Seed Collecting

• In preparation for next year, I have been collecting seeds of the nicer native wildflowers that grow around here. So far I have the following:blue flax, that primarily blooms in the spring, but lingers through the summer
• Iris, a small species that somehow survives the dry soil. Very prolific seeds this year.
• Hairy evening primrose, pictured here, with seeds similar to sesame - hard, dark, spherical, less than 1mm diameter.
• A daisy which blooms in summer and has large seeds.
• A very small purplish aster that blooms in summer
• A blue aster that blooms in the fall. It has blooms (visited by bees) and ripe seeds at the same time. Both asters have very fine seeds.
• California poppy — although the seeds are not quite ripe I will keep looking. These bloom prolifically late spring and then a second time later in the summer.

Eli and crew (just Lalo today) are working diligently on the shower tile. The photo is of the soap niche just under the window. The brown stick will prop up the upper tiles until the mortar sets. 32 tile cuts just for this niche!The painter crew removed almost all the windows today, stained them, stained the window frames and sills, and reinstalled the windows. They also stained some of the door frames. They return tomorrow. I stained a bit today, too: the above-ground portion of the 4x8 posts that will support the sun trellis.

I spent a good part of the day doing grunt work. The most important was cleaning out the drainage ditch where the slop-over from my lime pit had polluted and hardened the soil. The bucket got heavy carrying it to the trash trailer, so I used the community hand truck. But the hand truck didn’t roll smoothly and was almost more trouble than benefit. So I dismantled the wheels and greased it. Much better.

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