Tragedy in Dublin! For the past few weeks we've had a pair of doves bobbing around the open-air office building walkways. At one point they decided to build a nest on a 3" wide wood beam supporting the stairway roof (though I strongly advised against it on several occasions). You could tell it wasn't going well because twigs littered the stairway and nothing stayed put on the beam, and as of Friday they seemed to have wisely abandoned the idea and moved on. But this morning we got to work and found a huge mess of scattered twigs all over the stairs, along with a tiny broken egg. Doves are the stupidest birds on the face of the earth. It's a wonder they've managed to keep the species going this long.

In other nesting news: despite a lot of frantic swallow activity and the barest beginnings of a mud nest on a ceiling beam, a nest has yet to materialize on my patio this year. I have no idea what happened to the swallows who started the work, but we also have had a lot of hawks hanging around, so maybe they feel it's safer elsewhere.

The first two roses of the year bloomed late last week and unfortunately hit their peak this weekend when I was down in LA. I've already had a helluva time keeping the aphids at bay. Yes, mom, I will prune those dead leaves as soon as I can.

Observation of the week: Kerrygold Blarney Stone cheese + Saltine crackers = Cheetos (Puff style).