Beauties and the Beast

I just can't get enough of this American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana). It's one of my favorite shrubs, and this one in the back corner keeps getting more and more luscious purple berries. They are so bright and colorful that I can see them from the kitchen. It's a nice thing during this hard, dry time.

I know I post about the desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) all the time, but this too is proving to be a great little tree. It's going through yet another bloom cycle and it filled with pink, nice smelling blossoms right now. It's just outside of the kitchen window. Nothing better to keep my mind off doing the dishes. I've also spied hummingbirds visiting this tree.

Our writing spider (yellow garden spider: Argiope aurantia) and her prey, which is probably one of the large black bees that's been visiting the turk's cap. She knew what she was doing by constructing her web of death in that bank of perennials...