HERE AND THERE

Most of us Schmidt's got together on Easter Sunday for brunch at Gretchen's house in Santa Rosa. In the afternoon some of us took a short walk over to the Luther Burbank House. On the way I snapped this picture of some tulips in the front yard of one of the neighbors. They're a colorful lot, don't you think?:

We didn't go into the Burbank house on this occasion, but my daughter, Mary, and I did walk through the yard. There were some flowers blooming, but it wasn't spectacular yet this early in the season. I did get Mary to pose in front of this massive stand of cactus just outside the House, a place you might want to visit, if you ever come to Santa Rosa:

THE de YOUNG MUSEUM

Last Thursday Dickie and I went with Mary and Christopher and Gretchen to visit the controversial and newly re-opened de Young Museum in San Francisco. The Museum has just been rebuilt. The work on the grounds is still in progress. Some people like what they see in the new building. Others have reservations. I personally liked it. Sorry, I didn't get a shot of the whole building. There's a tower on the northeast corner of the new building which gives you a great view of the surrounding area there in the Praesidio. This is a view looking to the northeast. If you look closely, you can see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge just beyond the wooded hill:

The sculpture below stands just outside the northwest corner of the building. It appeared to be made of glass, although from this angle and in this light, you would think it had metal in it:

I suppose we spent most of our time looking at the paintings in the American section. I took quite a few pictures, but without a flash and without a tripod, not too many of them turned out well. Here's one Dickie liked by Robert Gwathmey (1903-1988). It's called "Cotton Picker":

Here's another by an artist whose name I can't recall, but I don't think you'll have any trouble figuring out what the name of the painting is:


That's about it for today. It's looking like rain again here in Windsor, although we have had more sunshine lately. I took this picture on our morning walk yesterday. I like roses:

See you again soon.

STILL WET

We can't seem to get away from the rain and wetness this year. It poured again last night and is still cloudy this afternoon, although we finally have a little bit of sunshine again.

All the rain frequently kept Dickie and me from our usual morning walks over the past couple weeks. That resulted in our not being able to keep good tabs on the killdeer nest on the local school grounds that I've been mentioning in these blogs.

After missing a day or two, we went by a couple days ago and the eggs were gone. Now we don't know for sure if they hatched or were destroyed. An extra problem with keeping tabs on our favorite birds was the fact that Dickie injured her knee on one of our morning walks the other day, so now, at least for a while, she can't go out with me. I looked around this morning again and found the adult birds, but no babies. I had the feeling there might be a chick or two around because one of the adult birds did a "hurt-wing" act while I was looking around. Here's what it looked like:

That seemed to indicate the presence of a baby bird, but I stood around and took pictures for quite a long time and no young birds showed up, so I have my doubts about there being any. That doubt was reinforced by the fact, when I left the area for a time and returned sometime later, the adult birds had moved to another area. When I approached them this time, they both flew off in different directions. I don't think they'd have done that if a baby bird was near. In any case, we'll keep our eyes open.

There's another killdeer hatching her eggs on the front property of a house a block or two down the street. I took this picture this morning, too:

I can't say for sure if there were eggs or birds under her body. I didn't want to disturb her. She had four eggs the last time I saw the empty nest a couple weeks ago. Her mate was doing a fake injury act today just across the street, so they may have babies already. I'll be checking this nest out, weather permitting, as the days go by. I think it was about a week later than the other nest getting started. I'll let you know what happens.

By the way, Dickie's knee problem hasn't kept her from working away on her latest quilt. It's looking good. She has the blocks hanging on a sheet in our front room. Here's what they look like:

That's it for today!