Flower Friday. : : Artichokes

Long past the point of being edible, but I thought strangely suitable for a flower picture on this 100+ degree day. Our mowed field makes a suitable backdrop. It is positively crispy underfoot. It got dry so early this year that I was afraid we might have to have it mowed again but nothing is going to grow up there unless there is some rain.

It was already warm by the time we finished our Pilates class at 9am but our group was all assembled in the garden at Cafe Frida this morning. Dan and Tobi's son and his fiancé have moved back to Sonoma County from the East Coast, bringing their cat with them. They are staying with Dan and Tobi until they find a place to live, and Tobi was worried about how the cat would get along with their dog, Skippy. She needn't have worried. The cat loves Skippy and has learned how to knock down the temporary baby gate so it can jump up on the bed and sleep with Skippy
When she got Skippy she was worried about her chickens, But Skippy looks after them .Tobi doesn't let them out unless Skippy is out with them. I wonder what Spike would do?

Once home from that pleasant start to the day, we have hunkered down inside with the air conditioning on. We are being told that the air conditioning use is threatening to overwhelm the power grid in this heat wave. One story about the heat wave in the paper this morning warned everyone to 'check on neighbors, stay hydrated and turn on the air conditioning'. Two columns over was a story about PG&E (the power ccompany) telling us not to turn on the air conditioning to avoid power shutoffs.

 Anyone who has followed me for any length of time knows how I feel about the power company, but to reiterate: having had my power and water turned off to avoid fires caused by their ill maintained equipment I'm not feeling terribly receptive to their pleas to conserve....and one advantage of a heat wave  is that we have plenty of our own solar energy stored in our battery.

During my five minute foray into the hot hot garden, I noticed that one of our pepper plants, denuded of leaves by the ground squirrels, is getting some new ones. I think it is the one given to us by blipper Travelphotos and her partner. I put a picture of it in extras.