Another fine mess

The yellow elder at the corner of our front fence has been particularly glorious this year -- I think it liked the trimming Jon gave it when he put in the rest of the garden.

But those hundreds of globes of bright-yellow flowers have their downside: down under, there's a mess of dead and dying flowerets that coat the lower plants and of course our parked sedan.

It's one of those price-of-paradise things, trading one good thing for one not so good.

This morning, for example, we had the second day of blooms from a slew of hibiscuses -- they usually last only a day -- because it had been so cold overnight, down into the upper 60s. We broke out the fleece slippers for our coffee on the porch. Not to worry about cold toes too long, though: It flirted with 80 this afternoon.