Not exactly who we intended to feed

Our two cats love to watch the birds through the sliding glass door. We normally throw food onto the deck to draw them in. We call it the KES, Kittie Entertainment System. Poker likes to chatter at the birds when they come in. We decided to hang a bird feeder and see if it brought in more birds. Well, that worked. However, it also brought in a new friend. He sat there for 20 minutes chowing down on the seeds in the feeder. Geoff said when he chased him away yesterday that the squirrel went a few feet away and then scolded him. He tried to get the squirell to do it again, but I guess he was done because he ran away.
I'm sure he will be back tomorrow.

I can't think of a title!

I'm behind on my photos, so I pulled out a picture from my trip to New Orleans this November. There is this fantastic pond store just off the Quarter that my mom wanted to visit, so we stopped on the way to the airport. My camera was still new, so I didn't really know what I was doing. I just left it on auto and did the best I could. I love the lady bug and the contrast between the red and the purple. I especially love that I can see my reflection on the shell of the ladybug.

Maybe we should have checked the weather

So we got up bright and early this morning for our 2.5 hour trek to Big Trees State Park. As we were driving, I noticed the temperature dropping and dropping. It was close to 60 when we left, and I watched it go down to 46. Then I started noticing patches of snow on the ground. Mind you, the weather at home has been gorgeous the last few days. The highs around 70, bright sunny skies. A storm is coming in, so I expected the weather to change, but we weren't expecting this. When we got to the state park, the grove we wanted to visit was closed because a tree had fallen in the storm last weekend. And there was snow everywhere. Not just a little here and there, it was blanketing the ground. We decided to go for a walk anyway, figuring how bad could it be? Well, pretty muddy and snowy, that's how bad it could be. Geoff had to borrow one of my school sweatshirts that was fortunately in the car, but notice the footwear. Not really what we want to be walking around in the snow now, is it? Oh, and he's not walking on the trail edge for the picture's sake. We spent most of the walk on the edges trying to avoid the mud and snow.

Needless to say, no wildflowers in the area, except for the ones on the side of the highway. But I couldn't really stop to take pictures of those without danger to life and limb.

And to think we had a discussion before we left on whether it was a shorts or jeans day!

Will work for lens money

So now that I have decided I want the lens, I need to come up with the funds. I've taken pictures of every flower and week in my yard four our five times and am looking for more things to photo. This thing is awesome. A flash and a longer zoom are still higher priority, if I can manage them before our trip, otherwise, this will be the next purchase. I'm driving my husband crazy taking pictures of everything. Tomorrow we are going to Calaveras Big Trees and I will hopefully find some wildflowers to take pictures of.

I love this lens!

I decided to rent a new lens to be sure it was one I wanted to buy. With the first picture I took, the answer was a resounding YES! I have really come to love macro photography and this lens lets me take all the little pictures I want. I'm still learning, but I am having so much fun. There aren't a lot of flowers blooming in our yard right now, so I bought some daisies from a flower stall to use for my models. I bought them a week before I went out of town and fully expected them to be all wilted when I got home. Another week later, and most of them are still standing tall. I love this yellow one because of the thin, frilly petals.

Such a beach dog!

I spent the weekend with my folks in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. It's a town on the beach about 4 hours from Phoenix. My parents' dog, Jazmine, loves to run on the beach. When there aren't people around, we can let her off the leash to run and run. She loves to chase the birds, but this time, there weren't many birds to be found.