I share your sense of anticipation of the spring roses but on a somewhat different level because our realities are quite different. From what I gather from all of your posts, you are lucky enough to be near the coast where you can have some advantageous ocean influence. It would be different if you were inland up near Anaheim, for example. You would have quite a difference in microclimate. Your rose quality would not be as good. Here, it depends on what kind of weather we have had as to the bloom quality, if we get any. Last year was a disaster due to winter's rescidivism. If everything goes okay, Mother's Day in my garden is a feast of flowers. Yet, again, we are one passing cloud away from disaster if that cloud is a hailstorm that clobbers the once-bloomers, and that has happened. In spite of everything, I always hope that my plants have made it through the winter and will flourish again even in the face of all the work it takes to make it happen. However, this year I hope to have some improvements to my processes. I am going to leave all my winter straw on the beds to cut down on the watering and weeding. I am going to try to use Messenger early on since I had such good luck with it last year. The results on some of my roses, particularly the lavenders, were really eye-opening. Barbara Streisand actually went into the winter with leaves on. Even though I know what my usuals will look like, they may look even better. I hope so. Then there is the new stuff. For the first time, I was able to plant some bulbs. I hope they make it and are not eaten by moles which were tearing up the yard. I am getting some new rose varieties. I am anxious to see how well they will stack up. I also have concern about long term effects of last April's freeze and whether my plants actually recovered sufficiently to get past that. We will find out. So, yes, I do share in your anticipation, but it is not without some fear and trepidation simply because of the conditions that exist here. May we have a champagne toast to better flowers this next year? I hope so.

Infinity edge is pretty easy I think. That would be your skimmer too. No fish, no plants but maybe a lily there isn't much to filter. Add a UV to stop green water and the muck it generates. Add a chemical like AlgaeFix to to stop macroalgae and you won't have that muck. I'd be surprised if you had to vacuum it more than once a year, if that. As a reflecting pool it can be very shallow, like a few inches if you wanted, with just a small deeper area for the lily. Then you wouldn't even need a vacuum, a broom would work.

Those are all beautiful fall shots. My favorite time of year. My mother used to sing a song to me when I was little. These remind me of it. Come little leaves said the wind one day. Come over the meadow with me and play. Put on your dresses of red and gold. Summer is gone and the days grow cold. Soon the little leaves heard the winds loud call Down they come fluttering one and all. Over the brown fields they danced and flew Singing this gay little song they knew. Winter is coming yo ho,yo ho winter is coming with ice and snow. Soon fast asleep in their earthly beds The snow laid a white blanket over their heads.

Thanks Joan. If it qualifies as any kind of art, it would definitely fall on the abstract end. The backstory is that its a reflection of fall foliage from Bur oaks trees in my bird bath. The reason its so squiggly (?) was because the wind was making waves even in the bird bath. You have to give it to the wind out here when even the bird bath has waves.