Karate Kid Quail

Mystery photo (answer at end of post):

Spring has truly sprung.   The birds have gone wild:

This is a Karate Kid / Dirty Harry quail, leering at me with a ‘go ahead, make my day’ stare, ready to kick my head off with his one good remaining foot:

And the animals have come out of Winter hibernation:

And we have a bazillion-bunch of flowers!   These are some amazing 4 color Clematis we almost cut down in early spring because the branches looked dead:

This flower picture is interesting, our first yellow rose, next to the house looking over the back yard.   If you look close (click for a bigger pic), you can see two birds flying past.  This photo was done with a ‘HDR’ option on my camera which takes two photos, different exposures, then combines them.  It came out kind of like the birds have shadows … in the sky!

I have a more flower pictures here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/brucewinter/House_flowers

https://picasaweb.google.com/brucewinter/House_flowers_unknown

If anyone recognizes any of the flowers in that 2nd group, let me know. I’m trying to learn their names, so I don’t offend them.

We have had lots of fun visits in the last month, starting with our friends Vlad and Maria from New York City.  We got them addicted to the buckyball magnets:

We touristed Temple Square:

And a visitors center where this little girl was visiting with Jesus:

Then Mom and Dad came for their first visit!

Mom brought some Irises and very kindly helped me tame a bunch of other flowers:

And then took a well deserved break:

We took our first swim with them. Dad took this photo of me taking my first dive (ok, 2nd, camera lag got the first one):

Noah came the next weekend.  You may recognize Mom’s hand in that floral arrangement:

Irena and Boris have been very busy.  After finishing the remodeling of their house, they rebuilt their back yard, adding a gazebo and 20+ rose bushes:

Abby is helping Irena inventory her cloths, hoping to find a place to sell them:

Helen’s fascination with cactus has spread to our backyard.  She is convinced she can grow, harvest, and eat these nasty guys:

I have another picture taken a few minutes later of Helen trying to suck out cactus needles from her fingers, but she wouldn’t let me post that one.  After that, she put on gloves.

Bruce

 

That mystery photo:  It is a water droplet from this photo of a wild snapdragon from our backyard.   Through it, you can kind of see an upside down fence and bushes: