Plum tree in bloom

This tree is covered in blossoms.
I mowed the lawn today, did a bit of weeding, moved a tiny campanula from the old cedar trough to the little rockery where the lewisias are growing. Moved some of the saxifragia out of the trough to the waterfall. Washed off the sidewalk by the garage. I have to move the montebretias in the front -- some to each of the front beds, and some by the tub garden. Maybe there will be some left to put in the sunny part of the woodland garden. Then when I get them all moved I must put the little minature rose in there place. Maybe get another mini rose. The spring flowers are looking really quite good, and smelling good too. I do not miss the plants that were hanging on the garage, although the evergreen clematis had wonderful fragrance. It is so much easier not to have to worry about pruning them back. I might take out the strawberry tree, too. I blocks the view of the back. I must do a serious pruning of the firethorn. It has some very thick branches that I will need to use the saw on. I can get the blade off the pole trimmer, I think. Its very sharp.

I made parsnip cakes for supper again. They turned out pretty good.

I have completed 4 of the 20 pages of our trip to Scotland/Ireland and must get on with it, and get it finished.

train, again

We spent quite a lot of our time driving on our recent trip. I would look out across the desert and see a train... way off in the distance. Zoom the 12X lens through the window and collect yet another train shot. Would probably be better if not shot from a moving vehicle, but I like the motion blur added to this train.

Today I got my new under water pump for the pond. It says it will do 1015 GPH on a 4 ft. waterfall. Hmmmmmmmm, but that waterfall is 10 inches across. My pond capacity is approximately 1000 gallons so this should be the right size pump, as my waterfall is about 4.5 ft. high. I will probably lose some water from the hooks ups to the mouth of the pond, so I hope this works. I might have to figure out how to attach the valve gizmo that slows down the flow, if it is too much for my pond. Where ever that valve thingy might be, now, is another good question, but I know I have one somewhere. I got the pump from Home Depot for $189. - fairly pricey. But its been quite a few years since I bought a new one. This one has a 2 year warrantee on it.

Painted Desert

Another view of the painted desert from our recent camping trip to the US Southwest.

Yesterday I ordered the telephoto, the wide angle and the macro lens for my S3 IS from Canon, Canada. With taxes and shipping it came to $598.00. Then I ordered a LowPro slingshot 200 AW backpack and a Hakuba filter 8 pocket wallet from Freestyles and that came to $ll6.98 USD. The backpack should be good for my SLR when I get it. For now I will be playing with the S3 IS for a while. I need another SD card for the S3. Lensmate has some good ones.