Of the two shrubs of Le Vesuve one may not survive; this one is still trying.

Tropical hurricane Rosa from the south hopefully will come up far enough north to give us some desperately needed rain.

I think you might get some, Ingrid. I wish you a lovely, long, gentle female rain.

Ingrid, I hope you get plenty of rain, and that your roses survive. The blooms are as beautiful as ever.

The pepper tree must be quite sturdy. I've always liked your green plants and landscaping in your garden.

Jeri, if we do I'll try to pass it along to you; you need it just as much, as indeed does all of southern California. Perhaps this will be a harbinger of an El Nino winter, which would be an incredible blessing for our parched area.

Oh, I hope so much for that too. This drought is horrible. I love your garden, Ingrid, and my husband does too.

Thank you, Sheila. Nice to know that some men appreciate roses and gardens too, or maybe it's just the rugged landscape!

Ingrid, your pepper tree brought back a sweet memory. Pepper trees don't grow where I live. My daughter-in-law sent a box full of the beautiful pink peppercorns, still attached to twigs and small branches with leaves. SO pretty. I kept them for years, until they finally faded and looked tattered from use. They're rather special here and very expensive in gift shops - if you can find them.

Wow, Sheila, that is one hunk of man holding up that hunk of rock. Thank you for the eye candy. All those muscles must be very useful for garden work!

Ingrid, I am grateful for all Joe's help for sure. He is the best hole digger ever. You can see we are very fond of boulders. I am so ready for rain, too. We got about 11.5 inches of rain this last rain year just concluded, which is 7 inches below the 18.5 inch norm. I see you got 3 inches, which was one third of your usual 9 inches and that is pathetic. We in the west seem to be in a particularly challenging time here. All very distressing.

Sheila, I want to 'like' half your comment, and commiserate on the rest.

Well, we can still hope that the coming months will be kinder and that we'll have at least some of the rain we so badly need. As gardeners we always hope that good things will be just around the corner.

Ingrid, I hadn't heard of Hardscrabble Hill, so I googled it, and watched a video of a car going up it. I can see why you liken your place, in its present state. to it. Let's hope there is rain in your near future.

Trish, I actually have not heard of the Hardscrabble Hill you mention and now will have to google it too! Overnight we had a smattering of rain, probably not enough to measure, but it washed down all the trees and plants and this morning the leaves have raindrops on them, so it doesn't look quite so hardscrabble!