The Shasta daisy plant is in full bloom. It’s looking much perkier than usual since I placed a watering globe in the soil to keep it from drying out. The leaves used to wilt, and the stems would droop to the pavement, just a few days after my weekly summer garden-watering sessions. So I bought another of the glass globes for the tired-looking purple daisy plant, which hasn’t bloomed for a while. I would’ve bought more, for other potted plants, but that was the last one at the Grocery Outlet. They’re expensive at the garden store, so I might try to make my own with decorative glass bottles or something of the sort.

We made one indulgent purchase, however, during Sunday’s visit to Orchard Supply Hardware & Garden. They had several pretty birdbaths; Steve and I chose one with a grape vine design. It looks so lovely in our yard! I hope the birds like it too. Now to carefully select a few bushes to plant in large containers to either side of the birdbath, and the awkward blank space left by removed hedges will be an attractive corner of this little landscape.

Another mystery plant has shown up in my garden, this time in the middle of a hanging planter of petunias. I thought it could be mint at first, but now the leaves have gotten too large for that. I’m guessing it’s a tree sapling. In other places, squirrels have buried peanuts, which sometimes sprout, so I’ve learned to recognize that leaf-shape; I wonder what they’ve planted now!

As warm summer days unfold, the morning fog gives way to very bright, often humid days. My pepper plants seem very happy in this weather and are developing lots of fruit. I hope the sunny times continue until late autumn, for the sake of my “crops”, although a bit of occasional rain would be a relief from the hours of watering I do.

Now and then when I’m standing on the lawn, pointing the hose at a brown patch of grass or a wilting plant, I consider the practice of mindfulness, and concentrate on simple pleasures of the moment rather than the monotony of my task. Sun on shoulders, lazy cats stretched out in the pathway, dragonfiles humming, scent of honeysuckle, cool mud underfoot... life is good.