There’s a lot of brown around here:  brown cliffs, brown beach, even brown, rain-starved shrubs.  So it’s delightful to see these bursts of colors, whether poppies, daisies, birds-of-paradise, the newly blooming agapanthus, or these bottle-brush varieties.  It’s May 1, and this shrub looks like it wants to decorate for Christmas, all red and green and snowy white.  I’ll take it!