On a recent weekend, I ripped out a flower bed and replaced it with this "rock garden". This enabled me to cap off one sprinkler head, and convert another to cover a smaller area. This is my first effort at rock gardening. I think it's too simple; while I was taking the picture it occurred to me that instead of just red lava rock, I could have made sections using two colors to make it more interesting.
In future posts I'll include photos of some of the interesting things my neighbors have done with rocks and succulents.
Today is yet another special election in Los Angeles. On the ballot are six propositions relating to taxes and budgets, a runoff for city attorney, and community college district trustees. The polls will be open from 7:00am to 8:00pm. If you don't know where your polling place is, you can find it at 
This California pepper tree (Schinus molle) is a volunteer in my garden. Less than two years old, it is already more than ten feet tall. Originally it had two main branches veeing away from the base, but one was damaged by winter storms and had to be cut away. The tree now has about half the volume it would otherwise have had.
The green bins are for yard trimmings. The blue bins are for recyclable items. The black bins are for (non toxic) trash. This system has been in place for many years. So when our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Loud,* stuffed their green and blue bins full of old carpeting, they were the only ones to be surprised that the bins weren't emptied. "I didn't know," Mrs. L claimed later that morning. Luckily for her, the truck handling black bins had not yet arrived. So she waited by the bins, told the driver of the trash truck she had made a "mistake", and got him to empty these. It's a good thing, too, because the Louds' excess trash has a way of mysteriously appearing in other people's bins in the middle of the night.