A Wonderful Day

Sarah and her daughter Nancy were here today. Sarah lives in Hemet about an hour and a half drive north of here. We met at a great Mexican resturant, Marieta's in Santee, for lunch and then Nancy left Sarah with me while she went up to Barona were they had a room for the night. Sarah and I drove up to one of my favorite places, Summer's Past. We bought iced tea and sat for a little while. Then we were off around the grounds to take photos. If you have read my blog you have seen photos from Summer's Past. I bought the paper whites and the pink lady bulbs there too. It is a wonderful place for taking photos. I've always found something new to point my camera at each time I visit. Sarah loved the place. She loves taking photos too. I was a happy camper that I could share the place with her.

We saw this bird house as we walked the path into the grounds past the soap shop.

I love the weathered wood.

While we sat near the juice and coffee bar drinking our tea I saw the sun shining through and had to grab my camera.

You can hear the waterfalls from the lounge area and we walked over to see the stream. There are some small bridges to walk over the water too. I took this of the water fall. The shade makes it look like night.

Sarah visited the soap shop. They make soap with lovely smells and Sarah bought some of it. While she was in the soap shop I found these.

I'm not doing Photoshop as much as I used to but couldn't resist on this one photo. It has a part of a second photo of the same flower added. I once did a lot of photo editing on my rose photos many years ago...gosh it seems like yesterday but most of my rose photos were put together over ten years ago.

Reluctantly we left Summer's Past and headed for Lakeside. A quick drive through the park, because Sarah was getting a bit tired so we didn't get out to take photos. She wanted to see the swans but they are gone. Last year some idiot that works for the county decided that the lake should go dry and drained the water down until most of the birds left. I think that is when we lost the swans. Finally we did have some rain and the lake while not as full as it was does have most of the water back. The people in Lakeside were very angry but it is a county park and what we wanted didn't matter. For over twenty years the lake was dry. Rainy weather in 1978 flooded the area and the lake water came back. Most people don't remember the dry years and how lucky we are to have the lake. Back in the dry years the back half of the lake was a Little League Field. There were people upset that was lost, but there are trade offs in this life and most of us were happy to have the lake back.

Sunset

The news says another beautiful sunset this evening expected. I took this on Sunday evening.

Usually I don't see pretty sunsets. We live in an area of hills around us on three sides and the sky show is hidden by the hills. The view is down my driveway...the palms on each side of the drive were planted my my dad when he moved here in the late 1960s.

More Lilies

My mother grew pink lilies. She called them amaryllis, but they are Lycoris squamigera also called pink ladies or naked ladies. I got some bulbs when I managed the storage and enjoyed seeing them bloom every summer. Left them behind when we moved away. Last year found bulbs at a wonderful place near Alpine and waited a year to see them bloom. I'm a happy camper.

These are the red and white lilies. It was a surprise that this year there was a yellow lily blooming with them.

Yellow Lily

Last year I bought a bag of pretty two toned lily bulbs. I have them planted in two pots and have been looking forward to blooming again this year. What a surprise, this year one yellow lily bloomed. It is beautiful and hopefully the bulb will divide and I'll have more next year.

Will post photos of the red and white lilies when they bloom...which will be soon.

Awards and other things

Got the word that my operation was a success and I'm cancer free now. Yea! Now I can think about getting my other heart artery cleared out. Plan to wait until fall if that is all right with my doctors.

My keyboard quit a couple of days ago. There is a pop up on my desktop the lets me type letters using my mouse. So wasn't totally off the computer. I bought a kb yesterday. Not all that happy with it. I really liked the one I had but it was really old...a lot older than my computer.

Hailey got an award yesterday evening for her flower class...it is an ROP class...which means Regional Occupational Program...and is a state program run through the highschools to teach young people skills that can lead to careers in the work place. The Grossmont High School District held the award ceremony for ROP students district wide that were considered the best in their classes. There are 12 High Schools in the district. We met Hailey's teacher and she is a super nice person. She sat at our table. Hailey's class works on flower arrangements for outside projects like charity events and weddings and funerals too. That gives them more flowers to work with and experience with doing commercial work. They made the flower arrangements for the tables at the awards. She got to take home the flowers from our table...not the ones she did in class though.

Macro Photos

Hailey went swimming...

and I took out my camera...

Thinking about it...

Trying the slow way of getting all wet...

Back on the board...

Going for it.

It was a lovely spring day in So Cal. This is my favorite time of the year. In a couple of weeks I will be having an operation...nothing to do with my heart but very needed. It was scheduled for last month but put off because I'm taking blood thinners. Too soon to stop taking them the doctor said. I'm looking forward to being able to get into the pool myself. Maybe by June...

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter a little late...but hope everyone had a great day. We felt the earthquake from Mexico and the aftershock from Imperial California. I was sitting on the glider near the pool talking to Elizabeth and felt the earthquake as the glider started swinging sideways. Hailey came outside. We just laughed about the shaking. The news made a big thing out of it.

Early Saturday morning...a little after 2am a speeding driver took out a light poll near our house and we had no power for about ten hours. The poll was cut in half and if it hadn't hit a tree it would have landed on a house. Our part of the road was blocked off all morning but they let us drive through. No way to cook breakfast so a trip to Jack's for something to eat.

My daughter was stopped right after the accident. She was on her way home from work and was not too happy until they let her through. She got to hear all about the accident from the cops. Both tires on one side of the car were sheared off and one of them rolled down to our drive way. The car's driver ran off and so did his passenger. Hailey woke up an we sat around in the dark talking for a couple of hours.

Saturday about 10am Elizabeth and Hailey walked down our drive and talked to the electric company repair men and got some more information. They caught the passenger hiding in some bushes. He had a broken jaw. I did have a bit of computer withdrawl until the power came back on.

Borrego Springs

The flowers bloom every spring in the desert. This year because of the winter rains the flowers are everywhere. A lovely sight. We drove over yesterday morning and spent a few hours seeing and photographing them.

A little snow left on the top of the mountain.

I've photographed the metal animals before, but couldn't resist taking these.

Geraniums in the Afternoon

Went out to photograph a small yellow flower and on the way back to the house noticed the sunlight on the geraniums.