Actually, it's not such a lazy day. I'm writing my behind off. I finished Chapter 21 yesterday and am one-third through Chapter 22 of Naked Edge. That means I'm more than 67 percent done with the book. I must be done by July 15. And that's a lot of writing...

I want to get back to book piracy for just a quick moment, but not yet because I'd rather talk about...

Flowers!

My garden isn't in high bloom. Not yet. That will happen within the next 10 days or so. But here's what I found outside this morning...



Red Yarrow. The bunnies like to nibble this. I love how the color contrasts with all the green foliage around it. It's self-seeding, so it spreads on its own. This patch grew from one bedding plant we put in a few years ago.




Louise Odier is a Bourbon rose that was bred in 1851. It has a beautiful, rich old-rose smell. It's one that Benjy wanted to plant when he was younger, so it's kind of "his" rose bush, along with Hot Cocoa, which hasn't bloomed yet.




This is Golden Wings, a beautiful yellow rose with only a handful of petals on each blossom. It has a fresh rose scent and can be grown as a climbing rose. It's our only yellow rose, because someone (i.e., me) is stuck on pink. What can I say?




Stef, here are the peonies in full bloom. They're quite eye-catching!



This is Anne Bolyne, an Old English rose. It's scent is so fantastic and amazing that I almost get high off it. I planted lavender around it (that's lavender just below the bloom), so that I can smell both. Together. At the same time. Both scents are beautiful. Together, they're unbelievable!



Here is a view of my massive sage plant in full bloom. That's about the size of a queen-sized bed, actually. Right now, it sounds like the plant is buzzing. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. There are zillions of bees on those tiny blossoms.



Here's red yarrow bumping up against a bud on our Abraham Darby bush, which produces fully cupped, enormous flowers, also with a lovely Old English rose scent. I love it when the various flowers overlap. The colors, the scents, the foliage all make it a very sensual experience.

Thanks for indulging me. I hope you enjoy the photographs.