the agave groweth

God almighty. I can't wait to post a pic of the agave. I am digital-camera bereft right now, but have snapped a couple of pix with the few shots left from my youngest son's performance in Union Square recently (Riff played on tour with select young folks from his music camp, Ethos, and they drew quite a crowd, despite the usual San Fran weather).
Anyway, the agave now looks seriously out of place in the redwood forest. It's as if it warped itself from the Southwest into my garden. The flower stems at the top of the main stem (which reaches to the top of our two-story house) have now begun to actually put out buds of some sort. One nice thing is that agave flowers apparently attract both hummingbirds and bats, both of which appeal to Ms. Strega.
We also had a visit recently from the wild piggies of Felton. These I have never seen (don't want to--the boars are pretty formidable), but have often heard (they squeal just like a farm pig). They often do large amounts of damage to areas such as the football field at the local high school, but only seem to pass through our property on the way to someplace else. Our dog seems to feel they are a match for his great ability to protect our home. He's also partial to raccoons, which seem to be around in fabulous numbers this summer.