Hydrangea and Dead Trees

The hydrangea has turned a rather magnificent color which it will maintain for a couple of years if I pick it and dry it properly. The shot is foreshortened as I used the telephoto to take it from the bottom of the stairs, making the trees look a lot closer than they are. I also used a filter which lightened their starkness and made a nice contrast with the blowsy hydrangea blossoms...they were damaged in the fire too but unlike the trees have come back nicely.

John and I both had eye exams today. This optometrist has modern equipment and has streamlined the whole process of vision assessment and eye health screening. There is still like the peripheral vision test which is more like a video game and a test of concentration to see if one can stare at a dot in the middle of the screen and register flashes of light off to the outside of the screen at the same time. It's also a pretty good test of concentration! 

The retinal photograph which avoids the need for dilation of the eyes is a wonderful development.  A couple of blinding flashes produces pictures of the back of the eye which we looked at together. The only thing I saw/recognized was my eyelashes, but the optometrist assured me that all was well. Now I'm trying to decide whether the macular support vitamins I've been taking for years have help produce the good result, or I should stop taking them.

The optometrist is a man of few words but talking about our dogs elicited a more animated conversation. He has a picture of his dog, dressed as a bumblebee, on his computer. I couldn't figure out a diplomatic way to ask what kind of dog it was since it was so clearly a bumblebee!

Pedro sent his 'strong man', Gustavo, to pick up all the branches from the severe pruning of the partially burned tree on the other side of our fence.  He had collected everything' piled it into the truck and hauled it away in the time it would have taken us to locate the wheelbarrow and a tarp. They will be back next week to dump a load of comcpost, plant the agave that made a rather difficult journey from Miami, Florida and  some bamboo along the fence.

Still cloudy and cold but the predicted rain has yet to manifest....