The heavy rain has been amazing for our yard and trees but it's led to an explosion of mushrooms. 
The mulch that we put down a year or two back has been blanketed with layers of oak leaves. Underneath those layers it's warm, moist and a perfect mushroom breeding ground.
C's father used to hike through the German forest to forage for mushrooms and would bring his treasures back for a tasty Abendessen. 
I know nothing about identifying specimens of the mycological world and rather than risk serving us a nice plate of poison, I dumped my collection in the green bin.
I'd love to be able to identify the edible mushrooms from our backyard but I'm not sure I'd ever feel truly confident (ps- for locals, The Bay Area Mycological Society holds regular mushroom forays).
Sunday morning was like a magical storybook land. We woke up to a heavy fog that covered the tops of the trees and part of the backyard.
After so much rain our backyard is exploding in all sorts of yellows and greens. The weeds have overtaken the grass, the plants and the pathways. The Acacias are in full bloom bursting with yellow clouds of tiny flowers and our fruit trees are starting to bud.
Sunday was crisp, sunny and dry. We spent much of the day cleaning up the yard and uncovering all of Elli's disappeared tennis balls. 
In the morning we had a visit from Spencer from the Oakland Zoo. He loaded up his truck with our freshly cut Acacia branches and answered our questions about the elephants. 
There are four elephants at the Oakland zoo. The three females are originally from Africa while the male is American born from the northeast. They each eat roughly a truckload of "browse" per day. The zoo groundskeepers do not get to ride the elephants (this was not one of our questions but the most commonly asked question when Spencer tells people what he does for a living). 
This weekend C cleaned off the slope, got rid of a massive tree stump and we cast around fistfuls of wildflower and poppy seeds. We hope to have our own field of wildflowers in front of the house.
And from a few weeks back, some new plantings in front of the new porch:
Madagascar Jasmine we received as a wedding present:
Pride of Madeira, C's holiday gift from my brother:
Two Lilac vines:
Elli watched it all from her favorite look-out spot on the front porch.
C finally had a chance to pull out the chainsaw and get it cleaned up. 
The Oakland zoo recently got into some trouble for cutting down acacias to feed the elephants. Apparently they didn't have the right to chop down the trees and now the elephants no longer have their favorite snack. We plan on donating our felled acacias to the elephants. We have more wild acacias than we can handle. They grow everywhere at an alarmingly fast rate.
image: maybe elle decor, france? i can't remember...
In all of the hullabaloo over the new front porch, the poor Aussichtspunkt (look-out platform) has lost out on all of its well deserved praise and love. Contrary to the story the photos tell, I had really nothing to do with this project. 
C and a friend started the project and then said friend disappeared off the face of the earth (yes Jay, we're pointing at you...). My suspicion is that he didn't fully understand the utter insanity that is a German set forth in to nature with a hammer and redwood planks.
Even in the dead heat of summer C was unrelenting. And thank goodness because we're all completely in love (Elli most of all) with the resulting Aussichtspunkt. The views are outstanding and the sunsets even better. 
Elli is the ruler of the upper hill area and when she's not lounging, she patrols the platform and surrounding areas with a prance and a fierce growl.
(I'm not sniffing my armpit. I'm kissing my killer bicep.)
