Second Look

A few more photos from WAP 09. The flight cage where the birds are is a mixture of sun and dark shade. It is hard to get the camera settings just right. The bird photos were taken in both jpg and in raw. The photos were very dark so I overlooked them. At the time was more interested in the butterfly photos. Going back to the dark raw photos I opened them in Photoshop raw converter. Using the sliders I found that I had taken some nice photos. Here are two of them.

Sleeping lions. At a later visit I got some better shots of this big guy.
 

San Diego Wild Animal Park Visit back in 09

Elizabeth, Hailey, Ashleigh, and me went to the park to see the butterflies. I posted these photos in another blog that sadly bit the dust. We stood in line for a long time even though we went on a week day and got there early. The butterflies were wonderful and I would have stayed a lot longer but the girls seen it done it and wanted to go on to something else...teens!

Last year I was recovering from some healt probs...Hopefully I will get to visit the butterflies this year...

Where's the Sun?

After a few beautiful warm sunny days we have slipped back into overcast and cold. Hailey went swimming in our pool three days in a row and thought she would swim through her spring break. Monday the sun was gone. I feel so much more cheerful on sunny days.

I took these the other day when the sun was shinning and the day was springtime beautiful.

Summer's Past with Hailey and Jackie

We had a rainstorm and snow in the mountains on Friday. Saturday was a blustery day. Partial clouds and windy, still we went to Summer's Past in the afternoon. It was cold. We had hot coffee in the patio area...Hailey had hot chocolate. There was a small plant on the table and a butterfly that we thought was fake. I looked at it and it seemed real so we thought it was dead. Then if fluttered it's wings and fell to the table.

While Hailey and Jackie checked out the gift shop I walked around taking photos of the flowers. Spring is a lovely place at Summer's past. Earlier in the day there had been a sweet pea picking for three dollars a bunch. We missed most of the sweet peas.

Painting

Today I signed up for a painting class through the Grossmont Adult School. Classes are held throughout the district...which covers a lot of miles. The painting class is held in the Lakeside Community Center. So I thought it was perfect for me. When I got there I found out that it is a pastel class. Most of the students have taken the class before. They came with supplies...I didn't.

I decided to continue with the class. I do have a set of soft pastels that are years old...Hailey has been using them lately and she has created some very pretty work. I used to paint and take art classes but when Hailey came to live with me I put my art stuff away. She was 18 months old back then and it was not easy to keep her out of stuff or work with a small child needing attention. At the time I was also a resident manager of a mini storage facility. Hailey is seventeen now and I could have gotten back to doing art but just haven't...maybe it is time now.

For today the instructor gave me a piece of Canson paper and let me use her pastels. This is what I created from a photograph she passed out to the students. Scanned the painting on my scanner twice and put the scans together. I know it needs more work. My pastel doesn't look very much like anyone else's.

And Hailey let me have my pastels back. Just kidding...she would never keep my stuff, and she knows she can use them any time.

Spring in Borrego Springs

Borrego Springs is a lovely desert community that is even better when the flowers bloom. My blog readers will know that at least once a spring we like to take the drive over the mountains to the desert. This year I got a photo of a silver puff. There were few desert primroses today. I don't know if that means we misssed them, they will bloom later, or that this year is not a good one for them. Lots of rain did turn the desert floor yellow with flowers and they may have prevented other flowers from blooming.

The camel is the real deal. There is a camel ranch in Ramona and a few of the camels were near the road. So we stopped to take a few photos. You can see our day was foggy and overcast. It even rained on us the way over to the desert.

The sun shinning on Salton Sea. Salton Sea. It is an interesting place to see but it really smells bad when the fish die off. The sea is 30 miles from Borrego Springs. This was taken from Montazuma Road on the way down into the valley.

When ER first came down from Washington State he wanted to see Salton Sea. Guess there had been lots of TV adds promoting the Salton Rivera resort there. I didn't think much of the place. Been there before and thought it was a big smelly place. URF! Anyway on one of our first dates we drove over there. Rented a small motor boat and floated around for a little while. ER saw the resort and the empty dusty streets of the subdivision...only a few miserable looking houses were built on the sandy dessert, and he could understand why I was not impressed by the place. Back then there was a gift shop there and I got a silver charm of an out board motor for my charm bracelet. Still have it.

 Looking back from the valley floor to the edges of the clouds we left behind.

The silver puff. I had been looking through my Sonoran Desert flower book and had seen a photo of this flower just the day before. So really nice to actually see the flower and take my own photo. Yea!

Since I had seen the real thing on the way over, took this though I have photographed this sculpture before.

It is great to see even more of these metal animals. Borrego Springs is turning into a Museum of metal art!

Hailey taking a photo of the ORV sculpture.

Along Montazuma Road on our way back home. There were more of these yellow flowers here than I've ever seen before.

Ocotillo close up.

On the way home we stopped in Santa Ysabel and had the lovely breakfast buffet. Hailey just sat and read while we ate the great food. Then we bought her Jack in the Box in Ramona on the way home. Teenagers!