Clematis Seed Pods

When the gardeners came, this morning, Olive went ballistic, racing from one glass door to the next (there are four in the house) barking frantically,  OilMan and me in hot pursuit. The whole thing took on overtones of the keystone cops when we both realized that the dog door was open just as Olive went charging through it. We finally got her back in the house and OilMan was just as happy to forego a trip to Cottage Garden with Dana and me to stay with her.

I had three objectives when we set out that all involved filling empty spaces in the garden with something that wouldnt die. We chose Cottage Garden in Petaluma because they have wonderful non-living garden ornaments in addition to the best, most artfully displayed selection of succulents. Dana found a nice selection of shade plants for a corner of her garden where she took out a huge overgrown shrub, and I bought a pottery horned toad. The Cottage Garden woman thought we should call him Hector, which seemed quite suitable until I remembered that Hector is the name of one of the guys that Olive was at home harassing.

I loved the three clematis seed pods that were in a small vase on the counter.  I thought they were perfectly abstract without doing anything to them, but  decided that perhaps black and white brought out the abstractness even more.

We then went to Della Fattoria, the bakery with wood oven baked bread in downtown Petaluma. There is never anyplace to park there, so Dana drove around the block while I ran in and got some olive bread and almond biscotti. We ate the biscotti before we got to the next stop. We would have eaten the bread too, but wood oven baked loaves are not the kind you can tear apart with your hands…

The extra is the clock on the frequently redecorated clock shelf above the bread counter. Here is a picture I took of the same shelf  several years ago.I love that sort of Spanish influenced over the top decor, but you can't put it just anywhere.