New Camera

I got my new Nikon D5200 camera yesterday.  It is going to be a learning process as to how to use it.  I also got a telephoto lens with it that should make it a lot easier to take the bird pictures as well as many other shots.  The following three pictures were taken with the standard lens and are the first three that I have taken.

This is the very first picture I took.  It is a picture hanging on the wall behind the kitchen table.

This is the second picture I took.  Pat is looking good, but didn't want me to publish her picture.

This is the view we have out the back side of the house.  The big white mansion in the center is probably about a mile away as the crow flies.  Using the telephoto lens should bring it in a lot closer.

That's the show for now.  I am sure there will be a lot more pictures in the future.

Patrick

Payback is Hell!

This is a much more common occurrence than the previous post.  I couldn't pass up showing the red slippers his mother made for him too.

I think we're done with our sleepy shots now.

Hard Day

Pat and I played a round of golf today for the first time since last July.  It was a very nice day for golf and it was a fun round.  We both had some good holes and some not so good.  We had fun on all of them.  Pat will probably kill me for doing this, but she has been napping now for over a half hour and I couldn't resist.  It is a good picture.  We were both tired when we got home.  We had our supper and sat down to watch the news.  I had my short nap and woke up to find Pat sleeping on the other end of the couch.  We will both sleep well tonight.

No caption needed.

Patrick

Snow Storm Pictures

We had a small snow storm yesterday, New Year's Eve, and the following are pictures of the birds and the neighbors Orange tree at the height of the storm.  All of the snow is melted and gone today and we have had bright sunshine most of the day.  Suppose to be in the 60's by the weekend.  I can handle that.

The bird feeder was very busy most of the day with birds waiting in line to get to the goodies.

House Finch that was on the patio out of the weather.

These Doves were on the ground below the feeder picking up what the birds knock off the tray.

Neighbors Orange tree pretty well coated with snow.  Ready made ice cold Orange juice.

Hummingbird manage to find an open hole to eat from.  Most of them were iced up.

This female House Finch found herself a nice spot inside the covered patio and stayed there for a long time.  You can see the temperature was only around 34 at the time.

Patrick

THIS ISN'T MINNESOTA

Happy New Year!  This is not the way I was expecting to finish 2014 and to start 2015.  The following pictures show our not so nice weather today.  At least we don't have to get out in it.  We are suppose to go out to dinner with friends tonight, that may get postponed.  Anyway, hope everyone has a nice 2015!

Our bird feeder already has snow build up on the roof.  The Palm trees are blowing in the wind and snow.  The birds are glad to have an easy place to eat this morning.

Snow building up on the ground already.  Probably won't be enough to shovel.

Neighbors orange tree in the snow storm.  Really a contrast to have an orange tree with oranges turning white with snow.

Patrick

Christmas day trip

We took a short trip to the Blue Water casino near Parker, AZ today.  It was a nice sunny day for a drive.  The following pictures are of the first Hummingbird on our feeder and some scenery shots of the trip to Parker.

He/she is getting ready to eat here.  Not sure what the color on the side of the head is.

He/she is chowing down now.  I sure we will see a lot more of the birds now.

This is a shot of the Parker dam from the down river side.  This is the dam that makes the Colorado river into Lake Havasu.

This is the river as it flows on south below the dam.

Just a scenic shot along the road.

 Another scenic shot that also shows some of Lake Havasu just above the dam.  The bridge you can see in the center of the picture is where we eventually get to as we are going home.

A shot of the lake above the Parker dam.   The lake was made by filling up the canyons
with the Colorado river.

Patrick

Trip to AZ

We left last Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. on our way to Lake Havasu City, AZ.  We made excellent time and arrived here at 3:00 p.m. Sunday.  Only had to spend two nights on the road.  Total mileage was 1759 miles.  By the way, we got 18.3 average mpg for the whole trip.  I thought that was very good for the Yukon XL with the size of the load we had in the back, see picture.   The following pictures were taken just before we left and along the way on the trip.

This is a picture from the rear of the vehicle showing how full it was.  Under all that stuff was two sets of golf clubs, two large suit cases, a large tote container that probably weighed over 50 pounds and a lot of other "stuff".

This is a picture from inside the vehicle showing the load in the back.  I could still see out the rear window to check on traffic.

This is a picture in New Mexico showing the wide open country we traveled through.

The road builders had a lot of work to do to get the road through this area.  I would imagine there was a lot of blasting to do the job.

This was the first we saw of the mountains in Arizona with the snow on the top.  You might also notice all the trucks ahead of us.  I-40 is a very heavily traveled road by trucks.

This is another closer shot of the snow capped mountain.

This is a shot of the wide open country west of Flagstaff, AZ

More of the wide open countryside.

Some cliffs along the way.

Our first view of Lake Havasu as we arrive in town.  To bad it wasn't a sunny day.  It was warm.

It was a tiring trip, but we are all settled in and ready for a nice winter.  Hope you have one to.  Happy New Year and the best to all for next year!

Patrick

Happy Birthday, Charles

Today is my oldest brother's 84th birthday.  Since it's too hard for him to leave his house, my sister, Joanne and I made the food and brought it to his house.  His son, Steve, stopped by to join us too. 

 Charles and son, Steve.

 Joanne and Jim (sister and brother-in-law)

 Two Pats

Charles seemed very happy that we remembered him too!  

Lost Dove

The last several days there has been a Mourning Dove visiting our bird feeders.  We see them a lot during the summer, but normally they are long gone south by now.  I think this one is either lost or just not very smart.

This is the dove mentioned above.  She/he looks healthy, just not smart enough to go south.

 This is the new feeder set up I just installed yesterday.  The feeder on the right is a new one I just finished.  It is made out of redwood that I got from one of the railings around our deck.  The deck is being replaced next spring, so the railing won't be missed.  The other feeder is the first one we ever put out and was made by my father.  I just finished refurbishing it with new windows.  On the ground you can see the Dove shown above and a couple Juncos.

Patrick

THE FANGS OF WINTER

We have two skylights in our roof and both of them are above large holes built into the ceiling to allow the light to come in.  These holes are perfect for hot air to rise into and then melt the snow and ice off the skylights.  After this last storm, there was considerable snow covering both skylights and it has been melting since.  This water runs down the roof and then forms icicles as it drips off the gutters.  One skylight is above the kitchen and the other above the loft and it drains down to drip off outside the bedroom sliding glass doors that go out to the deck and stairway to the Gazebo.  The following pictures are of the "Fangs" (icicles) that have formed since the storm was over and the snow drifts on the deck and stairway area that goes to the Gazebo.

These are the "fangs" outside the kitchen window.  They don't seem to bother the birds coming to the feeders.

These are the "fangs" outside the bedroom sliding glass door.

This is the snow drift on the deck outside the bedroom sliding glass door.

This is the same snow drift shown above from a different angle.

This is the stairway down to the Gazebo.  Won't be anymore trips down there this year.

That's the show.

Patrick