Spring at Estrella Mountain

It's definitely spring around here! Everything's in bloom and I love taking photos of all the plants and flowers. I'm still getting used to all the differences between the plants in Arizona and Southern California.

I used this cactus in bloom for one of my daily photos, but I had the other photos of the Ocotillo plant that I love as well, so I'm posting them all here.

Enjoy!

Jury Duty!

I had jury duty this past Monday. Arizona is a one day-one trial state. I called the night before, and they told me I didn't have to report at 8:00am but I did need to call at 11:00am to see if I would have to report. I thought that was a bit odd, and others (who were more familiar with Arizona jury duty) thought so too. Evidently it was just an extremely busy day because I did have to show up in the afternoon (12:45pm).

They called 6 panels (one of 50 people!) in the first 30 minutes after I checked in, but luckily I wasn't one of them. Normally I'd like to serve, but it was a bad week (and as I'm a teacher, a bad time of year period). So after a couple hours, I got released.

I noticed some photo ops on the way in, but I had left my cameras in the car because I wasn't sure if they'd be allowed in the court building. Since I got out early, I walked the 5 blocks to the parking garage (we had just missed the shuttle), got my camera, then walked the 5 blocks back to the courthouse. The light wasn't the best, but I got some interesting shots. I hope you enjoy them!

Just outside the Superior Court Building

Looking up at the court building

The Forensic Science Center which was next to the parking garage

State Archives & History building that I drove by on my way out of downtown

Cow Parade...Coming Soon!

Before I left San Diego, I spent a day (in different segments) with my mom going around La Jolla taking photos of the Cow Parade Art Exhibit. You can read more about it here (http://www.cowparadelajolla.com/).

It's something that's taken places in other cities before, but it's new to San Diego (the exhibit runs from March 15 through June 15). Basically, 40 local artists got blank white cow statues that they were able to alter to fit their vision. Each cow is sponsored by a local business as well. At the end of the exhibition, the cows will be auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity. I have a few favorites, but nowhere to put them, so I won't be bidding, but I enjoyed photographing the ones I was able to get to this time around :-)

I took a ton of photos, and this week is insanely busy for me, but I'm posting to say I will have them up hopefully sometime this weekend! Stay tuned for my Cow Photography Parade...

Backyard Bench

My mom loves garden sculptures and accessories, and it makes the yard interesting. Here are some photos I've taken this week of two pieces she bought separately that she has together out on what used to be the back lawn (my dad gave up watering it when the rabbits had eaten most of what was there though there is a bit of grass left).

Ice Plant Flowers

I've been walking around my parents yard taking photos quite a bit this week. I've also ended up with lots and lots of pictures! Some of them I've used for the daily photo, but most I haven't. Below are some ice plant flowers that I've captured throughout the week. Most are during the day when it's been pretty bright (almost too bright), but one I took as the flowers were just closing up for the night.

Silly Sophie!

I'm home in Bonita visiting my parents this week during my spring break from school. Yesterday in the afternoon, I tried taking my book outside to get some reading done, but that didn't work out so well. I first got distracted taking pictures of the flowers in bloom.

Then Sophie came out to join me. Since she doesn't see well, I watch her to make sure she doesn't get too close to the pool and fall in (which she has done before). She purposely gets close to the pool because she likes to drink the pool water. When she got tired of me telling her she was too close and shooing her away, she wandered off around the side of the house.

I thought she was going to eat some grass (her second favorite thing to do in the yard), so I followed her. Boy was I surprised when I followed her to the pool pump and saw her stick her head into the container collecting the water leaking from it. Here are a couple shots I got while I could:

Moon Photos

As I think I've mentioned before, I am fascinated by the moon. I've been experimenting with moon photos even without a better telephoto zoom lens. Someday I will get that zoom lens, but it may be a while. The economy is part of it, but I've also been thinking of getting a new camera, and I don't want to buy a new lens and have it be incompatible with the new camera (since I'm thinking of switching from a Canon to a Nikon).

Anyway, here are a few shots of the moon that I've taken over the last week or so (some during the day and some at night). One day I'll get that perfect moon shot under perfect conditions!

Riding On Instinct Contest

Click here to enter The Riding On Instinct contest!

Jaci Burton is holding a contest for the release of her new book, Riding on Instinct. Feel free to check out all the details by clicking on the link above :-)

Holy Cow!

I can't believe it's been over a week (closer to 2) since I've posted here. I know I've been busy, but sheesh. I've been playing catch up a lot over at my Daily Photo Journal as well, but I've still been taking my photos daily.

Anyway, I've had quite a few good photos that I haven't used at my daily photo journal, so I'm going to post them here shortly. Hmmm...Maybe I'll even set them up to post on different days!

Photos from Saturday

I had lots of "left over" photos from my daily photo journal this last Saturday, so I figured I would post them here!

Here are some shots of a mural on the side of a building in Avondale near the library (why I was there in the first place...)

And here is the sunset from my backyard. It's the first one that I was able to capture that I liked from my backyard here at my house!