Grant: Yes, it's the back yard. We put up a night-vision camera to ID what was pooping repeatedly on one section of mulch ... it was a fox! Then the second night we noticed a tennis ball lying near the camera - not ours. Don't know where it came from, but she (based on squatting to pee) likes it. I'm making a collection of clips of the fox and the ball - she's very agile and throws it for herself. =========== V8Vega ... It's a grey fox, and they can climb extremely well. It's probably climbing over our fence somewhere - there are several places where it would have a short jump or a good take-off spot.

Fun new updates everyone, thanks for sharing what's going on with you and your gardens! Really fun to hear about. Congrats on your 'Curly' orchid cactus, Pagan, they are so low maintenance here, I'm sure yours will thrive for you. Aren't the fruit fun? Mine gets covered each year in those fun, small Barbie Mattel pink fruit. Neat. Keep us posted on yours, especially now that it's so easy to post pics. Great job! raimeiken, your new pics are awesome as always. So nice to see. You grow so many wonderful plants, and so well! I really like all of the hardscape in your garden, really elegant, tasteful, practical and attractive. Great stuff! The temperatures sure have improved, haven't they? I absolutely LOVE this time of year. Pleasant mornings without a hint of being cool/cold, and nice warm afternoons that don't feel HOT. Love it! Here are a couple of plants looking good as the month wraps up: Lycoris radiata, one of the plants that goes by "surprise lily", and for a good reason--these stalks just popped up out of nowhere like they do each autumn, and then suddenly explode into bloom. I've had them several years and they follow the same, smart routine: leaves in late winter/early spring, dormant in summer, and then surprise! flowers in autumn. The red ones have FAR outperformed the yellow ones in my garden. Full, hot, sun for these puppies. Hybrid Aloe 'Hercules' which I bought as a small two footer five years ago, it's now almost 7 feet tall. It's a hybrid between Aloe dichotoma which loves it here, and Aloe bainsii, which hates it here (melting in mid summer usually). Happily it takes after the A. dichotoma and thrives here. The other thing it takes after dichotoma about: little to no summer water when it's in a heat-induced semi-dormancy. This one has done great and certainly isn't hard to find these days. A sure sign of autumn: Zauschneria californica beginning its long, vibrant autumn display of flowers. This plant has a huge flush of bloom in early summer and then again in autumn. Full hot sun and weekly watering keeps it happy. I love it! It self sows around the garden too, often nestling in with very xeric cacti and succulents, so that shows how drought tolerant it is. Here's a pic of it right next to a golden barrel cactus, surviving on the same twice-monthly-in-summer watering schedule as the cactus. The only downside (unless you dislike self-sowing--then there are two): the stems are very, very brittle, so keep it where you or your pets/kids/hose won't slam in to it, breaking the stems. Fun, gorgeous plant, that the hummingbirds adore. Take care and happy gardening! Keep the updates and posts coming! Grant Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden, September 2012

Which brand did you end up buying and how do you like it? I'm putting in a 22'x26' slab in a few weeks for basketball. I have my choices narrowed down as follows: VersaCourt, Ebay stuff from courtTileDiscounters, and used SportCourt SD-IV. I'm trying to keep the price in the $2.5 sq/ft range, so my options are somewhat limited. I've played basketball and volleyball on Sport Court, so I know what to expect. Pretty much anything should work for basketball, but I'm not sure about tennis.

He's my favorite dude; that's for sure. The inner flap (third eyelid or nictitating membrane) on his left eye is brown; the inner flap on his right eye is white/clear. This makes his eyes appear asymmetrical at times. Both eyes are the same size, and in perfect health, but the differing pigmentation of the inner eyelids is very noticeable.