Its not all bad.

After posting the dismal pictures this morning I felt I had to go out and find SOMETHING pretty in my yard.

I love the Cestrums, they bloom almost all year for me. My barely surviving Pluot....
A lemon yellow Abutilon, poking through the lattice. Most of the foliage you see is the Clematis. I was thinking it was C. tangutica but now Im having a flashbak of the hybrid "Freckles" that was really popular in the 1990s. Hmm, will update when it blooms.

My flowering pear.

My Meyer lemon is RIPE. I need to pick them and squeeze some lemon cubes for the freezer for future lemonade, lemon bars, lemon cakes...mmmmm.

Magnolia hybrid "Ann". It has a nice Clematis growing through it in the summer, almost blue with rather upright flowers...if I am remembering it correctly.
This is my Michelia, which I was calling doltsopa but I believe is actually M. figo 'Port Wine'. UPDATE: The real name for this one came to me last night: Michelia x foggi "JACK FOGG" and thats it for real.
My quince. The beauty it gives this time of year makes up for its agressive behavior. I want to add some Forsythia too.

And the Loropetalum, with which I have a strained relationship. Just when I hate it and am near refusing to sell it to anyone I see it growing in the right spot and I soften. I remember when all we carried was the green leaved, white flowered one. That "plain" one has an elegance to it that its floppy, gaudy cousin does not.
I also have Camellias, Myosotis, Poets Jasmine, Arctotis and Alyssum blooming today!(Just wait until next year!)