Salamander
Fire Walking

I spent a lazy evening last night sitting around on the patio, reading The DaVinci Code (which is turning out to be rather disappointing, after all the hype I'd heard about it). Poor Clueless watched as I read, hoping that I'd break down and let him come out for a while. I would have too, except that I didn't want to have to keep one eye on the cat while reading. I'd eventually get too caught up in the text, and CW would have his opportunity to wander off and get murdered by next-door's Gang of Two cats. So CW sat at the screen behind the slats of the blinds, looking like a prisoner behind bars.

The trees around here are now full of fresh spring leaves. Leaves are never quite as green as they are when they first unfurl in the spring. The last of the cherry blossom petals are blowing around the parking lot, and I can tell that the infuriating cherry tree that hangs over my back patio is going to drop even more cherries on my stuff than it did last year. I moved my jade tree and my ponytail palm to the great outdoors last night, where I'm sure they're breathing sighs of relief that they are finally out of reach of the Grey Menace for another season.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to arrange my planters yet. I think I'll wait until I've decided how I'm going to finish planting them before I decide, but I may move one out of the fenced area and next to our door. It will dress up the entrance a little bit, and give me a little extra space in the front patio. Right now though they look pretty stark, so I'll leave all of them behind the fence until I've got more than unsprouted seeds to show for my efforts.

The Mystery Plants are now full of buds that get larger with each passing day. Well, two of the three mystery plants are, anyhow. The third, which was the one uprooted and tossed around when the workmen destroyed last year's garden, is barely making a go of things. The other two have grown tall, and their leaves now look totally different from last year's. The little runt one almost looks like leaf lettuce though, and I suspect that it is either going to die or wait until next year to catch up to the other two plants.

Here are a few close-ups of the plants. I'm still hoping one of you guys know what these things are, because I remain completely in the dark.