first poppies

Let me offer you something cheerful - this year's first California poppies in our back yard.  I think they are self-seeded from last year: the new ones are a way behind these, although some others of the copiously sown wild flowers seeds - slightly shy white flowers - have already come out.  Every year this is like an exercise in crazy hope.  In the past, I've rather surmised that birds got to the seeds - this year, I was extra careful - digging miniature furrows for them; covering them loosely with soil; doing this the day before it rained (though I flung out a few random handfuls, just in case, too).  That fuzzy bunch of stuff?  That's wild fennel, which is both pretty and tasty.  Watch for more floral bulletins ...