouldn't.