Michael celebrated his 60th birthday, Aug 4th - we got a beautiful cake from the Panamonte Hotel.

The birthday boy - he still looks great!

We celebrated at the Palo Alto Restaurant with a few dozen friends.

We have started a new project - an addition to the house. The first floor will be a studio/storage area and the upper floor will be what we are calling a "garden room". The upper terrace will extend to the front of the room and the long side of the room will overlook the tropical garden.

We have decided to break up the group of nineteen pampas that sat on the side of the carport. We are spreading them around the garden. Here is one in front of the office.

Everything is thickening up!

This is the upper area off the carport. We carved a new planted area there.

This is our adjacent property. It is about the same size as the piece we have developed but sits a little higher. You can see to the Pacific from this piece. We just had the brush chopped.

The oranges are ripening quickly. We use about 20 every couple of days for a jug of juice but we have about 30 trees. Probably have to get some pickers in.

Another shot from about midway down the other piece.

A view down the road. Our driveway is in the middle of the picture.

Another even lower view of the other piece.

This is an orchid that Sharon repotted that is now reblooming.

Fresh produce! Ricardo brought the pina and we picked the lemons during our walk the other morning.

We haven't posted a shot of our big boy for awhile. Buddy looking regal!

Early digging on the addition. By hand, of course.

Lots of growth in the tropical garden. This is some of what we will see from the new room.

The gang is making good progress on the addition. This will add about 650 square feet to the house.