(on the left) The

(on the left) The dahlia is quickly becoming my favorite flower, replacing…um…well, I don’t know that I had a favorite flower prior to this. Hang on, I take that back…whatever the heck this thing is is my favorite flower. The dahlia is a close second.

(on the right) Meg and I stumbled upon a deserted monument in Golden Gate Park a few weeks back. It was erected in memory of America’s WWI veterans, and I don’t think it’s been seen since. It’s a really nice monument though, with hundreds of names carved into a natural shaped stone.

I’ve been informed by several helpful readers the whatever-the-heck-this-thing-is flower is actually a lotus seed pod, the part of the lotus that remains when the flower falls off. So, it seems that the dahlia is my favorite flower and the lotus seed pod is my favorite pod. Glad we got that sorted out.