Wild Mountain thistles

After a very busy 6 days of an East Coast family wedding, seeing immediate family, and 2 trips to IKEA to get some dining room chairs to replace 40-year old Dansk chairs, we hope to have a week+ of some down time -- and escape some heat in Sacramento.

But each time I come up here, I check the "blooming" progress of the much-loved mountain thistles along the path to our mountain place.