Visiting in Indiana

We had a great visit with the Comeau family.  We were greeted by Mr. and Mrs Potato Head dressed as Grandma and Grandpa, and picture that Brooke drew and a welcome sign on the mirror.  We got to go to the Children's Museum which is always a new and exciting time.  The museum is so big and there is so much to see.  We spent quite a bit of time in the dinosaur part.

 This was a cute little play with a dinosaur fossil coming to life.  Kate wasn't too sure about that big dinosaur that made way to much noise.

 Then it was time to dig for dinosaur bones

 Then dress up as dinosaurs

We also went to see a play at the museum, "Lyle,Lyle, Crocodile".

 Grandpa and Brooke spent time playing Fruit Ninja.  Brooke showed Grandpa how to get different swords and they had a great time playing together.  

Piano practice time 

 Tennis anyone?

 After tennis they found a playground

 Grandpa was practicing with the camera and found a great setting for action shots

And some family pictures

Thank you so much Jeremy, Andrea, Brooke and Kate for all the fun things we got to do while we were there and for the time we got to spend with you.  

Who's Up In the Night?

That would be me.  Monday night I joined all the others who stayed up to watch the lunar show.  I thought it was pretty impressive, although much of it was obscured at our location by high clouds.  I went down to Uncle Peter's to watch the show with him and we watched together until the moon was totally obscured, then he went to bed and I went home.  I tried to photograph the whole thing, but did not do a very good job of it due to my inexperience with my camera and the basic limitations of the same.  But I did get some photos which I will share with you.  It was pretty cool to watch the full moon disappear little by little, and then turn a deep red after it was totally obscured.  We watched through binoculars and could see quite well.  I thought I had some good photos as well because they looked good on the camera right after taking them.  But alas, all was darkness when I looked at them later.

 While the moon was totally eclipsed clouds came and went, but I could see quite well most of the time through my binoculars, but the photos did not turn out.  Just after the moon began to appear once again some serious clouds moved in and obscured the return show.

 As you can see below, the clouds were still pretty thick by the time the eclipse had fully passed.

I did get plenty of "spooky moon" shots like the one below though.

 And then the moon came out and I got some good shots of the full, clear moon.

Then I turned the camera on the back yard and got some pretty awsome shots.

The following were all taken between about 3:00 am and 3:30 am with the only light coming from the moon.

 Above you can see the snowball bush in full bloom, our peas, onions, and potatoes getting big, and our happy little cilantro plant.  Oh yes, and my latest attempt at composting - the plastic container under the snowball bush.  So far so good.

 If you look at the house behing the snowball bush it appears to be orange.

That is because it is not being lit by the moon, but by a street light on Celestial Way.

Bikin' around the Buttes

We have been training for this for a while and the day finally came.  My other Saturday duties required that I be home by 9 am so we started early and only did the short route. But it was beautiful!  We took our own snacks and water, stopped a few times and didn't go so fast we couldn't do anything else the rest of the day. It took us maybe a little over an hour and a half to go the 16-17 miles out Pass Road, down West Butte and then back on South Butte.  We just had a delightful time.  Here are a few photos.

First stop - John C. Fremont marker.

Next stop - the top of the hill, with South Butte in the background.

And there she goes, leaving me to eat her dust.

Our final stop was here beside the Sutter Bypass.  What a beautiful day.

Disneyland

James, Sabrina and Chelsea invited us to go to Disneyland with them and we were so excited to go.  We stayed in a hotel just across from the park and had a wonderful time.

  We got there on Monday afternoon and after checking into the hotel went over to Disneyland.  The teacups were the first ride.

 James and Sabrina were great helping us to navigate around the parks.  

 Tuesday and Wednesday were spent just having a great time.  We walked back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure catching all the good rides.  

Our favorite ride was the rafting one.  It was the first ride we went on both Tuesday and Wednesday morning.  On Wednesday, Dad got soaked.  Wednesday night, James and Dad went on the ride twice at the very end of the night.  It was a really fun ride.  

 Grandpa's hat was almost as fun as the rides.  

 The weather was just perfect.

Dad did take off and went to the Abraham Lincoln exhibit and the Tiki Room for a little rest in the middle of the day on Wednesday, but we were there at the opening at 10 a.m. until closing at 8 p.m.  But after that we walked back to the hotel and crashed.  We had a great time and so enjoyed our time with James, Sabrina and Chelsea. 

Beautiful Spring

We continue to plug away on our remodel of the house, but while the engineer is doing his thing we are getting the yard in shape so that we don't have that to do when we get going full speed on the house.  Here is a quick walk around the back yard.

 Here's the overview.  Lawn in front, then the strawberry patch that has been purged of old growth.

Then in the background is a cilantro plant on the left, peas in the middle and on the right we have

onions in front and potatoes in back.

 Our amazing lemon tree that is still alive in spite of my poor attempts at keeping it from freezing when our temperatures were in the low 20's for days at a time last December.  And then I moved it.

But it is a survivor.

 One of the newbies - a lime tree.  If you look closely you can see that it has blossoms coming on.

 The flowers are coming along nicely too.

 And look how happy Heidi is!  We moved her from over under our window to this spot under the Snowball bush.  You may recall that she has been here (or close by) before and was not happy.  

Hope she does better this time.

 And the peonies are happy happy happy too.

 One of our two miniature lilac bushes.  This is their third home since we got them 

so I hope they are happy now.  They do look like it, and they smell fantastic!

 "Little purple pansies touched with yellow gold,

Growing in the corner of our garden old . . . ."

 Happy strawberries - with blossoms!

Another newcomer - my latest venture into the world of composting.  With encouragement and lots of advice and counsel from Andrea, I am making another go of it.  Patterning my attempt after what she has been doing successfully for a couple of years, I will have a couple of these so that when one gets full I can let it cook while I fill the other one.  A challenge I think we will have is that my research indicates that there is an optimal mix of "greens" (organic matter from the kitchen), "browns" (paper and cardboard, etc.), moisture, and air.  Our challenge is to have enough browns to cover all the greens we want to put in.

But help is on the way.  Once we get back from our next trip I intend to get into vermiculture.

Those will be exciting posts.