AHH, FLOWERS & BIRDS! ~~ PUZZLE UPDATE ~~ GRILLING AGAIN! ~~ LOOKING BACK ~~ PARTING SHOT

AHH, FLOWERS & BIRDS!

Now that Spring has a firm grip on Yakima (we can tell because the forsythias are blooming), things are starting to ramp up pretty quickly. Due to the warmer weather we have been having, the daffodils that have been up for a couple of weeks are now joined by the tulips. The early tulip blooms that we have in our yard are these cute little red ones. They come up soon after the daffodils, and I am here to tell you that the colors of both flowers are certainly welcome, especially this year.

Dazzling!

It won't be long before we have the other tulips blooming, the ones with different colors, and especially the one I like to call "Candy Stripe" (not it's real name, I'm sure) that looks like a candy cane. We also have some with frilly edges. All of them are quite beautiful. While I was out in the yard taking pictures of the tulips, I couldn't resist snapping one of this cute garden sign. Linda got this not too long after we moved here. She always loved it because her mother had one just like it in her yard. Every time I look at it, I think of her mother. The saying on this plaque is actually a stanza from a poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney.

Lovely sentiment

In addition to all the flowers, we have seen increased activity from the birds. This past week I saw a group of four California Quail out in our front yard. I've seen several groupings of quail around in the past week, so I don't know if these are all different quail, or just four quail that are appearing in various numbers at different times. Anyway, I am just glad to see quail in our yard once again. There were three or four out under the back feeder the other day, with one guy perched up on top of our patio wall as lookout.

The sentinel

We finally got Linda's new bird feeder set up in the front yard, and it only took about a day before we had customers coming to it. It has been rainy and dreary around here lately, so it was nice to see the bright red feeder hanging outside our front window. This little female house sparrow did not mind the rain at all.

I have had some time this past week to experiment with my GarageBand program some more, and I am learning something new every time I do that. I found a bird tweeting loop on there that I added to the video above, just to give it some sound. Lately I've been fooling around with these loops, which are just pre-recorded instrumental tracks that are repeated over and over. You can add them to your videos in various ways to create interesting little sound bites. I decided to add one to this video below, which shows a White-Crowned Sparrow and a Golden-Crowned Sparrow kicking around underneath the feeder. I named this video "Bollywood Bird Dance."

PUZZLE UPDATE

Linda brought out the little puzzle that I gave her for her birthday last week, and we started putting it together. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of it, even though it is not the best I have seen. But it held up well and the pieces fit together nicely. It only took us a couple of days to get this one together, but we had a good time doing it, remembering all the events depicted in the pictures.

"Our Family" puzzle

GRILLING AGAIN!

Since the weather is nicer now and there isn't tons of snow on the patio, I have been able to grill several nights. I do believe this is my absolute favorite way to cook. I don't care what it is, if you put something on a grill, it is going to turn out tasty. And the clean up is almost nil! Here's a couple of pictures I took while grilling last week.

Turkey burgers

Tofu kabobs

You can probably see that I've been grilling at the edge of the back porch, only because it's been rainy and I don't want my cast iron Lodge Sportsman grill to get wet. As long as the rain holds off long enough for me to get my charcoal chimney lit, then I am okay with grilling on the back porch. As soon as the rain stops, I will move out to the patio.


LOOKING BACK

Today for our Looking Back feature, I'm adding a picture that was taken on August 29, 2007. We had only been living in Yakima for a little less than two months at that time. I remember it well, though. Linda and I took a trip to Vantage, Washington, to the Gingko Petrified Forest. It was an extremely hot day, so Linda had the brilliant idea to take an umbrella for portable shade, and I was so glad we did that! I certainly do look the part of the typical tourist with my camera case and binoculars hanging off of me. I got some awesome video of the surrounding landscape, plus some great pictures, and we got to see some beautiful petrified trees. One thing that was disconcerting, however, was the fact that the petrified trees had to be put in cages so that people wouldn't steal them (cage is in lower right corner). It's a sad commentary on the way things are these days. We enjoyed our trip immensely, nonetheless.

I'm petrified

PARTING SHOT

I'm still struggling to get a picture of Summer Girl when she isn't asleep on the bed. No such luck today, however. Still, I managed to focus on one of her more foreboding qualities. How can something that looks so sweet while she's asleep still possess such formidable claws, always at the ready to teach an intruding photographer a lesson?

Ouch!

That's all for this week, please stop by again next week and check us out!