Palm Trees and Agaves

I think about writing about the current administration, the cruelty of lunch shaming, and perhaps how gerrymandering is bringing the US policies that 3/4 of the population doesn't want, but so far, I don't do it.  It's been hot.  Yesterday hit 98 and it felt so much hotter than the last time it was 98.  It wasn't humid, so one wonders why.  Coming out of the gym at 4 pm was like walking into an oven.  Today was cooler, but the wind is just ferocious.

We were up and early for a longish hilly hike.  There are no pictures because the bugs were so bad.  Every time we stopped they swarmed us.  The wind did not come up until after we were back.

Here is a queen palm getting bashed about.

One of the big palms is blooming.  Last year it showered the decorative boulder with little black ovoids.  I'm not sure if they're stunted dates or what.  Look at the thing sticking out to the left, that's one of the flower spikes.

There is an agave, different than the one we had, that has put forth the mother of all flower spikes.  We had the kind that is in the foreground.  The blooming plant is a different species.

Look at this!  I guess all of the yellow things will eventually open.  We will keep it under surveillance.

This house has two Muscat gates.  There is also one just in front of their door.  It's very similar to ours except for they painted them.

Here is a very funny cat video.  It's a hairless cat, which is why it looks like that.  It's only 5 seconds, so it should not take up too much bandwidth.

That's it - that's all I've got.