The bougainvillea wintered in my bedroom and was so scraggly by late spring, I wasn’t sure it would survive. Then that it would bloom. Now – let’s pretend we’re in Mexico.

One of the reasons I fell in love with this house was the mass of black-eyed Susans in the garden. I tried over the years to grow them with no success. Now here they are. A garden can never have too many of these hardy souls.

The Star says to take your tropical plants in soon, including this one. Surely not, I can hear the dipladenia cry, so happy in the sun.

And … getting back into work mode, I read in an internet guide to productivity that you need to see your year at a glance, so I got some bristol board and made myself this: from Sept. 1 to the middle of April, when I’m away. Work in red, non-teaching times in blue. My God, so organized. Scary.

My Saturday visitor, come to cook for his mama and read “Game of Thrones”.