JUNE'S VISITORS

 We had a great visit with the grandchildren this weekend. Sophia and Brayden spent hours playing with all the toys and blocks building castles, houses and rooms for all their creatures.

Luke and I decided it was time to deconstruct the Christmas train village and he packed it all up until December. Great job Luke!

 While Luke and I rebuilt puzzles Bruce the destroyer wrecked trying to sit on them, Sophie worked on me. She painted my finger and toe nails and beautified my hair. Thank you Missy. I can't wait for my next salon appointment. I promised her we'd have a more colorful nail polish in the future.

 Larry's cousin Mary Ellen was here for a few days to greet her east coast buddies attending a conference in the area. Mary Ellen is on the left in the photo below. Her longtime friend Debra and her husband Corry had sightseeing hours available and they toured museums. Corry is an avid photographer so Larry and Corry had a boys day out to photograph zoo animals. We capped the whole visit off being their guest at Serrano's Mexican Restaurant. It was yummy. Thank you!

BACKYARD BIRDS BUTTERFLIES DRAGONFLIES FROM THE PATIO

 A quail family walked along the back fence today to my surprise.

Blossoms by the pool attracted a blueish purplish dragonfly.









Two beautiful butterflies frolicked among the lantana blossoms until our resident hummer decided they didn't need to be in his yard.

MY CAMERA HAS BEEN REPLACED THANKS TO LARRY

Last month Larry sold my old Canon and lens on EBAY. My new camera says it's a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSI with a Canon Image Stabilizer Zoom lens EF 75-300mm. Wow, the more often I write that down the better my chance is to remember what I have. So now I've been comparing my old photos with the new shots I've taken. It's not so easy to me. Things change like distance, atmosphere, time of day, time of year, and where is the sun when I'm taking the photo. I'm sure there are other variables I have not considered. Well, I'll take a look at new and old photos here in the blog.

 2 new photos taken at South Mountain Park on a desert walk

2 new dragonflies at the riparian

 This year I found swallows at the riparian and was able to find their resting place in the trees. They swoop over the lake and are difficult to photo. I think they are Northern Rough-winged Swallows.

 These next photos are from May 2010 and look like Cliff Swallows to me. I was not able to catch a shot of them perched.

 New Hummingbird photos below from the porch. We added another feeder which has caused our hummer extra work keeping freeloaders out of his territory!

 
  

Saguaros have bloomed again and this white winged dove seem to enjoy digging in them.

 This starling was standing across the yard this year, about the same distance as the finch from last year munching on the weeds we grew.
















Well,  I need an expert opinion to judge the results of my new cameras performance. What do you say Larry?