Hummingbird
Originally uploaded by zampi.
Took this shot the other day. The hummingbirds were really humming in this mimosa tree. They obviously loved the blossoms and kept buzzing me as I took their pictures.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Saturday, July 08, 2006
JULY
BACKPACKING IN YOSEMITE
It's not something I'm up to at this point in life, but our daughter, Gretchen, loves hiking and makes, at least, an annual trek to Yosemite. She recently spent the better part of a week hiking there and got some incredible pictures. This one won her a "Picture of the Day" at www.azcolt.com today. You can find it there in the "archives" for July 8, 2006, if you want to see a larger version:
Gretchen also got this shot of a grouse doing a little puffer dance when she came too close to its young. I've never seen one in the wild, but they are definitely a pretty sight:
It's not something I'm up to at this point in life, but our daughter, Gretchen, loves hiking and makes, at least, an annual trek to Yosemite. She recently spent the better part of a week hiking there and got some incredible pictures. This one won her a "Picture of the Day" at www.azcolt.com today. You can find it there in the "archives" for July 8, 2006, if you want to see a larger version:
A GROUSE
Gretchen also got this shot of a grouse doing a little puffer dance when she came too close to its young. I've never seen one in the wild, but they are definitely a pretty sight:
AFRICA
My brother, Ralph, and his wife, Ilse, just came back from a trip to Africa where they saw their share of wild life - lions, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants, hippopotamuses - you name them, they saw them. Here are a couple samples:
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CLOSER TO HOME
My own picture-taking has been limited to the nearer environment lately. Here's a shot I got in Mary and Christopher's garden the other day:
So much for this day! See you soon!
Friday, June 09, 2006
JUNE
GRADUATION
This is graduation month and our family has its share of graduates. Our grandsons, Jonathan Zweig and Jesse Schmidt, are graduating from high schools here in the West. Our granddaughter, Claire Schmidt, is graduating from high school on the East Coast. It's a great time and we wish them all the best as we celebrate their achievements.
ROSES AND TOMATOES
With the allergy season still in full bloom around here, perhaps it isn't the best thing to be surrounded by roses, but there's no denying their beauty. Dickie and I are blessed with some beautiful climbers on our back fence. Here's a sample:
I promised everyone occasional updates on our progress with the barrels of tomatoes in our back yard. Maybe I do have a green thumb! Here's a comparison from last month to this. As you can see, we're making steady progress. Should have ripe tomatoes by the end of the month:
THAT KILLDEER NEST
Our killdeers are still nesting on the local schoolgrounds. The did move several feet from where they had been nesting in the rocks. Now their nest is in the bark adjacent to the rocks. We had a hard time locating this nest at first, although it's only about five or six feet from the sidewalk where everyone traipses past. I don't know how those birds manage, except that they're so hard to see, and most people who pass by probably don't even notice them. Here's what it looks like at present. There were four eggs up until a couple days ago, but now there are only three. Hatching time should be about next week:
DAY LILIES
They say that the pollen in the air these days comes mostly from the grasses. Hopefully, such beauties as this are not among the culprits that plague us. However, they're certainly in full bloom, too, and plentiful:
THE VINEYARD
Vineyards have a beauty all their own. Something else they have is an abundance of wild life. We see quail and jack rabbits almost every time we walk past our local vineyard lately. Here's a jack that kept a wary eye on us this morning:
THOSE WOODSTOCK STATUES
I'm still making forays into Santa Rosa to look for Woodstock statues. With 76 of them to locate, I expect to be busy for a while yet. So far I've captured some 22 of them on my camera smart card. Here are a couple I found the other day:
More again some other day!
This is graduation month and our family has its share of graduates. Our grandsons, Jonathan Zweig and Jesse Schmidt, are graduating from high schools here in the West. Our granddaughter, Claire Schmidt, is graduating from high school on the East Coast. It's a great time and we wish them all the best as we celebrate their achievements.
ROSES AND TOMATOES
With the allergy season still in full bloom around here, perhaps it isn't the best thing to be surrounded by roses, but there's no denying their beauty. Dickie and I are blessed with some beautiful climbers on our back fence. Here's a sample:
I promised everyone occasional updates on our progress with the barrels of tomatoes in our back yard. Maybe I do have a green thumb! Here's a comparison from last month to this. As you can see, we're making steady progress. Should have ripe tomatoes by the end of the month:
THAT KILLDEER NEST
Our killdeers are still nesting on the local schoolgrounds. The did move several feet from where they had been nesting in the rocks. Now their nest is in the bark adjacent to the rocks. We had a hard time locating this nest at first, although it's only about five or six feet from the sidewalk where everyone traipses past. I don't know how those birds manage, except that they're so hard to see, and most people who pass by probably don't even notice them. Here's what it looks like at present. There were four eggs up until a couple days ago, but now there are only three. Hatching time should be about next week:
DAY LILIES
They say that the pollen in the air these days comes mostly from the grasses. Hopefully, such beauties as this are not among the culprits that plague us. However, they're certainly in full bloom, too, and plentiful:
THE VINEYARD
Vineyards have a beauty all their own. Something else they have is an abundance of wild life. We see quail and jack rabbits almost every time we walk past our local vineyard lately. Here's a jack that kept a wary eye on us this morning:
THOSE WOODSTOCK STATUES
I'm still making forays into Santa Rosa to look for Woodstock statues. With 76 of them to locate, I expect to be busy for a while yet. So far I've captured some 22 of them on my camera smart card. Here are a couple I found the other day:
More again some other day!
Friday, May 26, 2006
MEMORIAL DAY
It's a holiday weekend and parades abound. Dickie and I drove up to Healdsburg last evening to see what was happening there. It was quite an affair. We never did get the head of the parade, but we saw plenty of flags:
There were lots of horses, too, most of them with riders, but some of them pulling a variety of coaches:
I'm not sure who this fellow was supposed to be, but he looked mysterious:
There were plenty of old cars. This one struck my fancy:
Of course, the fire department was out in force. This vehicle may be a bit ancient, but it still cuts a fine figure:
Some of the horses were quite goodlooking. Here's a pair that looked especially powerful:
These mules struck my fancy, too. I think their ears are bigger than mine:
It's always great to view the costumes. These young beauties certainly enhanced the scene:
There were a variety of smaller animals in the parade, too. These dachshunds seemed to enjoy the show:
The military was there as well. This young Navy gal took the cake:
It was a great parade. Hope you saw one, too!
THE SUMMER OF WOODSTOCK
Last year the City of Santa Rosa, home of the late Charles Schultz, the cartoonist, sponsored the erection of Snoopy statues all around the town. This summer the theme is "Woodstock" and 76 statues of that little yellow friend of Snoopy have been placed in selected areas around town. Dickie and I sought out a couple of them the other day. We hope to find the rest as the days and weeks pass. Here's what two of them looked like:
ANOTHER QUILT
Dickie and her quilting buddy, Nadine Heppell, have been working away at a couple of new quilts. Both quilts look alike. Here's what one of them looked like spread out on our livingroom floor. Nadine and Dickie have entered it in a local Santa Rosa quilt show in the month of June. You can see it there:
ON OUR DAILY WALKS
We're still out there on our walking routine as often as we're able. We travel a variety of routes. One of them takes us out to the vineyards where I took the picture of the mustard plants back at the end of March. You can look at it again by scrolling on down this blog. The vineyards look quite different now. Here'e approximately the same scene as back on March 28. As you can see, the vines are leafed out and, though you can't tell it in the picture, the grapes are growing:
Something else we still see on our daily walks along the vineyard are the woodpeckers. I caught these two ignoring the "high voltage" sign the other day:
This young green-eyed damsel in the white dress got in the way of my camera lens the other day, too:
And that's it for May!
There were lots of horses, too, most of them with riders, but some of them pulling a variety of coaches:
I'm not sure who this fellow was supposed to be, but he looked mysterious:
There were plenty of old cars. This one struck my fancy:
Of course, the fire department was out in force. This vehicle may be a bit ancient, but it still cuts a fine figure:
Some of the horses were quite goodlooking. Here's a pair that looked especially powerful:
These mules struck my fancy, too. I think their ears are bigger than mine:
It's always great to view the costumes. These young beauties certainly enhanced the scene:
There were a variety of smaller animals in the parade, too. These dachshunds seemed to enjoy the show:
The military was there as well. This young Navy gal took the cake:
It was a great parade. Hope you saw one, too!
THE SUMMER OF WOODSTOCK
Last year the City of Santa Rosa, home of the late Charles Schultz, the cartoonist, sponsored the erection of Snoopy statues all around the town. This summer the theme is "Woodstock" and 76 statues of that little yellow friend of Snoopy have been placed in selected areas around town. Dickie and I sought out a couple of them the other day. We hope to find the rest as the days and weeks pass. Here's what two of them looked like:
ANOTHER QUILT
Dickie and her quilting buddy, Nadine Heppell, have been working away at a couple of new quilts. Both quilts look alike. Here's what one of them looked like spread out on our livingroom floor. Nadine and Dickie have entered it in a local Santa Rosa quilt show in the month of June. You can see it there:
ON OUR DAILY WALKS
We're still out there on our walking routine as often as we're able. We travel a variety of routes. One of them takes us out to the vineyards where I took the picture of the mustard plants back at the end of March. You can look at it again by scrolling on down this blog. The vineyards look quite different now. Here'e approximately the same scene as back on March 28. As you can see, the vines are leafed out and, though you can't tell it in the picture, the grapes are growing:
Something else we still see on our daily walks along the vineyard are the woodpeckers. I caught these two ignoring the "high voltage" sign the other day:
This young green-eyed damsel in the white dress got in the way of my camera lens the other day, too:
And that's it for May!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
MAY DAYS
I think I have the May Days' malaise, if there is such a thing. I know I should be making an entry in this blog of mine, but I can't seem to find anything worth saying. Sometimes, under those circumstances, it's better just not to say anything!
However, throwing caution to the winds, I'll make a stab at another blog today.
Dickie and I planted some tomatoes in a barrel in the backyard about two weeks ago now. They're coming along fine. Here's what they look like today:
Just for the fun of it, I'll put up a picture here with each new blog so you can see what green thumbs we have (or not!). They're supposed to bear fruit in about 62 days. Since we planted them on April 28, that means we could have tomatoes by June 28. We'll see!
Our climbing roses took a hit this spring. I think the frost got to them just as they were beginning to leaf out. They look like they're recovering now. The roses bloomed, as you can see in the background of the tomato picture above, but there were hardly any leaves at first. They're just beginning to leaf out again at this point.
We do have a pretty good stand of poppies in the back yard now from some seeds Dickie strewed a year or two ago. Poppies will grow anywhere in this part of the world. They multiply quickly, too. I think, if we let them, they'll take over the backyard. Here's what ours look like today:
THE MOON
I took some pictures of the moon in the early evening the other day. I like to see what kind of a picture I can get with my longest lens. This was in broad daylight. The moon is not quite full yet, but it's getting there (this coming Saturday). Here's what it looked like yesterday (May 9) at about 7:10 P.M.:
DWARF FROGS
Until recently, I had never seen a drawf frog, and I still don't know anything about them, but I did get some pictures of one last Sunday out at the ocean side. This one was hopping around on the deck of a house we were visiting in Dillon Beach. My daughter, Mary, furnished the fingers:
Speaking of dwarves, the hummingbirds that usually visit our backyard have not showed up recently. We're not sure what happened. The hummingbirds are still around. We know that. This fellow was sitting in the top of a tree we passed on our morning walk the other day:
JUST US
Guess that's enough for today. We're enjoying the beautiful spring weather. It's great to sit outside and bask in the sunshine. Here's us doing just that:
However, throwing caution to the winds, I'll make a stab at another blog today.
Dickie and I planted some tomatoes in a barrel in the backyard about two weeks ago now. They're coming along fine. Here's what they look like today:
Just for the fun of it, I'll put up a picture here with each new blog so you can see what green thumbs we have (or not!). They're supposed to bear fruit in about 62 days. Since we planted them on April 28, that means we could have tomatoes by June 28. We'll see!
Our climbing roses took a hit this spring. I think the frost got to them just as they were beginning to leaf out. They look like they're recovering now. The roses bloomed, as you can see in the background of the tomato picture above, but there were hardly any leaves at first. They're just beginning to leaf out again at this point.
We do have a pretty good stand of poppies in the back yard now from some seeds Dickie strewed a year or two ago. Poppies will grow anywhere in this part of the world. They multiply quickly, too. I think, if we let them, they'll take over the backyard. Here's what ours look like today:
THE MOON
I took some pictures of the moon in the early evening the other day. I like to see what kind of a picture I can get with my longest lens. This was in broad daylight. The moon is not quite full yet, but it's getting there (this coming Saturday). Here's what it looked like yesterday (May 9) at about 7:10 P.M.:
DWARF FROGS
Until recently, I had never seen a drawf frog, and I still don't know anything about them, but I did get some pictures of one last Sunday out at the ocean side. This one was hopping around on the deck of a house we were visiting in Dillon Beach. My daughter, Mary, furnished the fingers:
Speaking of dwarves, the hummingbirds that usually visit our backyard have not showed up recently. We're not sure what happened. The hummingbirds are still around. We know that. This fellow was sitting in the top of a tree we passed on our morning walk the other day:
JUST US
Guess that's enough for today. We're enjoying the beautiful spring weather. It's great to sit outside and bask in the sunshine. Here's us doing just that:
Monday, April 24, 2006
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?:
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
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!
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!
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
AH! SPRING!
Here we are again, a whole week into spring. It's still raining here in Northern California, today being no exception from the general rule of the last few weeks. I guess that one of these days we're going to wake up and find we're in the middle of summer, or, at least, warmer weather. We can only hope.
I slept late this morning since I wasn't feeling quite up to par. The extra rest seems to have cured me. Now I'm ready to go back out there with my camera when the weather clears.
Yesterday, when Dickie and I awoke, it looked like we were going to have a beautiful day, so I suggested we head for Bodega Bay and see if we could find some good photo opportunities. It turned out that the day wasn't all that great for picture-taking, being rather cloudy and overcast out at the beach, but I did get a shot or two that turned out fairly well despite the weather. As we were driving past a farm house near the coast, I spotted a young deer grazing in the front yard. This was the result:
As luck would have it, he wasn't alone. His mom and one of his siblings also turned up. Here he is with mom scampering away:
And here are all three about to disappear down the road and into the woods:
All I could find when we got to the Bay were the usual dozens of seagulls. Some were waiting for their dinner at the wharf and soaring back and forth overhead. Here's one that came fairly close:
And here's another that sat on a post not more than six or seven feet away from me, hoping for a handout:
On the way home, we noticed some egrets fishing in a flooded area just outside of Sebastopol. I stopped to take a picture and then discovered that, a little farther across the water, there was a great blue heron also fishing. I couldn't get close enough for a really good picture. This is a crop from a larger scene:
A few days ago on one of our morning walks, we came upon a pair of mallards swimming in a mud puddle at the edge of our local vineyard. This shy and beautiful lady posed for me:
The vineyard itself is a beautiful scene at the moment. The vines have not yet begun to leaf out, but the mustard plants between the rows are in full bloom. I managed to win a "Picture of the Day" at Azcolt (www.azcolt.com) the other week with a picture like this:
So much for now. See you soon.
I slept late this morning since I wasn't feeling quite up to par. The extra rest seems to have cured me. Now I'm ready to go back out there with my camera when the weather clears.
Yesterday, when Dickie and I awoke, it looked like we were going to have a beautiful day, so I suggested we head for Bodega Bay and see if we could find some good photo opportunities. It turned out that the day wasn't all that great for picture-taking, being rather cloudy and overcast out at the beach, but I did get a shot or two that turned out fairly well despite the weather. As we were driving past a farm house near the coast, I spotted a young deer grazing in the front yard. This was the result:
As luck would have it, he wasn't alone. His mom and one of his siblings also turned up. Here he is with mom scampering away:
And here are all three about to disappear down the road and into the woods:
All I could find when we got to the Bay were the usual dozens of seagulls. Some were waiting for their dinner at the wharf and soaring back and forth overhead. Here's one that came fairly close:
And here's another that sat on a post not more than six or seven feet away from me, hoping for a handout:
On the way home, we noticed some egrets fishing in a flooded area just outside of Sebastopol. I stopped to take a picture and then discovered that, a little farther across the water, there was a great blue heron also fishing. I couldn't get close enough for a really good picture. This is a crop from a larger scene:
A few days ago on one of our morning walks, we came upon a pair of mallards swimming in a mud puddle at the edge of our local vineyard. This shy and beautiful lady posed for me:
The vineyard itself is a beautiful scene at the moment. The vines have not yet begun to leaf out, but the mustard plants between the rows are in full bloom. I managed to win a "Picture of the Day" at Azcolt (www.azcolt.com) the other week with a picture like this:
So much for now. See you soon.
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