B is for Bird on Barbed Wire

I take the same walk most days. It's 1.6 miles from my home, to the bottom of the road and back to the house. I take my camera on my walk with the idea that I might see a picture or two and I rarely come back empty handed. This 1.6 mile stretch of country is well photographed!  Today I was looking for "B" pictures, and the barbed wire caught my attention. It's nasty stuff, yet balancing on the wire, was a sweet little bird. The bird does not know the barbed wire is prickly, so he's happy to sit on it.

Following along with the bird theme, is the rooster. My neighbor has a passle of roosters that wander around the 'hood. They have no problem walking  right in front of your car and making you stop...however, when you go to take their picture they run like the devil. I "captured" one this morning and he was none too happy.

Then there is this dog. Every morning we play a game. I walk close to his fence and he barks and barks...when I don't move, he stops barking and he comes near the fence to "talk" to  me. He's all bark and absolutely no bite.

It's spring and the flowers are in bloom. I love the bouquets of red mums. Can you imagine what a garden filled with these wonderful flowers would look like. Unfortunately it's only 2 plants, but they are both blooming like crazy.

But the best places to look at are the neighborhood ponds. There are several. A gentle zephyr was wafting this morning, so the ponds were mostly still and the reflections were wonderful.

An Experiment

My friend Teresa gave me a wonderful birthday present today...it's a small video cam...and I'm learning how to use it.
BUT alas, Blogspot does not support AVI...so I'll try somewhere else. I'll let you know what is happening Teresa.
Addendum: I just discovered this...does it work? 

A is for April Birthday

I'm starting a new feature...an Alphabet book. Like all good ABC books, it needs to start with A which in this case stands for "April Birthday."

Growing up, April was "birthday month." Four members of my family were born in April and I made it five. Then on my 16th birthday, number 6 was born, my oldest nephew! What a treat!

I celebrated my birthday on Friday at my sister's home. Instead of a traditional birthday cake, my sister made some yummy chocolate strawberries. These are the best!

I turned in my 143rd Project Linus Blanket on my birthday. It's a really soft and pretty striped blanket with shades of blue, burgundy and white (and this picture does nothing for it!) Some child is going to have a really cuddly blanket with this one.

We also celebrated the 80th birthday of my sister's sister-in-law. Here's a picture of two of her grandchildren trying to light the candles. Thankfully, they did not put 80 of them on the cake!

Happy Birthday April Babies

A Horse Study

I live in "horse country." The moving sculptures that grace the nearby fields are lovely to look at. Today I tried to see if I could get closer to the horses. Did you know that horses have whiskers?

They also have great eyelashes...and this poor horse has a fly by her eye, and she's not even blinking. How does she do that?

The black horse, is calm too--do flies not bother horses? I think they do, as every so often, these horses have screens protecting their eyes. Maybe, one fly at a time is not a bother? I know a fly near my eye would bother me!

But then, maybe having a green field is more important!

The Ratio

Someone asked me the other day how many pictures I take to get a good shot. The answer is MANY...and not all of my ideas work. The leaf below is from an African Violet. I thought that the textured fuzziness would make an interesting picture. It doesn't. I took a whole series of pictures of several leaves, only to find out after the fact, that it's not very interesting.

On the other hand, here's an African Daisy. I took a series of this flower this morning and they all came out well. It was hard to determine what was the best and this one is the winner. The dew drops help, but the colors are vibrant. I especially like the center of the flower...it's so intricate. Not until I downloaded the picture did I notice the deep purple and yellow.

I like to put some wildlife in my photos now and again. Today a lot of bees were flying near the photinia. I took over a dozen pictures trying to get a bee to "stand still" long enough to get wing detail. This is the best of the lot. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. 

Somedays are better than others. I took a series of pictures of some burgundy mums...not one of them came out. Reds and yellows are hard to capture. Reds have a tendency to look like plastic and yellows are too bright. 

I saved 24 pictures today. I took 53! I should delete some more, but I like the pretty flowers in my gallery, so they will stay.

iPad

I just got an iPad! I've been looking at them since the 3rd when they came out! Then today the other DrC gave me one for my birthday! It's an early gift (birthday is a dozen days away). I'm still playing with setting it up; buying ebooks; and having a grand time. Watch this space for a review in a couple of weeks.

In the Toes

If a hill has a foot...

and if a foot has toes...

then we live in the toes 

of the foothills

. 

of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

Here are some of the flowers blooming in the toes this week.

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Another Year

This past weekend we celebrated our 39th Wedding Anniversary! My parents thought our marriage would not last...I guess they were wrong! I wonder if all parents have that thought? I'm guessing they probably do. Whatever!

For the past few weeks we've been planning what we are going to do on our 40th Anniversary that we forgot to plan anything for the 39th! For our 40th we're going on an OAT adventure on the Adriatic. We've not been to the Adriatic before, so that will be fun. Also, we're going with our friends who are also celebrating their 40th anniversary! 

As for the picture...that's us at one of our favorite spots...Jenny Lake in the Tetons! 

We're Separated

How's that for an April Fool's title? And it's true too!

But it's not what you are thinking. I'm taking care of a friend in town, while the other DrC is holding down the fort all by himself.

I should be home tomorrow!