CHRISTMAS 2009

I caught Santa coming out of the local grade school parking lot this morning. I guess he had been visiting with the kindergarten and first graders. I hope he still has time to get his work done. He looked pretty happy, so he must still be on schedule.

Dickie and I decided not to put up a Christmas tree this year. We’ll just go with this wreath in front of the house and a few decorations inside. I guess I’m getting lazier in my old age (if that’s possible). We do wish everyone a happy holiday season!

We enjoyed a great Christmas concert presented by the Chanticleer chorus from the San Francisco area the other night at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Petaluma. Chanticleer is an amazing all-male group that sings a capella. They’re a definite delight to the ear and the acoustics in St. Vincent's are divine (Isn’t that appropriate?). You can find out more about them if you follow this URL: http://chanticleer.org/sing/ . Some years ago we heard them when they visited Freehold, NJ, and we were vacationing in South Jersey. We also heard them this past summer when they gave a benefit concert in Armstrong (redwood) State Park . You might draw the conclusion that we like them a lot – and we do. I think you will, too, if you ever get the chance to hear them.

The weather hasn’t been all that great for my photography efforts lately, although today wasn’t bad. I managed to get this shot of a mockingbird perched on a chain-link fence.

Dickie collected some pear tree leaves and held them on the top of a fence post for me to take this shot earlier today. I photo-shopped her hand out of the picture which turned out decently, I think. Most trees have lost their leaves at this point, so the pear trees are the prettiest trees around just now, their leaves having turned beautiful shades of red and yellow:

We still have roses blooming in the neighborhood. Here are a couple of our own yellow roses blooming on a Julia Child rose bush at our front door:

We’re still stalking hawks whenever possible. Here’s a recent shot I got of a red-tail that was quite high and far away, but the auto-focus was right on:

The starlings had their usual convention this fall, I guess. We caught some of them resting temporarily in this tree as they made their way south. They’re quite a sight when they fly by, wheeling and whirling in great clouds at this time of year:

That’s about it for the first decade of the 21st century, not the best decade we’ve ever been through as a nation. Let’s hope the new decade is a better one!