Beauty . . . and the beast

The petals are falling from our double-flowering cherry, littering the ground below with pink confetti. (No, Rosie the bulldog isn't "the beast.") Meanwhile, other flowers are at their peak, like the lilacs. We have an "old standard" and one blushed with more pink.
The iberis sempervirens (candytuft) in the front bed is still going strong, surrounding my pretty gazing ball.
I don't know the name of this blue beauty, but that doesn't matter to the bumblebee.
These strange green blossoms belong to the Despina euphorbia planted on either side of the gate in front of the red rhodedendron.
Scotch broom, an introduced species gone crazy and now labeled a "noxious weed," is more of a bane than a blessing. But talk about a splash of bright color! (And no, Scotch broom is not "the beast.")
In spite of the beauty, the great outdoors was not a very inviting place to be today. There was a beastly, jarring noise emanating from the lot to our south, where a new house is being built. I could see a big trackhoe moving around, but that didn't explain the decibel levels. Even in the house with the doors and windows shut, I could hear a steady, nerve-fraying drone. When it continued past 6:00 p.m., I finally went next door and investigated further.That trackhoe was loading stumps of full-grown trees into a monster chipper/shredder, which had produced two piles of "mulch" the size of small mountains! Grrr; so much for the peace and quiet of country living.

That's it for now at . . .