Slim Jim

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This beautiful plant is actually an eggplant! Its lovely foliage and purple blossoms are pretty enough for the flowerbed, and it pumps out piles of miniature eggplants. Even better, the deer don't touch it. Next year, it's going in the flowerbed for sure.

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Scorched Earth

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Trees at Yellowstone burned many years ago in a big forest fire. Amazing how long it's been and they still look freshly burned.

Cannonball!

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This is apparently a Japanese squash called... I can't remember what it's called.

Alien Life Form???

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close-up view of a nascent squash blossom.

Little Visitor

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An orchard mason bee (I think that's what they are called) visits a squash blossom.

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Hearst Castle Pool

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I wonder what it takes to get an invitation to a pool party here? The rest of Hearst Castle was interesting, but the pool is definitely the most breathtaking sight in the complex. One impressive factoid about Julia Morgan that I didn't know before this tour: She was educated as a civil engineer before she went to architecture school. For the Hearst complex, she designed a spring-fed, gravity assisted filtered water system that is still in use, providing water to the house, the visitor center, and the town of San Simeon. Wow.

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