A pair of house finches are nesting in a plastic bag hanging on the decorative iron work on the non-opening side of the sliding glass back door. I reinforced it with a couple of extra bags. They don't seem to have noticed that their yellow house is now white. The bag is filled with dried zinnia heads from the garden last year. Food galore, should they be partial to these flowers! (I've seen little birds tear these apart to eat when the plants start drying in the fall.)

My front yard is exploding with four or five different types of iris--and I wish I had a satsifactory second act, but I don't. It will subside into a sea of spiky tall leaves until the vitex comes into bloom and the lantana start their continual color. Neither of those is due for another month or more at least.

Salvia greggi (many colors, not just pink) is beautiful now, and it comes and goes as it get watered or rained on. There is a lot of that in a couple of areas of the yard, and I'm planning to transplant one or two to spread the wealth.

SRS