Mixed bag

It's finally raining, not hard, but wet nonetheless.  I'll take it, my tomatoes look dreadful from too much hot and not enough water.

Pablo is not pleased about the rain, but he is happy that his terrible towel is back, now that the kitchen floor is done.  I fold the towel and leave it in a particular spot for him, and he moves it wherever he wants to move it, then lays down for a nap.  At the moment, it's in the middle of the floor, so you have to walk around it no matter where in the kitchen you need to go.

This picture was early in the process.  The towel has spread and formed a circle, with an indentation just the right size for a dog like Pablo.  He builds dog circles (or nests) on my bed, too, out of whatever blankets happen to be available.

Before the rain, I got a picture of the flowers on what was supposedly a butterfly bush which my Mom planted in my back yard.

 

Doesn't look like a butterfly bush to me.  Hibiscus, maybe?  Very pretty anyway, and maybe since the blossoms are pink the butterflies might like them in spite of them not being "official."

 And in other news of a very local nature, work has commenced on our new stairs and deck over the sea wall.  We get a public access due to being one of the few places in town a non-resident (aka bennie) can park, and the old one got totally washed away in the storm (a chunk of it landed in my back yard).  They laid the platform the other day, stopped work because it got too hot, and resumed today (until the rain started).  If there isn't too much rain, maybe we'll have easier beach access by the weekend.  

 

Much as I don't care for bennies parking here to use the beach for free (and then dumping their trash here before they leave), they have been coming and parking here even without the stairs, using people's private accesses, and leaving their messes anyhow.  So maybe this will get them off private property (and thus end the liability the owners might have if someone has an accident), and MAYBE we'll get our trash cans back (they used to live under the stairs, but I guess they floated away in the storm, they're probably at the bottom of the river somewhere now).  And if we have trash cans, MAYBE people will pick up after their dogs?  Is that too much to ask?  And MAYBE some of the food trash these slobs dump all over the street will wind up in a proper receptacle for a change? 

More importantly, I will once more have a quick way to get onto the beach, so if there's a particularly interesting phenomenon happening - like sunrises or cloud pattens or rainbows or whatever - I will actually be able to get over there with my camera before it goes away.  Plus, get better pictures, since there are no obstructions (like electric wires) once you're on top of the wall.

And having the public access right across the street means I don't need to build a deck myself, and have the maintenance and liability issues that go with.  So, mostly good, all around.