In Which I Bring The Pretty

I got chastised this evening for not updating the blog more regularly. It's a fair criticism. Life has been busy and the blog has suffered. But because recent posts have featured such lovely creatures as slugs and sharks (which I actually love -- the sharks, not the slugs) and because I know I'm going to post pictures of the slug buffet that is our front yard these days, I thought I'd throw in some pretty pictures.

I used to think of fuschias as potted plants. Really, I thought of them as hanging basket material and not much more. But in Crescent City, they become trees. I've had one blooming since before we bought the house and it is currently loaded down with flowers. I have at least three different kinds growing in the yard, but the white-centerd ones are the most prolific. They hardly look real:

I also inherited three or four more fuschias that are in large pots. They were waiting to be transplanted into the ground, but the previous owner never did it. She said that she always took end-of-season hanging planters and put them into larger pots for a while before putting them in the ground. So I just need to figure out where I want them and I'll have a whole fuschia forest!

Shark Attack!!!

As you may know, Darcy's current obsession is with all things ocean. We play fishy games pretty much non-stop at home, and she had my cousin Tina, her friend, and me all "growling like barracudas" with her a couple nights ago. It's fish, fish, fish all the time.

And so she loves going to our (very small and overpriced) local aquarium. Often. She went with Betty when she was here. And then last week, her preschool took a class trip there. And she's already anticipating going with my parents when they visit starting this weekend. Oh, and she had already been there three times before the aforementioned trips.

One of the highlights of Ocean World is that you can pet sharks. Darcy never has, but she talks about it a lot. She pets the starfish and has touched the anemones, but never the sharks. She will, however, hang out in a great white shark's mouth:

She doesn't seem too concerned about Michael's well-being, does she?