Early Morning With A Hot Week Ahead

 

Hot colors for a hot weather week ahead:  Cuphea purpurea with Hunnemannia fumariifolia

 

A walk taken around the garden early in the morning, when temperatures are lowest and the sunlight is not so harsh.

 

First, the ugly bit:  the west side area that badly needs care and mulch.  It must wait until my new knee is stronger, which coincidentally will be when the weather cools down this autumn:

Now, something a little better.  The uphill half of the front bank:

And the downhill half of the front bank:

Not quite so wide shot of the lowest side:

The camera swings around the corner a bit more to include a clump of flowering Aloe x nobilis:

Also out front, uphill from the oak tree, is another Aloe 'Hercules' and the far end of the west bank area:

Agave marmorata is still flowering at the very top of its stalk.  The lowest flowers are dried up.  The plant itself collapses, its stored sugars and moisture used up to create the towering flower stalk crammed with hundreds of nectar-dripping flowers.  

 

 Standing on the driveway making a quarter turn left, one sees the other side of the oak tree:

Taking a few steps off the driveway and another quarter turn left, behind the oak is a flat planting area:

 Carpenter Bee was up early.  I'm just starting to see Sonoran Bumble Bees as well.  They are later than last year.

 Take a quarter turn to the right:

Through the gateway, that area provided no decent wide shots.  Close-ups must do:

 Ripening tomatoes and grapes along the path through:

  

Through another gate.  The patio garden came off best in the early morning lighting.

  

    Incidentally, the two Metrosideros 'Spring Fire' growing behind the wall in the above photo, planted to eventually screen out the view of the neighbor's roof, are now as nearly tall as the wall.  Perhaps only 18 months away from hiding the roof.  Lots of limey-green new growth on both of them:

But back in the patio garden.  Adding summer annuals, Agapanthus, and Dahlias over the past few years has made the garden look better come summer.

Now through the back gate...

...to the gully's Treacherous Stairs (their now official name):

The lighting in the gully is best in late afternoon with many plants backlit and glowing.  Early morning, not so good for photos.  However, for sitting with an early morning cup of coffee on what promises to be a hot day, it's lovely and cool under the pergola.

There's a good view of the Cuphea purpurea and the Hunnemannia from there.

Hot week ahead here.  Yours, too?