July 28th, 2010 by grant
About a year ago I purchased a Miltonia orchid at the hospital in Walnut Creek. The flowers were in bloom and I figured that will be the only time I see it, but unexpectedly it appears to be ready to bloom. I’d love to be able to tease my Father about this.

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July 28th, 2010 by grant
Had to make a trip to Idaho. Unfortunately for me the worlds largest Basque festival started the day I arrived. I could not get a car rental reservation to save my life. I ended up taking a taxi for a 50 mile drive… $150 each way. This took so much time that I missed my flight back home. I rewarded myself by eating a Vietnamese lunch/dinner.

The account was located on Mountain Home Air Force Base which was my last assignment before I discharged from the military. I brought my camera thinking I was gonna be able to drive to the river to photograph it, yeah right.
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July 17th, 2010 by grant
In anticipation of lunch at the new Indian restaurant on the west side, we decided to eat a small breakfast. That means… yes Korean Spam from Freda.

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July 17th, 2010 by grant
In recent years we haven’t seen very many ducklings grow to become adults. When they are hatched the ducklings are led to water within the first 24 hours. This is when we see them, all nice a fluffy and unfortunately bite size. We try not to get too excited as they only live for a very short time. In other words all the predators show up and it’s just a matter of time.
Well this morning I saw something unusual. Our local mother and her brood swam right up to a night heron and I thought that was stupid. I quickly got my camera to capture the scene. As expected the heron did a quick grab and flew, that’s normally the end of story. What I didn’t expect to see was mom flying after the heron and harassing it for half the length of the lagoon till he dropped the duckling.
I have to apologize for the crappy photos as I didn’t have much time to set things up.


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July 16th, 2010 by grant
Saw it on the garage door, had to shoot it.

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July 16th, 2010 by grant
The baby birds we cared for are a species called Black Phoebe. The weaker of the three didn’t make it. Sandy named him Pee Wee. PW was buried last weekend and was given a proper burial complete with calla lily grave marker.

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July 16th, 2010 by grant
They started out at 9 and now down to 7, which explains why Mom looks so stressed. Unfortunately they are still bite size.

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July 14th, 2010 by grant
Tired of the drab lower patio we planted some flowers to add a bit of color.

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