Promo

Promo for Iris Cirque du Soleil- found the film reels cool.

Banner

Banner outside a home welcoming home their son.

Still the 4th?

I'm not sure that I actually enjoy 4th of July anymore. We spent at least as long cleaning up as we did watching the sparks fly. And please, would someone tell my neighborhood that the holiday is over - I'm tired of being woken up every night by the loud booom of illegal fireworks.

seeds

My sweet peas have finished their blooming season but left behind many seeds in anticipation of next seasons blooms.

Mockingbirds are My Favorite

The other day, I was wasting some time, casually flipping through a book "Attracting Birds to Your Backyard." The page that caught my eye was "What to do if you find a baby bird." The book told me not to worry that a mother bird might reject a nest that smells like human - it's just an old wive's tale. If it's obviously too young to be out the nest, it said, pick that bird up and put it back in.

Wouldn't you know it, today I found a baby bird in my back yard. The purplish kind, with no real feathers, tightly shut eyes, and wide open mouth. I thought it was dead, laying in the sun under our avocado tree. I looked closer and it was breathing. What to do?! What to do?! Then I remembered the common-sense advice: "Look around for a nest." And there it was, about 10 feet up in the avocado tree. I picked up that little bird, climbed a ladder, and tucked it back into the nest next to his sleeping baby brother.

I couldn't even tell what kind of bird it was. But when I came back with my camera, I saw a grown-up mockingbird with a bright red berry in its mouth swoop into the tree, then heard two little peeping voices.

Computer Blues

We went out of town to the in-laws for a few days to celebrate the 4th. Seven different households all hanging out under one roof - a million kids running around. I brought my camera and I've got pictures to share. The kids are getting along wonderfully, but I can't make the various electronics play nice together. I'll be back posting on Friday!

Trifle

My patriotic contribution

jewelry pouch

I have one of those pouches that hangs over the back of a door and has tons of pockets to hold jewelry which I rarely utilize but today as I passed it I noticed these poodles watching me and I thought maybe they wondered if today would be the day I'd take them out.

Good Impression

I like to remind myself that it isn't always about perfection.

Construction or Sculpture?

It's all about context.

Usually, when I would see something like this on the street, I would hardly notice and just think that some city construction project must be getting ready to happen.  But this was outside of Otis, an art school, and instead I found myself thinking about the cool minimalist sculpture that must be in the works. Construction or sculpture?

custom guitars

For $9.95, you can choose your favorite color and get it customized ith your name....

Painting the roses red

Saw this city truck applying some type of greenish color to the grass and all I could think of was "painting the roses red" from Alice in Wonderland.

I went to church today. Yep, you heard right - church. The sermon was on compassion. Ok, that's sounds like a typical morning at church. But this sermon was given by a ukulele strumming, blues harmonica playing Buddhist monk. So good.

Toast

As I was making dinner tonight, after a hectic and technology frustrating day, I noticed that the toast I intended on having for breakfast was still sitting in the toaster; no wonder by 1pm I was hungry!

Family Camping

I can't wait for our family camping vacation this summer. Maybe this is where I get my love of camping from . . .

Buds

The buds are growing!!! It won't be long until it's guacamole and margarita time.

Coyote Skull

The coyote skull is soaking in water. Looks kind of prehistoric, doesn't it?

Prayer card

Attended a cousin's rosary tonight; this is in her memory.

Hummingbird in My Studio

For some reason, hummingbirds sometimes fly into my studio. Today it happened again. They've always found their way out again. This one didn't.

Sculpture

Saw this sculpture on Lake Blvd in Pasadena but it was too dark to see what it represented.