The drought shows no sign of abating, and since I've always been concerned about water conservation—not a bad idea if you're dependent on a well, and, in truth, not a bad discipline at all under any situation—I've started journeying to a local creek to fill water containers for use in the garden. Clearly, the plants are beginning to get a little droopy as the soil dries to dust and the water table drops yet deeper. Fortunately, the nearby Shunock River is still flowing at a reasonable place, and it's relatively easy to access a good spot for filling the jugs. After I did the job, I followed a trail that runs along the stream in search of, well, anything. Here's the find of the day, an exquisite blossom that I didn't know at the time but discovered is a species of Monkey Flower—probably Mimulus ringens, the Square-stemmed Monkey Flower, which is our most common Mimulus. The genus name was coined by Linnaeus, who thought the floral lips resembled a grin—"mimus" in Greek translates to a "grinning comic actor"—and the common designation seems to have come from the flower's similarity to a grinning monkey. Forgive me: I don't see either resemblance. I just observe a rare beauty arising out of the wet soil beside the stream. That's enough.