Morning in Paradise...

Morning in Paradise...  It's a special day for us: our 34th wedding anniversary.  It hardly seems possible that so much time has passed by since we said “I do” in the little chapel in Bonita, California – but then we think of all the experiences we've shared, and we wonder how the hell we fit that into just 34 years.  We're hoping for 34 more, just as wonderful as the first 34...

We had some odd weather last night.  No rain (or storm of any kind) was forecast, but around 4 am one passed right over us.  It dumped two tenths of an inch of rain in about an hour, quite by surprise.  The storm was very oddly shaped – sort of like a cigar, about 12 miles long by a half mile wide.  It swooshed from west to east, right overhead, with a fairly intense rain cell centered basically on our house.  There was much lightning and thunder, including a couple of giant crashes that shook the house very nicely.  By daybreak the storm was ten or fifteen miles east of us, and the sun rose through thick haze.  Our valley was also full of haze.

Miki, Race, and I set off on our morning walk just after the sun rose.  The weather was the sort that flower photographers dream of: rain dotted everything with droplets, the humidity kept those droplets there for an extended time, and the haze made for perfect, white, omni-directional lighting – there wasn't a shadow anywhere.  Naturally I didn't have my macro photography gear with me :)  I did take a few flower photos with my iPhone, and I'm surprised how well they came out.  I suspect it won't be too long before my cell phone's camera is so good that I won't even want a “real” camera any more...

We had a lot of good bird watching this morning.  I got to see a kite hunting less than 100 feet from me, hovering briefly in many spots, perhaps 35' high.  We never saw him stoop, but I had several minutes of great views of his hovering.  We had a large flock (> 100 birds) of white-faced ibis fly over us, just a few feet over our heads.  There were a dozen or so hawks (I haven't identified the species yet, but not red-tailed) perched where they could look over the alfalfa fields.  One we saw hunting in the style of a pueo in Hawaii, swooping low over a barley field trying to provoke some little rodent into frightened flight.  Miki flushed two pairs of quail, plus a male meadowlark.  Great bird watching!

Roger's corner garden is looking positively luscious...

On the way back, three Paso Fino horses came over to the fence to see us.  One of them was browsing just a couple feet from the fence, and Race kept darting under the fence to try to nip his nose.  The horse flicked away every time, annoyed but not nipped :)  I couldn't stop Race from doing this; it was like he was compelled...