Yay, rain!

I went walking around my neighborhood this morning so I could see the rainclouds before they unleashed later. There is a surprising amount of neighborhood activity at seven in the morning, little old ladies were up sweeping out their driveways; one little kid was outside by his dad's car, still running a brush through his hair and yawning; lots of dogs being walked; only a few joggers; tons of cops.


If it wasn't for the streetlight, these would look like ship masts.

I imagine there's some neighbor drama involved with this and someone is intentionally parking a patchwork Datsun in front of the multi-million dollar bougie house.

I remember when this house went up. The surrounding neighbors pitched a fit (like, showed-up-at-permit-hearings-to-protest kind of fit) because its aesthetics were so out of place with everyone else's and the construction made a big mess and took a long time. I reckon they're still unhappy about it.

This is my new discovery (if I haven't seen it, it's new to me):

I don't think it's a tree but the whole area is covered in them. They look like tulips but that can't be right. One house had a front door with a stained glass insert that matched the flower so I think they've been around a while. I should find out. Hang on.

Ach! Of course, Japanese magnolias. Also from Wikipedia: "Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles." Huh. That's kinda gross.