Fight!

We saw a number of flamingo fights during our visit to Sea World. This is a few shots from one of the fights. I especially find the second picture, where the flamingo's head is upside down, very interesting.

Creature outside the door...

Yesterday morning we took the garbage to the curb, came back up the driveway and saw, where the garbage can had been sitting, a baby rattlesnake! I couldn't get the camera quickly enough (rats!) so I thought I would try to find him again this morning. No luck - all I saw was this little guy. He was enjoying the sun... and probably also the lack of rattlesnakes in the yard!

Mama Bird

The baby bird from yesterday's photo may grow up to look like this. Mama bird eyes us as we take the photo... she has baby's food in her mouth and is very interested in our departure. We stay just long enough to take this shot. Papa bird was behind us and escorted us to the parking lot, rather rudely actually. He dove at my husband and hit him just before we got to our car!

Baby Bird

We were at a restaurant for happy hour this evening. We sat outside and I kept hearing little chirps, and every so often a bird would fly into a nearby tree and the chirping would become frenzied. Finally I spotted a nest! This was the best shot we could get - the nest was a little too high and the mama and papa birds were VERY protective. We were about 5 feet away from the nest and they began to fly at us. You would think that they would be used to folks walking around as they built their nest next to the sidewalk entrance of a fairly busy restaurant....

Petco Park and UFOs??

So unfortunately this is not a vision of UFOs. This is Petco Park, where our Padres baseball team plays, the city of San Diego skyline on the right, and a couple of spotlights illuminating the night sky. You can also see the lights of a plane as it crosses our field of vision.

Balboa Park at Night #3

This view of downtown San Diego was taken from the Cabrillo Bridge, which we've seen in the last two photos. The lights below are cars on Highway 163.

Balboa Park at Night #2

This is the California Tower again, further down the bridge, and a bit later so that the light is changing.

Balboa Park at Night #1

We spent an evening in Balboa Park the other night, and had some fun with long exposures. This is the Cabrillo Bridge, with the California Tower in the background.

Fuzzy Friends at the Bay

This is the California Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus beechyi) found running around San Diego. This particular little guy lives at the shores of Mission Bay, watching the boats sail in and out of their marinas, fighting for dinner with the seagulls and keeping an eye on the stray cats. Busy life!

Yum

One man's pest is a lizard's lunch!

May Theme Day Wannabe

I think this looks like it should be in a different city... which was the theme for May's Theme Day. Actually, this is the location of the famous "Pea Soup Andersen's" well known for their split-pea soup.

I suppose I should say this was the location. Unfortunately, just as I was too late for May's Theme Day, we are all too late to enjoy a delicious bowl of soup here. This restaurant closed some years ago and is now a TGIFridays.

In case your appetite has been piqued, here's the recipe:

Andersen's Split Pea Soup

8 cups water
2 cups green split peas
1 Rib celery, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 tsp thyme
Dash red pepper sauce
1 bay leaf
Salt
Pepper
Combine water, peas, celery, carrot, onion, thyme, red pepper, and bay leaf in large kettle. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Boil vigorously 20 minutes, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until split peas are tender. Press soup through fine sieve and reheat just to boiling point.

Sea World Sight

We spent Sunday afternoon at Sea World. Every time I am there, I can't resist taking some pictures of the flamingos. They are so bright and colorful and so alien. This one seemed to be admiring his reflection as he groomed himself.

Handbells

My husband and I play in a handbell choir. Our annual concert is fast approaching and we had a four hour (ugh!) rehearsal this weekend and I brought my trusty camera. Here's a shot of one of the larger bells. If you look closely, you can see my reflection in it!

Christmas in June?

Actually it is just a poinsettia. We always deck the halls with lots of poinsettias (boughs of holly being hard to come by in these parts...). This one is left over from Christmas two years ago! Surprisingly we still have 5 plants left from that season. Must have been a hearty year!

June Theme Day: Out of My Bedroom Window

Outside my window I have a really lovely hummingbird feeder. I wanted to get a shot of the hummingbirds feeding for today's theme day picture; however, my hummingbirds seemed to be camera shy this evening. And lacking Abe Lincoln's patience, I started looking around. On the ground just outside I saw this eggshell piece resting on top of a leaf. Cool. I went outside to see if I could see a nest, but no luck.



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