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".
The New Yorker covers: June 7, 1930
4 hours ago
 
 
 
