First thing

It's become my morning ritual: Scanning the papers, listening to NPR until there's enough light, then primping our little patch along the street.

The only drama in it is our battle with the dreaded pink hibiscus mealybug lately, and we seem to be winning through some chemical warfare.

Of course, I can't do my usual pruning, picking and weeding for a few days after an application of the stuff they sold us at MARC House (a nonprofit paradise for plantspeople), but I take the break as a blessing to catch up on books.

Since the last application was Saturday, there I was this morning, keeping the rosemary from invading the dwarf plumeria, pulling down a dead palm frond, cutting dead lantana shoots -- not a job for those with even borderline OCD -- finding a new bloom shoot on one of the little birds on the far side of the parking space. . . .

As morning exercises go, they don't get much better.