Day 82: Life at Magical Cottage, Part II

This is the second post about magical cottage.  This time, life in the great outdoors.

Before going out, we glare at the thermometer through the window.  This is the first time it got so high (100F/40C in the shade, if you can't tell).  Today we decided to stay in until the evening!

As well as being hot and dry its always very windy so the sound of wind chimes is a constant background accompaniment.  These are the quiet, photogenic ones.

The front porch with its hummingbird feeder, and a barely visible hummingbird.  In the morning and evening, we have lots of birds and animals in the garden.  For some reason, nobody seems inclined to hang around with a camera to photograph them.

I'm cleaning windswept leaves out of the outdoor bathtub so I can take a bath under the stars later.  Y'all ain't invited, as they say around here.

Here's what the neighborhood looks like: a few low houses, desert and hills, and usually a few animals hanging around in the middle ground.

Antonia is playing in the road outside our house.  Nearly all the residential roads around here are sand, rather than tarmac.  It looks a bit like she's making a rude sign at me, but really she's beckoning me because she wants me to pretend I'm a coyote and she is a roadrunner.  Sheesh...  I think she was even saying 'beep-beep'!