Rushmore

Here's Rushmore. It looks faraway because I used my wide lens, but last time we were here I used my other lens. A lot of my previous pics are archived in in July 2007. I have 16 photos there that I shot last time we were at Devils Tower KOA. That year I saw a badger! A badger is a highly rare sighting. Strangely, I realize I never posted a photo of Mount Rushmore on my blog. That's odd.

The presidents from left to right are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson (a redhead in real life), Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.


Here's the buck I've been hoping to see again. Would you believe he saw me first and ran away when he was only about 20 feet from me, but he was below a small ridge where the grass is waist high so I never saw him till he was fully running away and he was in the trees already. Doggone it! This photo I had to crop. If I can get just a leetle bit closer he will be 2010 calendar material! He's even shyer than the female does though.


My yet unfulfilled goal is the catch a photo of a horse running. These horses are grazing in the pasture next to us in the late afternoon. Took this one with my telephoto lens on the long end. I thought my 28mm to 135mm would do the better job so I ran home and changed lenses and carried my whole lens backback with me to be sure I could change quick if I needed. Well, of all the pony photos I took, the one with the first lens turned out nicest. Live and learn.


I shall now start boiling a chicken for dinner. I'm making chicken soup tonight. I looked at a lot of fancy chicken photos last night and got very hungry. Haha!

Peeking doe

A doe peeping at me.

I reread yesterday's post. I don't think I write about our son as well as my mom talks about him. I like to hear her when she talks about him. And once, our son said to me that he likes to hear Granny talk, especially when it's about him. It struck me, because as a child I remember liking to hear my mom talk, chat with family, and I always liked when her conversation turned to me and she talked about me too. Seeing, or hearing of myself, through my mom's eyes, was different. I was me, but kind of better. More interesting. I have to think about this some more.

Bumblebee

Bees are very fast. I needed my shutter to close half a second sooner. Someday I would like a macro lens. A macro lens is for up close small things. It magnifies. I'd like to do flowers - dramatic sort of flowers. Someday. I don't know if it actually magnifies, but the photos sure look detailed. I like seeing water droplets on flower petals. And I like close ups of stamens.

Tomorrow we're driving to see Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, and Roosevelt. Where are we going? It's two hours from here. Guess!

He's a blur

Perfectly out of focus
EASTERN KINGBIRD
Tyrannus tyrannus

Ah! Better.

I feel like I'm rich. Like that feeling when you walk out of the library with an armful of new books? Only I feel rich because my husband extended our stay here until the first of September!

Our son has the gavorka. He didn't get it from me and he didn't get it from my husband. He just has it. It's God given.

He's been helping out the campground owner here I guess. My husband went in to pay for more days and they gave us three days for free. At a KOA campground, that's a lot. I don't know how we got this child.

And the owner found out our son has a leather care business and evidently the owner's dad is a leather craftsman. He's going to give our son some tips and tricks and says he has some saddles our son can do for $28.00 each. Our boy, he's not afraid of work. It's just the way God wired him up. He's been like this since he was a tot. He used to like watching "Thomas the Tank Engine" on tv and I'd use one of their lines and tell our son to be sure to make himself useful. Hehe. He really does too. He makes himself useful.

Husband and he were at the John Deere store yesterday. He's started a new hobby - cap collecting. They gave our son a free hat and a free keychain. It's the gavorka again. Well, there was a guy there who said my husband was sure buying our son a lot of stuff. He said it in a way that my husband could tell he thought the boy was being spoiled. But my husband told him up straight up, he wasn't paying for the goods. Our son was spending his own money from what he earned from his shoe shine business. That's a fact. And the fella looked at our son a little different after that.

I didn't see a porcupine or a raccoon today. I saw a young buck though. He was too far for a calendar picture, but I could see his new, velvety antlers. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for him!

Another week!

We get to stay an extra week! Oh boy! We intended to leave on the 26th, but we get to stay longer. We didn't realize that Labor Day is September 7th. Seems kind of late, but it is the first Monday of the month. We don't want to get back to New Mexico before Labor Day or we'll have to work. Don't tell our ranger we said that. Haha! It's just that today was over 100 degrees down there and we don't wanna work outside in that hot weather. We usually direct traffic because the lines get so long.

On to photos. Partly, I have trouble selecting a photo so I don't post one, but I went through a couple sets and just made a pick. My hope is that I may see a porcupine or a raccoon this year. They come out at dusk and the light is not the best at that time. Last time we were here I saw one of each, but my porcupine pic looked scary instead of cute and my raccoon was too far away. I didn't have my telephoto lens back then.

Do the eyes ever get tired of looking at a fawn? I don't think so. This one walked quite close to me as I knelt down watching him. He's in the yard of a restaurant. They come in the evening to graze on the green grass.


His mama wasn't too sure about him walking in my direction. She stayed by the back fence.


I have eight billion photos of prairie dogs. I love 'em so much. They can be kinda gross. They can be carnivorous you know. The nursing mothers will cannibalize other babies. That'll give you nightmares. But mostly they eat grass and blossoms and such. These two are "kissing." It's a greeting that they use with one another. I saw two fights today but didn't catch them in time. I got one jump/yip but he was turned sideways from me. I was at the prairie dog town two hours today trying to catch a jump/yip. I turn to the right and one to my left will do it. I turn to the left and one on my right will do it. Or, I can't find him through my viewfinder so I lift my head for a moment to check where he is, and that's when he jump/yips. Lil' rascals. We're too late in the year to see babies. They're all grown already. And fat. My goodness they're little fatties.

They're kind of nuzzling each other. They're very social little creatures.

A triptych

I got to spend as much time as I wanted with the horses. I brushed this one for such a long time that I felt calm and comfortable by him. I started taking his picture. Lots of his picture. He didn't mind. I saw his ears perk up at the sound of the shutter release at first. His name is Tiger which does not do him justice. I don't think he seems like a Tiger. His tail is short because where he came from other horses chewed his tail. How mean. I gather it can be a problem for horses. I should have photographed his tail. On the other hand, it wasn't an especially pretty tail. On the other hand, I didn't touch up the photos at all, so it would have fit the theme of realness very well. Lastly, truth is, I was afraid to walk behind him, so I didn't think to snap his tail till now. I would like to shoot him again with my DSLR. I used my little camera today. I've seen some awesome horse body photography. I saw one once that made the horse's back look long and gorgeous like a valley and hills. I saw one once of a horse in morning fog, in profile atop a ridge, reared up on his hind legs. The photographer was in the right place at the right time and won first prize for it. Lovely, it was. Still in my mind.

Tomorrow we're off to Wyoming. Praise the Lord for Wyoming and that we can go. I will be seeing the prairie dogs!

Terrible news I got today. My online friend, a young woman in NM, got C. Diff again. She found my blog in July and emailed me. We talked back and forth. I got better, then she got better. We were glad. But 11 days after she finished the med she fell ill again. She saw the doctor today. I am so sad for her. It's like a blow to my chest. I looked on the calendar and I got well on July 8th. It seems so long ago now. Perhaps I should collect the healing verses from the Bible that helped me and send them to her. She's real down. She's real blue, but trying not to be pessimistic. It's hard. It's a hard trial having your health taken no matter what age, but especially when you're young.

Tuesday

It's a Guinea Fowl. Took me two weeks to figure out what it was and it was my mom who told me. About five of them were alongside the road. They're a poultry bird. Poor things. They have a beautiful partridge body and an ugly ol' vulture head. They weren't shy at all.

I've felt fine all day, though somewhat lethargic, so I'm worried tomorrow will be a bad day. We'll see.

I raked the site today and it looks nice. I was inspired by the lady next door named Ann who said she lost two inches from her waistline working here raking sites! She's 70 years old and you'd never know it by looking at her. And she had the most beautiful southern accent. I say had because they left today. Continuing on their travels.

In New Mexico it's too dry for green grass lawns. Everyone has rocks. Many people rake their rocks. Crazy, I know. But for a campsite it really does look nice to pull in to a neatly raked site. It looks clean and fresh and inviting. As I was raking I thought this could be like a total meditative practice. Yes, little Grasshopper, it can. At Huntington Gardens in San Marino there was a Japanese Zen garden and the sand was raked into a wavy design and they rake it into different designs on different days too. I could do that! Wouldn't it cool to pull into a specially designed design in the rocks of your campsite? Oh this has potential. They might come out and see me and ask me how I came up with this idea and they'll want to put a photo of my neatly raked unique designs and patterns in the newspaper with a special inset picture of me. It'll be like those posters where you have to stare and stare to relax your eyes and see the picture. Other people would want to do it too. Pretty soon people in town would do it. Maybe it would spread all over New Mexico. And I would get all the credit for this amazing concept. Maybe my idea would jump continents and Australia will do it too.

But the Japanese already got whole the raking idea in about the tenth century. Details, details, ruining my daydream.

Would those birds shut up

The horses are called Paints. I guess they're a combination Pinto and Quarter Horse. Don't quote me on that, but it's what I read. There was another white horse and he put his head in our truck. That was exciting! They're domestic horses. That's why he was so friendly.

Yesterday I woke at 4:00am and couldn't sleep. At 5:00am a quail started crowing incessantly every 30 seconds and he continued his exultation for 30 minutes. I was gritting my teeth thinking is the next crow going to be 25 seconds or 30. Then I thought, oh dear, but I love the quail. What in the world is the matter with me? I stand at the window and wait to see who will get a drink of water and wonder, will it be a dove, a sparrow, a roadrunner, a mockingbird, a quail, or a squirrel who comes for the next sip. I have to meditate and pray a Proverb. Proverbs 17:22 - A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. So true.

My husband and son are working the kiosk at the Visitor's Center till 3:00pm. 'Tis busy here this week-end. Beautiful day with puffball clouds all around. We ordered my husband a new money clip for Father's Day. It won't come in till Tuesday though. Drats. It's a nice Indian Head Nickel style. He lost the one that I gave him about 15 years ago. He left it on top of the change machine at the laundromat and someone took it. Luckily, he had taken his money out of it. He shouldn't have set it down. I'm going to make him that Nilla Vanilla Cookie Wafer with banana and vanilla pudding recipe for a special dessert. I hope he'll like it.

We're proud owners a yet another chip in our windshield. Yesterday a regular old Ford truck passed us on the left and a teeny rock hit our windshield. Now we have three chips and a crack in it. We may have to think about replacing it!

I'm starting a different antibiotic on Monday. The pharmacy doesn't have it in stock today. My doctor said this next antibiotic is the big gun for use against C. Diff. The Flagyl didn't seem to be working for me this time. He said Flagyl works for a limited time and it looks like I need this other medicine. I haven't felt well for a week. Here's my big whine about it. WAAAAAAAH. And I'm done whining. That's the only whine allowed for that. I have a swollen cold sore on my upper lip that hasn't scabbed yet. That garners its own separate whine. Waaaaaah! Okay, done. :)

At the ranch

"The Grandmother"
She's been around a long time!

Deer in the distance

With the naked eye I could hardly make out these deer. My camera saw them clearly though which I didn't realize till I downloaded the pics. We spent the day at the ranch yesterday and it was peaceful and fun. We drove down a canyon and we saw horses and cows, calves, and deer. Branding day is the 27th and it's always a big event. They have about ten calves this year. That's a lot for this ranch. They'll be branding some bulls too. It's going to be a sight to see the men pull down those big, strong animals.

Had a terrible dream the other night. Dreamt I went to someone other than Ivan to get my ends trimmed. I looked in the mirror and my hair was cut in that style that everyone is wearing lately; real short at the nape and above shoulder length on the side. I'm sure I dreamt of that style because I was sitting in church looking at the pastor's daughter flip her hair about and she has that style. I asked the hair stylist what happened and why she did it. She said she didn't know. Then to top it off I dreamt my stomach was really big and round and sticking out and that's not all. When I walked I stomped around like Frankenstein. What a nightmare.

It's such a pretty day here. I can't get enough of sky, sky, sky.

I sense success

First a few photos from last week.

A beautiful pelican. It must be a male because he's so colorful.


An angelic face. As we left the beach area there was this one last seal lying on the rocks. She really responded to my sister. More people came over and took photos as the seal responded to my sister's voice.


And a baby.


I got a little over half of one Russian leaf done tonight. I'm excited. Perseverance!

I'm interested in using Skype or something for making calls on the internet and using the web cam. It's my sister's idea. My husband got a new laptop that has a web cam built in. It's quite fun and we're not even connected to anyone but ourselves yet. Haha! I need to make sure that video calls don't use too much bandwidth though since I only get so much per day.

The worst thing happened last week with my sister. We were talking to this girl, I'd guess a college student, Asian, who said she saw Arnold Schwarzenegger in person in La Jolla. As I walked up to my sister who's four years younger than I, the girl said, "Oh is this your mom?" Can I say how this has destroyed my ego? I already had a little ego (ego is different from vanity) and now I have no ego. Pffft. Gone, disappeared, annihilated. I was horrified. I covered my mouth and couldn't move a muscle from pure anguish. And the girl was horrified too. Then she tried to clean up and say she was going to say sister, but the damage was all done. My sister never even smiled and you'd think as a competitive sister she would have. But she didn't. And the girl couldn't apologize enough. I felt bad for her for half a second, but I've felt worse for me ever since. Sigh. In my defense, I didn't feel great, had been in bed the week before, I had my hair in a tight bun, and I have lots of grey hair and my sister has none. She keeps saying that if my hair was down the girl would never have said it. I don't care if my hair was up or down. I felt really bad.

My husband had a dream about me last night. He said men dressed in riot gear, holding both my arms, were escorting me out of a building. I hope it's not prophetic. I'm going on 50 and if I look like 70 someone's going to need riot gear before July 8th.

Beading

I took a class to learn how to make Russian leaves and I still can't make a Russian leaf. The one I made in class was pitiful. I got a little farther tonight but still get an F for fail. I'm going to try again tomorrow. They are so doggone pretty. I've just got to figure it out.

This is a baby squirrel getting the most nutritious meal a baby squirrel can get. Mother's milk develops the myelin that covers the nerves in the brain so this will be a healthy, smart squirrel. I know they're rodents but I like squirrels. And look at his little ear! It's a baby squirrel ear.

Leaving San Diego

This is La Jolla where the extremely wealthy folks live. We had a wonderful day here. The salt air smelled so good and the sound of the ocean waves and wind was music to my soul. When I was 23 I lived a few blocks from the beach and I used to jog three miles of coast, or sometimes I'd just sit in the sand and watch the waves in the evenings after work. Good memories.

See the little cove in the distance. That's were I wanted to go. Those are harbor seals lying about in the sand. When I was young it was a children's beach but sometime back the seals took it over and the people let them have it. I think that's nice. It's a treat to watch them although they don't do much but loll about in the sand and sleep.


See what I mean?


We'll be on the road at 9:00am tomorrow morn. We're off to see the saguaro cacti in Arizona on our way to New Mexico. I've wanted to stop and spend the night with the saguaro for a few years as we always pass them on the drive from New Mexico to California, but the campground has no sewer hook-up and we do like having full hook-ups generally. This year we're going to stop there and spend the night anyways. So spoiled are we. I did see the temp is supposed to be 94 degrees tomorrow so we may not stay a few days if it stays that hot. Saguaro cactus and joshua trees are fascinating. They look like a myriad of figures dotting the landscape, telling their stories. I imagine what each one has to say or what they say to each other.

In 15 minutes it's the first day of May! Happy May! May should be a good month.

Tonight I had one last fling with my sis. We went to Mimi's Cafe and had a dessert. My treat. I left the waitress a $10.00 tip because she was so good and so sweet. My sister can talk and talk she did. We must have been there two and a half hours. She didn't want to leave, I could tell. Finally I said, "Colleen, we can't stay here all night ya know." So we left. She said she admires how I exit and don't do messy good-byes. Hate the messy good-byes, eh? But I admit I teared up as she turned right and I turned left on the road home. I had to shake it off with the radio turned up loud.

She thinks I'll instantaneously be all well when we leave. We shall see.

I feel compelled to say sorry for not posting. If you clicked in all month, I'm sorry about that. Guess I fell off the horse. I don't usually, but hey, even monkeys fall out of trees. Perhaps some things are better left unblogged? I've had a case of the uglies and I hope that'll go away too for goodness sakes.

Oh I have to add - my husband went with me to see my dear old dad today. It was the best visit of all. Husband is my better half you know. Everything is better with him present. Even our son said, "Mamma, you were relaxed." What? Me, relax? Haha! With God all things are possible. My husband hadn't spoken to my pop for over five years.

Sweet, sweet May. Take me away. . . .

Tip for photographing animals

I woke with a headache and various maladies so we're not going to drive the loop today. I think with it being as chilly as it is I'll end up all crickety and unhappy what with getting in and out of the truck dozens of times and getting frozen hands (I lost my fingerless gloves awhile back and haven't found a replacement).

Here's a pic from yesterday. I snapped everything handheld just to see how my camera and I would do. Here is a free tip.

Picture Takin' Tip and Trick

All critters run or fly away fast if they see a human approaching. There are exceptions, naturally. For instance, a black bear, a grizzly bear, a moose, or a mountain lion might come right toward you. I have no tip for dealing with that, except stay in the car in the first place!

For everything else that's cute, if you're in a vehicle and you spot a furry or feathered creature close by the road and you want a photo, if no cars are behind you, slow way, way down or even stop, but don't get out of the car. They're not afraid of cars and trucks! That's the tip. They're used to vehicles. What I do is roll down the window fast as I can and sit on the door if the animal is in front of us and snap best as I am able while my husband navigates. That's how I caught the horse above. But only people with good balance should try this. In all other cases, put your camera on Sports Mode (people will argue but it works for me), put all distractions out of your mind, concentrate fully on focusing and not shaking, and just shoot out your side window when you see animals on your side of the road. You might get a memorable shot.

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I've been practicing silhouettes. At the campground we winter at I didn't get a chance to drive out to any good silhouette locations so I got a lot of creosote bushes pretty much. Here, there's open range and so the animals can cross the road. It's a delight! The soil is so red here that in the afternoon if there are big clouds, we saw the bottom of the clouds reflect a light pinkish hue.

If this photo had an awesome sky I'd be satisfied.

Doe in camouflage

There she is lying in the grass behind the cacti. She never got up to run away either.

Well my fasting and praying went well. It went okay. Pretty good I'd say I s'pose. I'd planned on going for a prayer walk Saturday morning when I was hungriest thinking it would challenge and stretch me but I awoke as weak as a little bird. I ended up lying in the recliner with a blankie over me drinking liquids and watching the clock. It was my first experience with 24 hours of fasting and prayer and I'm afraid I am disappointed with myself. I find fasting from sun-up to sundown far, far easier.

Friday night the men had mac and cheese and salad and I was so drooling. Everytime I thought about food I said a prayer. Normally I rarely think about food and on an average, nondescript day I can go hungry for an extended period of time for no reason other than I'm too lazy to make time to eat, but for 18 of those 24 hours I was all hung up on food. Pitiful.

Maybe I will do it again sometime, but not more than once a month. I must have gotten dehydrated during the night because in the morning my tongue was all white, ugh, like when you get sick. I don't like white tongues. A healthy tongue is supposed to be pink. Well, perhaps a subject change is in order here.

I hear my husband is scrubbing the tub. I hate when he does housework.

Our tentative travel schedule is coming together. After March 16 we will go to see a place, a geologic formation called Shiprock, and then Monument Valley. I've been wanting to see Monument Valley for sometime now. Shiprock I've never heard of but my husband found it online.

Oh no. My husband is calling me. There's a hairball in the drain and I get to take it out with a paper towel. Ewww.

We went to the ranch and it was heavenly. Out of this picture I made the little one for MySpace. I have two friends there and sometimes I get tired of looking for just the right picture, so twice now I made my own.

My dad is home from the hospital and everyone is phoning and visiting him. He is very popular right now!

A horse

This is a horse. Haha! Oh I know you know that. I liked him because he tried to nibble my bun off of my head. I don't know if he liked my hair, my Ficcare, or my sunglasses. He had some big teeth.

I'm thinking about Mary a lot tonight. Mary, the Mother of God. The Roman Catholics make statues and such and while at the ranch we visited another nearby property and there was a statue. At first they thought it might be Francis but I said no, Francis was a guy. Actually Saint Francis is the only saint I know of - he's the protector of animals and since I love animals I guess that's how I know of him. The statue we saw however, was a woman. The peeps I went with are Catholic while I am Protestant. Anyhoo, I said, it must be Mary. It was just my best guess really. I spose it could have been Martha but my Catholic saint knowledge is severely limited.

The gal with us noticed a serpent at Mary's feet and she said, "I was raised Catholic. What's that? Why is that snake there? That's not right." But the guy, he put his hand on the serpent as if he was trying to explain it, but he just didn't quite have any words that I heard. Neither did I, and so I said that I'm not familiar with Catholic doctrine so I don't know what it means. She said, "Well, Catholics are Christian." I shrugged my shoulders in my mind because I didn't say Catholics weren't Christian, and I said, "Yes, they are, but I'm not familiar with their doctrine." And I wandered away. I had gotten my picture so why stand there. She said something about how I didn't want to walk with them and, sheesh, I just ignored it. The guy is real sweet. So tonight I've been reading about that statue because I knew there had to be some hardcore historical religious significance in there.

That serpent, who do you think it represents? That's what I thought too, Satan, but why's the serpent at Mary's feet? Aha! Because you see, she is victorious over the enemy. Mary, unlike Eve, listened to God. Mary said, "Yes, Lord." Actually, technically, in Luke 1:38 Mary said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." Crazy, huh? Crazy awesome. Her answer set everything in motion. She had free will just like you and me. She could have said, sayonara, I ain't doin' this. As it was, she could have been stoned, right? I'm pretty sure you could get stoned to death in those times for being pregnant when you're about to be married and the guy you're marrying knows he isn't the father.

And what about this... The Immaculate Conception? What do you think that is? Describe it to yourself. If you're like me, you said it has to do with Jesus being born to a virgin, as in she got pregnant without having intercourse. Well you'd be wrong. That's a huge misunderstanding of the phrase. I suppose most, or many, people think that's what the Immaculate Conception is about but it's not. The Immaculate Conception has to do Mary, the Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception is Mary being sinless, completely free of sin, since her conception. What? Who can be sinless but Jesus, I wondered. (Adam and Eve were once and I think, John the Baptist?) I think that Protestants and Roman Catholics believe differently as to whether Mary was without sin. Don't quote me on that, I'm still figuring it out. I found the simplest, easiest explanation about immaculate conception at, of all places, snopes. www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/immaculate.asp

Words to know:
Doctrine = principles
Dogma = established opinion
Mariology = study of Mary

I think the problem between the two schools of thought is that the Protestants think Mary is way up there in honor what with being the mom of Jesus Christ but they take exception with the veneration of Mary which the Catholics believe in. I am sure Protestants agree with the whole virgin birth thing, but not that she is sinless. Fascinating stuff.

My nose is running like a faucet and now it's sore even though I'm using Puffs. My eyes are all small and itchy. I hope tomorrow will be better.

He neighed at me

He's standing on a hill. We drove by at 9:00am and there he was. We drove home at 2:30pm and he was still there! That's weird!

Roadrunner

I'm fond of roadrunners. I named one Roadie last year but then more than one started coming around so I wasn't sure if I was talking to Roadie or an impostor after that. Pretty creative name, huh?

This photo shows the bare patch of skin by the eye. You don't always see that. They all have it I think, but some have it brighter than others and only if they move the side feathers will you see the colors. It's bright orange and blue! I thought perhaps it was a mating thing but everything I've read says the male and female look alike, only difference being the males are a little larger. His beak is open because today was 103 degrees. Fahrenheit.

I got this one to cuckoo at me today. Ran in the trailer to get my little camera that will take a short movie and darn it, I couldn't get him to cuckoo again. I will try again another time though. They come by to drink from the water dishes we put out. We have to put out water dishes otherwise the critters, a squirrel or rabbit, we're not sure, will bite into our hose and cause a leak! Lil' troublemakers they are! We've had to buy two new hoses on account of them. We thought we just had bad hoses at first. Hehe!

Before we got this site there was a real nice couple here. The husband though, he was afraid of birds. Afraid, I say! I asked him one day, how come he was afraid of birds and he told me why.

When he was a little boy a cousin of his held him upside down and let the chickens peck at him. I was so sad for him. When the quail came by or the roadrunners came by, his wife said he would not come out of his trailer. He was a sweet man too.

Now if you are observant you've noticed this roadrunner has no tail. Indeed, I am sure something happened. I think he's lucky to be alive. We have several roadrunners come by and I've probably had him come by before but this is the first time we've seen such a short tail. I don't think all of his feathers could have fallen out by themselves.

This second picture is when he decided to leave. I thought it was cute plus you can still see the colorful patches near his eyes. I say he, but it could be a she. He hung around quite awhile.

Jack across the street

I also saw for the first time a tiny cottontail. He's about the size of a teacup and cute as can be. I got to within five feet. In fact I got so close that my telephoto lens told me I was too close. (It doesn't work if you're too close to the subject.)

I did not know the birding was so good at this spot this time of year. It's much better than our old spot. Today I saw an oriole. I hope he comes by again.

Husband brought me home a hot fudge sundae from Dairy Queen. I had no idea Dairy Queen made such good hot fudge sundaes. I could eat one every night. He had to go to the store for ant killer. I asked him what kind he got. He said the only kind they had. Haha! I have to remember there's not much in terms of variety here.

Several nights we've had Jesus clouds. You know that kind? The kind that has sun rays coming out every which way from behind a cloud? Really pretty.

La Jolla, CA

Quick upload of a photo from yesterday. I will have a pelican picture too, after I pick one. I think the big dude is protecting his harem and offspring. The black seal in the water kept swimming round and round the rock and hollering in seal talk but he wouldn't go up on the rocks!

Meow

Kitty cat face. I love kitty cat faces. She's the friendliest little thing.