Hidden in Plain Sight

This little California Toad seems to have wandered a bit astray from its usual domicile hidden away in some damp place. They don't.require standing water as long as there is a damp place they can retreat to when they are resting. They are usually quite elusive, but do emerge at night to hunt for bugs. It is recognizable as a toad because of it's warty skin. I almost stepped on it as it had strayed onto our pebbled walkway.

Maggie is back from her adventures in Portugal where she walked the Camino de Santiago and we had our Zoom pilates class on the floor this morning, then raced off to take Spike on a walk before it got too hot. Our timing was pretty good. It was perfect walking temperature, just beginning to heat up as we got back to the car. 

By the time I swept up dog hair, read an article in the New Yorker (they are notoriously long) , it had heated up to about 90F just in time to go to my home-away-from home, the Redwood Family Dermatology clinic to get the stitches out of my elbow. The air conditioning was blasting in the waiting room and it was glacial in there.The Wonderboy, Dr. Peng (see his red shoes in extra) wanted to see his handiwork before they took the stitches out because it was infected when they put them in.   He said they don't usually do that, but the skin cancer was growing so fast that he needed to get it out. He put me on a mega dose of antibiotic and was satisfied with the way it looked today. I'm not sure I am but he said it should 'fill in' in time . I thanked him for recognizing that it was growing so fast that he had to treat it, and we chatted about his red shoes which have become something of a trademark. 

Grandson Will is  in town, and we're getting together a dinner for tonight before he has to drive back to San Diego. John brought a ton of carrots and zucchini, scallions and green beans down from the veggie garden so we'll see what we can do with them....