Flower Friday : : Lavatera

I am not a gardener myself. I like to putter around on little projects, but only on fair days.. But I love to look at our garden, especially at this time of year. 

When we lived in Berkeley, we had a postage stamp garden in the shade of the house. We were quite limited as to what would grow there, and it was practically never warm enough to sit out there in the evening, so we planted shrubs that could take care of themselves and took to sitting in our driveway on rare warm evenings because at about 5pm the sun would slant through the driveway width space between our house and the one next door. It became our "wine hour",  a tradition we still observe religiously, although we are now spoiled for choice as to where to sit, which is never the driveway!

Being in the middle of wine country, we are also spoiled for choice when it comes to what wine to drink. Tonight I am choosing a Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc and I would like to propose a toast to OilMan, whose countless hours spent toiling on our rocky, hillside have produced a beautiful result. A toast also to daughter Dana who has guided the transition from prickly plants to a multi textured, flowery hillside and a soggy lawn into a charming mound garden.