Chocolate!

It's what everybody needs, working in their garden: the smell of chocolate. It is wafted about by Berlandiera lyrata, a native whose apt common name is Chocolate Flower. It is also called Greeneyes because of its green seed head. I bought a plant years ago and am delighted that it has self seeded in a number of spots, this one in the protection of a garden corner. It is happy with a relative moist environment nearby.

There is Verbena cilita growing just on the other side of the fence, which would make a nice contrast with the Chocolate Flower, and they do appear together several place along our gravel paths. If you want something to sprout in the desert, put gravel lightly over your seeds.

With the Forest being closed because of fire danger, we are a bit "idle": no hiking (poor Emma) other than the morning walk, no riding (poor Bueno and Cody, Buggs could not care less having a lot of mileage on him). So it's cycling every other day and futzing in the garden and around the house. The garden is benefiting from the extra attention.