Where Has Summer Gone?

I cannot believe that next weekend is August already. The days just keep marching by, as I remain hunkered down here, baking and crafting and keeping busy. I don't think too much about what I am missing. It just makes me sad. Let's see what I have been busy with. First, we had the front lawn dug out and planted native, drought resistant plants. Kind of a good thing to do here in California where water is hit and miss year to year.

The roses all stayed. These are in the back yard, but there are 10 more in the new front yard. They were there before, but dug up until the new space was ready and then replanted in front. They suffered a bit from being out of the ground for so long, so they are still recovering and the flowers are not quite up to snuff.

This yellow beauty is also from the back yard. There are like 7 rose bushes growing in back.

This beautiful succulent is one of the new things in the front yard. It has grown huge already. The tall spikes with the purple flowers are very popular with the bees. The flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon. There are a bunch of these and they are very prolific.

There were a couple of Plumeria in big pots out back that got put into the ground out front. This is one of my favorites. The flowers smell like butter. Really!

We are enjoying the new beauty in the front yard, now that we are here all the time. There is also some creeping rosemary and a bunch of lavender plants out there. I don't have current pictures of everything.

Like everyone else, I am also baking. A lot. I was a professional baker for about 15 years, so now that I do it for fun, it is more fun. I have always wanted to try brioche. This was my first attempt. The recipe said it made two loaves or one big loaf. Nest time I will be making just a big loaf.

But other than the size, it turned out great. It had good flavor and texture. I made us some French toast out of some of it. It was delicious. I have some projects to share, but I think I will do that in another post. Stay well and I will talk to you soon.