Thanks! I did remember to eat all 3 meals today and stayed hydrated, too. I am running behind on photos. I tried to go to a cafe to sit and go through photos and optimize them for the web before grocery shopping, but the cafe had closed already, so I just shopped.
My soil has been delivered, and it is a pile about the size of a car that is lovely dark loam! I am finally finished mowing the lawn, so tomorrow I can start on filling raised beds. I am really happy to have such a nice yard where everything is landscaped already, and I can just garden. I ordered fruit trees that do well in this area, and went a bit crazy. Since it's already hot here, I may just put them in big pots and plant them in the ground in the fall. After all the mowing (I had to mow the same areas twice the grass was so tall and thick) I had a take it easy day. I sorted all my veggie seeds and ordered a few more heat tolerant varieties, ordered shade cloth so my seedlings have a chance in the hot sun, and leisurely puttered around the yard weeding and plotting and planning where I want to put things. Lumi had a nice time outside with me, too.
I have been noticing how nice it looks after the rain through the trees where you can see a bit of the deeper pond in the marsh. So I tiptoed through the poison oak and poison ivy and made it to the bank of the pond. I realized that I can make a path down to the pond where there is an overhanging tree blocking the view of the big house that overlooks the pond. I also saw some bamboo growing in the woods in the neighborhood and am thinking I can plant a privacy bamboo stand in between the area where I would like a little outdoor seating area by the pond and the neighbor's house. I'd just need one tall bunch, I think. While I was there thinking about this, an egret landed in the pond and was eating things in the mud when a fish jumped. It sounded like a little one, but that's still cool there are fish in our marsh pond!
Tomorrow I go get rotted logs to put in the bottom of my cloth raised beds (for water retention and because they will break down and make nice soil, too). Then I can start filling them with all the nice soil. My new gardening boots were delivered today, so perfect timing!