July 5

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We finally got over an inch of rain, the night between the 4th and the 5th.  It was supposed to be really hot on the 5th, but it was fairly cloudy, and rained a few times on the 5th, keeping the temps liveable.  Thank goodness.

Fox squirrel, grooming.

You can't watch a wild rodent very long before it scratches itself.

I wonder what's up with that bump.  

Especially the "now you see it, now you don't" aspect.

Wetness!  Yay!

My tasteful rain gauge.  I'm sure you can't tell proportion -- this is about two inches of rain.

Many weeks ago we bought six little basil plants.  Two went into aplanter box on a piece of flat roof.  Two went into the big front garden.  Two went into a planter on the patio.

The two in front shriveled up and died in a matter of a few days. 

This is one of the two in the planter on the patio, surrounded by violets, which are not that tall.  I'd say these are about 6" tall...................

One morning I discovered one of the ones in this roof-top box, broken (torn? bitten?) clean through at dirt level.

Here's our one happy plant.

Just imagine if we actually had six plants this size!  We could have pesto every night!

I have two of these roof-top boxes.  I planted a whole packet of basil seed in them, most of them on March 21.  I knew that was early, but it was such a hot winter..........  When I seemed to get no result after several weeks, I planted the rest of the packet.  There are eight-ish small plants growing up there, not tall enough to see in this shot.

Perhaps in another month we'll have enough basil to have pesto every day........

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