Altered States

We hardly recognized the front garden when we returned -- who would have thought that plants could have grown so much in only 18 days?

I tried -- unsuccessfully -- to nap this afternoon, but hope that a couple of "photo excursions" into the front and back gardens will have had a positive influence on my jet lag. Taking photos on an overcast and breezy day is hard enough, but add severe jet lag in and there's no telling what you might get. I was tempted to post a close-up of tent caterpillars chomping leaves on our red currant bush, but thought most people would prefer the blossoms on our small dogwood tree, as seen here.

These bright flowers are for Maya Angelou, rightly called a "global Renaissance woman" on her website, who died yesterday at age 86. It is deeply inspiring to contemplate all that she accomplished in her 86 years of life.