Invitation to a Garden Called Paradise

Damn.....I seem to have overestimated my endurance and have used up all my energy and passion ranting and raving in comments on other folks' blogs.......said ranting and raving being all of the positive sort, by the way....mostly raving about their prodigious talents and the incredible beauty of their ideas and the way they have expressed them......you don't think I would utter an unkindly word to my fellow bloggers, now do you??

But, I certainly don't want you to think that I have abandoned or forgotten you (I speak to those of you to whom I have NOT ranted and raved) so I am going to treat you to another glimpse or two into my secret paradise....my blessed gardens and the incredible plants that make them a bloomin' heaven on earth.  (oh, hell, how could I resist that one?)

My bougainvilla and jasmine continue to delight me.......I can only believe that they recognize my neediness or, more probably, simply thrive on neglect.

Whatever, I am grateful and am taking advantage of their generosity.

What a delight to look out of one of my many windows and see such heavenly sights.

This batch is in my front mini-courtyard by the front gate and is what I see as I sit in crochet corner and do my afghan thing or just read and/or contemplate nature. 

Just to shift from flora to fauna for a moment, here is that good-for-nothin' ingrate of a cat, Baskin, lounging in the sun by the pool.  Six years, if it is day, and I still cannot approach within 3 feet of him without him relocating to the next county.  I have given up the idea of ever civilizing him and am resigned to simply letting him use me  mercilessly without ever being rewarded with the opportunity to scratch his chin.  Wretch!

Here is more glorious  bougainvilla overhanging the azure waters of the pool.  I seem to have more damned vines than might be considered healthy for an unarmed female.....especially now that I am not as nimble on my feet as I used to be.  Between the several bougainvilla, the wisteria, the red trumpet vines, the star jasmine, the pink jasmine, the honeysuckle, the bower vine, the multiple morning glories and the Scarlet Something-or-other whose name happens to elude me at the moment, I fear I may be the first person to appear in the headlines as "Elderly Victim  Appears to Have Been Strangled in Garden by Unknown Assailant. (Clever attempt to pin blame on garden foliage hints at very ingenious Killer).

Even MORE bougainvilla with just a hint of  Baskin on his rounds of doing pool patrol and looking for the pot that contains the catnip.

And one more of the indigenous fauna....it is easy to deduce who really gets to enjoy this garden of Eden the most.

And to finish off with a flourish....yet another spray of bougainvilla hanging over the pool.  My only comment at this point is, "Yum".