Flowers and Flames

This morning I noticed that the bethel sage, Salvia involucrata 'Bethellii', is developing flowers:

I've recently discovered that Salvia involucrata is also known as "rosebud sage" and you can see why when you look at the flower. It hasn't grown very tall this year, but if it behaves the way it did in my old garden, each year it should come up more vigorous and taller.

Later in the morning, this happened:

Pile of bark and odd bits going up in smoke. Funny how a fire attracts the neighbours!