Showoff

Nature is either showing that she is a better housekeeper than I or trying to help me by distracting my guests this weekend.  Either way, she's doing a great job.  Days of rain have washed the dust from trees and fields and the hills are a hundred shades of green.  Brilliant yellow Scotch broom bushes line the road out of Diamond Springs.  The iris farm around the corner is in bloom and it looks like a slope scattered with multicolored jewels.  A hill closer to home has a blanket of purple lupine and the wedge of hill toward my woods competes with yellow wild mustard.  The sun came out yesterday and put a spotlight on all her glory.

When Camille asked me to go along to a friend's house to get some tomato plants, I dropped everything and jumped in the truck.  I am so glad I did.  I haven't been up on Grizzly Flat Rd. for years and had forgotten what a beautiful drive it is.  Friend lives on a side road that curves and twists along the mountainside and every turn showed a spectacular view across the canyon.  Friend is a capital-G Gardener and her home is like a nursery for vegetables and flowers.  I will admit to a bit of a snicker when she noted that she hasn't been able to stay ahead of the weeds either.  Misery does love company.  We compared notes on what the deer will and won't eat and agreed there isn't much they won't.  Her vegetable plots are behind high fences, but her roses showed signs of being brunch, and she has a problem with gophers too.

Of course leaving home put me farther behind with my own chores (milking Inga had given me a late start in the first place), but I wouldn't have missed the outing.  Every showoff needs an audience, and I had a front-row ticket.