After morning showers, the Shasta Daisies are covered with raindrops. We made it into August without choking on forest fire smoke. Today’s rains should keep forest fires last year’s memories … fingers crossed.

August clouds drift by,
Cool whispers embrace the dawn,
Silence speaks of change.

I had fun this morning doing something impossible last year. Something previous generations could not imagine. I played with ChatGPT and asked it to write a number of haikus.

August sun warms earth,
Oregano blossoms rise,
Spice dances in breeze.

Wisteria sprig,
Blooming out of time's embrace,
Season's lone surprise.

I love the catmint when it blooms. And it blooms and blooms and blooms, all summer long. When we had our cat, Rusty, he loved rubbing his face in their leaves. Catmint makes a delicate, refined tea, very soothing.

The Hubei Anemone are blooming. I can count on these sending up their tall flower spikes each August. Eriocapitella hupehensis. I read that these were cultivated as far back as the Tang dynasty (618-907). And they are in the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Unlike Buttercups which creep along the ground, Hubei Anemone reach for the summer sky.

And to close, a haiku about our dog sleeping in the picture window:

Dreams beneath glass pane,
Dog slumbers in soft sunbeams,
Outside world drifts by.