"So don't you give up now, ooh, ooh So easy to find Just look to your soul And open your mind Crystal blue persuasion, mmm, mmm" ~ Eddie Morley Gray, Mike Vale, and Tommy James I saw my first rainbow in a cloud last week.  The Husband gave me a scientific explanation for it. Something about ice crystals in the air. From my reading on the Internet, generally in terms of spiritually, a rainbow in a cloud symbolizes hope, promise, serenity, and peace among other positive ideas. I like that. It got me humming "Crystal Blue Persuasion" by Tommy James & the Shondells.  While I was taking photos, a bird flew across the sky. I clicked but I was sure I got nothing more than his tail. So call me happily surprised when I found this among my day's clickety-click captures. I'm hanging out at Skywatch Friday . Come join me by clicking here . Thanks, Skywatch Friday hosts!

My window of opportunity to not be a procrastinator is about two hours, which is between getting out of bed and the sound of the Husband grinding coffee beans for breakfast. I like to use that time for working in the yard, front and/or back. This morning, for instance, I began with watering the volunteer vegetables—two zucchini plants, one bean plant, four or five tomato plants, and another four or plants that have yet to show themselves as really being tomatoes.  That done, Molly the Cat (the supervisor, as many of you know) and I moseyed to the front yard. Because the Husband will be watering it this afternoon my goal was to sow sunflower seeds here and there, as well as put the geranium plants that we bought last week into the ground. The geraniums took my attention first. Just in time, too. Their leaves had begun to wither. Before I could plant them, I had to rake the dried leaves and pull out weeds out of their new home. Spent poppies were also removed which meant snapping o

Cheers to Steve Arevalo, Big-hearted Teddy Bear of a community activist! May his spirit soar in joy and peace throughout the Universe! This story is for you, Steve. Agathe the Aardvark stood at the podium, looking out at the enormous room filling up quickly with Rhonda the Raccoon's family,  friends, and colleagues. All the bayside windows and doors were wide open for Rhonda's ocean friends to be part of the memorial. Agathe listened to snippets of conversation among sniffles and loving laughter: "We could always count on sweet  Rhonda." "I hope she bit him deep and hard, I do." "If only she didn't have such a temper." "That evil man deserved what he got. Rescinding environmental regulations, poo!" "The Humans should be thankful Rhonda's last words were for us to stand down and not seek revenge." "Brava, Rhonda!" Agathe turned to the portrait of Rhonda hanging over the stage. She will mis

Oh me, oh my. The sights Molly the Cat and I saw this morning in the front yard. For one, that fly pollinating the daisies. Until a few years ago, I had no idea flies were pollinators, too. Flower flies are what they're called in general. Some of them have torsos that resemble bees or wasps. I wonder how many times we've said, "Look a bee!" and it was really a flower fly. Experts say that flower flies don't sting. Hurrah! These flies also love to eat aphids and scales. Thank you, much. POMPOM POPPY DANCER Most of the pink pompom poppies have shedded their petals. I think the pods are also cool to look at and go wowza! over. While the blooms make me think of the fluffy hats that comedian Phyllis Diller wore, the poppy pods remind me of ancient Greek soldiers in their Corinthian helmets. WILD CELERY STALK I was hoping that the unknown thing growing at the edge of the geranium spread would be bamboo. Nope. The nearly 4-foot plant is a wild celery p

This was my fourth year of participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge . The last time was in 2015. It's always good to take a break from something intense for whatever reason. Back in October, 2017, I challenged myself to do a daily post for at least a year, so taking on the April challenge wasn't going to be a big deal. From my experience with the other three challenges, I knew the following: I wanted to spend time visiting blogs rather than writing posts. My blog was not going to suddenly explode with traffic because of the challenge. It's best to have a theme for focus, ease, and efficiency for me. My posts need to be short and sweet. So, here's what I did for this year's challenge: I recycled the Jane Austen, Action Doll theme that I did for a weekly ABC meme a few years ago. I visited every participant on the Master List, starting backwards from #697. I didn't visit the list daily, but when I did, I checked anywhere from 20 to