With Love, From the Big Island!

These luscious flowers arrived late yesterday from our friends in Hawaii - flowers that remind us both of them as well as of our Caribbean cruise a few years ago!
Thank you Rick and Carey!

Night sky Red moon

Diana has a small light that allows her to read at night out on the deck. Last night as she was reading, the moon showed red from the fire smoke that blew over the valley. I watched this as the night became darker and felt this shot was the best. Shooting at night without flash means a lot of digital noise but by keeping the dark areas dark the noise is not noticeable - plus a bit of noise reduction from LR5 helps.

Diana felt that the moon was too small in the photo above - remember that our eyes/brain compensate and the camera doesn't. So below is an updated photo with a larger moon. What do you think?

Albion Basin visit

I wandered around Albion Basin for a couple of hours yesterday morning, working my way up towards Cecret Lake and then around the campground and finally below it in the wetter area. Beautiful weather and a bit cool in the shade which helped. I took a lot of photos and am still working with them to get the view out of them that inspired me.
Here are a few that came together more easily - the moose especially!!

Sometimes .......

Sometimes I just am lazy and don't want to go inside and get the camera.  That was my loss last night as the smoke from a fire west of the city colored the sunset and made the sun red!  I saw the red sun but was just too lazy.  A few minutes later I did grab the camera and got a couple of shots - sure wish I had gotten the red sun.  Oh well.. the light does not wait.

Happy Birthday Sharon!

My sister Sharon celebrates her birthday today - a good day!

The refuge was calling me this morning so I drove out before any coffee and had a wonderful time. Sometimes you know you have to do something but you are not sure why - I'm still not sure exactly why but the beauty I experienced was worth every second spent.

I arrived just as the sun was kissing the first clouds and enjoyed the birds and clouds and changes in light that played out in front of me. One thing to remember out there - keep turning around to see what is behind you.  Besides the cloud formations a sneaky pelican was just about on top of me when I turned around.
Here's a few of what I liked the best - the colors on the first few clouds were really there.

Hummers Galore!

Hummingbirds were everywhere yesterday, sword-fighting, playing, eating and just generally zooming around. Three and four at one time doing battle - not sure how they keep track of who is who!

I sat about 6 feet away from the feeder and rather than try to capture the birds themselves individually, I used an f/stop of 10 and focussed on the feeder post. That process gave me a number of in-focus shots without the frustration of trying to focus on the birds themselves.  With the color of the Rufous Hummers against the leafy background, I lose focus on the birds quickly.

So here's a selection - I see the red on some and the gold on others and am not sure if the same bird is displaying both gold and red or if it is two different birds.

Animal shots

Leo popped his head up from his resting place on the chair cushion and looked just like an expectant diner - albeit a bit more surly!! He is spending a lot of time around the house while we are out and often sleeps all day under the chair or bench.

Murphy is looking good as you can see. He takes a couple of walks a day, not too long as the bad leg gives out on him. But the repaired leg looks good and healing well. His next surgery is on 8/22!

Finally a view of the garden harvest this morning. Squash and tomatoes and two types of beans. Just like picking blueberries, I eat a lot of the beans while picking them - something about getting them as fresh as I can.