WHAT I DID FOR FATHER'S DAY

     For many, Father's Day has a tradition of a special breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are good times and traditional celebrations.  It's been interesting reading blogs and seeing what people did to celebrate Father's Day.

     Well, what did I do. I'm not big on going out to restaurants to celebrate. There are many more things I would rather do. Both my kids live very far away. I got a phone call from one and an email from the other. The phone call came just a few minutes before I was leaving.

    Yes, I was going out to one of the local parks that has natural habitat. I was actually going to one of the larger sanctuaries. Yes, this is what I would rather do. Surprise! Surprise! The Micro manager came with me. The Micro manager has not been feeling well at all so I as surprised she came.

   So in two hours I got my fix of flowers birds and critters. I didn't get a photo of a Richardson's ground squirrel (gopher) . It would have been easy but they entertained me and I forgot about a photo.

    

I THINK I FINALLY CAUGHT YA!

     Starting early in the year...February, March , people start showing what is in their gardens. They are very ready to show off lilacs,peonies, bleeding hearts, daffodils, tulips...and many more. Now from my perspective, I enjoy the photos of spring flowers. In February , March I still have serious snow and frigid temperatures. It will be a long time until things start to turn green and longer yet until things bloom.

    Well, I finally caught up to ya! Yes, I may be last but I still get to post photos and brag...if anybody's listening.

    I keep telling people that our plants develop rapidly once we get the long days. The sun rose at 5:14 this morning and sets at 9:55 tonight so that means we get 16 hours an 41 minutes of sunlight. That's a lot of time for plants to make chlorophyll.

     My lilac has a purple tinge to it rather than a pale pink.

  
    we had another windstorm so many of the lilac petals have been blown off providing me with some lilac carpeting.

  
     I like irises.

  Now the light wasn't difficult here but the photographer failed to notice the situation.

  
     I have some showy peonies.

Sometimes You Don't Find What You're Looking For

     Last Sunday I went for a walk at Heritage Ranch. I described Heritage Ranch here.

     My intention was to try to see some birds and maybe get some photos.  Heritage Ranch is scenic so I thought I might get photos of the area.
   
     There were huge cumulus clouds on the horizon so I thought I might find a good position for a photo.

     Well, I didn't find what I was after. I got led astray. Sometimes you run into other things and get sidetracked from your original goal.

     First, I was surprised to see so many late blooms in the meadow area and in the brush beside the river. Next, some horses looked as if they wanted to be photographed. The horse photos led me to find other horse photos.

     So with these two things getting in my way I saw few birds and forgot about landscape. I did see pelicans soaring on some good updrafts. 

     Now I like plants but I haven't put in the effort to identify them. Some of these I know and some I was able to find in the guidebook. I hope you enjoy what I found.

 I think this is potentilla that got away.

     

Oh I did get some cloud!

I did get a landscape.