Lot of Variety

Hi Everyone, I have a 'ton' of pictures to share with you, but not enough time to describe them all here in my Blog. So I'm going to take the lazy route and just give you the links, ok. Then when you have some free time, you're welcome to go check them out, eh!! Ok, here's a bunch of pictures of our 2 cats, clouds, mountains, flowers, sunsets, 2 paintings of a friend, and a postcard from 'HELL' that we received when our kids went on a Cruise Trip. Then this smaller group of pictures include a few shots just before dark set in and then right as it was doing so. If you look really hard you can see 2 stars close together on the left side of the moon and in one shot I added a 'copy/paste' of one at the upper left side that disappeared when I 'cropped' the full size picture down to my web size, eh!! Hope you enjoy all!! Later, 'Viper'

Family Gathering

Hi Folks,
. . . Yesterday, May 22nd, 2006, we drove down to Cottonwood, CA, to one of Kathy's sisters, Barbara, because Kathy's Uncle Tommy, his wife Nancy, their son Jerry and his wife Carolyn, would be stopping by on their way home from Portland, OR, back to Arizona. All had went to see Jerry & Carolyn's daughter get her Masters Degree, eh!! I had never met any of these people in our 23+ years of marriage, and Kathy hadn't seen cousin Jerry and Carolyn since their daughter was a little one, eh!!
. . . Sister Barbara and husband Dick (The Main's) had made reservations at a really nice local country restrurant called the 'Oldtown Eatery' in their little home town of Cottonwood, CA. This is still good old cattle country and the town even has an active stockyard too. They have a really great restrurant there too, but Barbara said that most people can't stand the smell of the area, just to get into and out of the restrurant. So she thought we'd all enjoy our meal much more by going to one of their other 'haunts', eh!!
. . . Sorry, but I kind of got carried away with my picture taking, because when we all went inside and was seated I started to looking all around the interior and here was all this 'fine' stuff to shoot, so that I did. Hope you at least enjoy some of these shots, especially the wanted poster of 'Butch', eh!! ;-)) Also, I hate to admit it, but as I took various pictures of 'everyone' in our family group, I didn't take even one picture of Aunt Nancy and didn't notice it till I was back home & editing all my pictures!! Nancy, if you happen to read this blog, I'm really, really sorry!!
. . . Since we have been getting even more rain since last Friday, we were pleasantly surprised to have hardly any rain going down, while visiting and even on the drive home. BUT, right after we arrived home and I got Kathy and our 'stuff' back into the house, including our 2 cats, the rain just broke loose!! Good timing, right!!
. . . Note: Kathy's cousin Jerry is one fantasic photographer and if you'd like to check out all of his great 'scenery' pictures of his local area of Sedona, AZ, just go to his web site, 'Welcome to Arizona by Photo'!! You will not be sorry, eh!!
. . . Later, 'Viper'

Hi Everyone ... We've been buying new plants for our deck and still haven't gotten them all re-potted because of our rain coming and going since Friday, the 19th. But I thought I'd give you a look at all the color anyway, so you can just click here to see all of the pictures and enjoy, eh!! ~ Later, 'Viper'

Bees, Flowers, Clouds & A Custom Chevie!!

I've got more miscellenous pictures that I hope you will enjoy, eh!! Just like the 2 shots above, you can see that I was doing more 'macro' shots. I'm thinking that we planted some flowers this year that the bees and butterflies like, eh!! We just haven't seen to many butterflies as yet, so that I get a few shots of them. Just look at how 'fuzzy' these bees are. Up close and personal, don't you think?? ;-)) Then if you like flowers, then you gotta check out my macro shot on them too. Now I know not all of you reading my blog with get all hot and bothered over the 'Chevie' picture, but when I was a kid and would see a model as this one, be it Chevie, Olds, Buick, or any other make, all I know is that I WANTED ONE!! ;-)) Maybe one day I'll win the lottery and get myself one, right. And Kathy said she'd love to have an old classic over a brand new 'regular' car, but that it must have an automatic tranny so she can drive it too. No problem with me, as I'm getting tired of shifting my truck now that I'm a 'senior', eh!! ;-)) You can also see that our snow if fastly disappearing, not that we've been getting up into the low 90 degrees. If you like clouds, be sure to check out shot #7903. Odd shaped and beautiful, eh!! ~ Later, 'Viper'

A Variety of Shots

As you'll notice when you view all my pictures, I've been trying out different things. Like using my 'macro' setting and taking shots of some of our flowers about 2'' away. I took some by hand and then some with my tripod and I don't think you can tell the diffence, eh!! ;-)) Some are of the same scene like the light hitting the trees, but were taken on 2 differnet days and times to try and getting different shadings, right. Also, as I was leaving the Tops parking lot after shopping Saturday morning, I got a couple shots of a cute 'Model-T Coupe' and a 'Trike' pulling a trailer. And quite by accident the picture numbers in my camera when taking shot of the 'Model-T' were **27, **28 and **29!! Now you tell me the odds of that happen again in my lifetime, eh!! ;-)) I'll close today with a couple pictures of one of our deer getting her tongue on our saltlick. Now that our daily temps have been in the mid-80's, I'm just guessing I'll see them more often, eh!! So I hope you enjoy all of my pics, as usual!! Have fun!! ~ 'Viper'

Here's a Shorty, but a Pretty!!

Here's a few more Spring shots, including some 'up close and personal' shots of some flowers, a spider, an ant and a big black bee too. Hope you enjoy one and all, eh!! ~ Later, 'Viper'

Spring Growth Colors & Cougar Article

After we came home from shopping on Saturday the 6th and I got everything into the house, I grabbed my camera to get some shots of the beautiful new spring colors, not that all the trees are filling out with new leaves, eh!! All of the shots up to the one with 'BB' laying in our driveway were taken right at the edge of our drive and the roadway. Then I took some random shots around our house and yard area too. In the picture of 'BB' that looks like he is sniffing the deck railing, he is actually looking down at Lucy playing around in the tall grass. I was thinking that I'd get a good shot of 'BB' jumping down onto Lucy, but no luck there!! ;-))

If any of you know what the plant is in shot #7734, please tell me. Otherwise I'll just wait to see if it blooms out or not, before I try transplanting it in the front yard or a pot on our deck. It seems to be coming up on it's own in the back of my wood shed. Kathy was afraid that her new Red Maple didn't make it thru the winter, but is so happy to see all the new leafs that have come out, so I'm hoping it likes it's new home, eh!! The last two are scans from our local newpaper, The Trinity Journal and I thought maybe some of you 'flatlanders' might like to read about one of our Cougars that range all around here and a story of a local woodworker. That's it for today. Hope you enjoy the pictures, eh!! ~ Later, 'Viper'

Our Trip to Redding May 2nd

Today, we needed to go into Redding, CA for my annual eye exam because of my diabetes. Which by the way was very good as my eyes were just as good as the past 2 exams!! As a diabetic I have to watch out for cataracts and other things that may make me go blind, right!! And then I couldn't take all the pictures that I did today!! ;-)) As we headed out of 'Weaver' about 7:30 am, we noticed road construction signs stating that there would be 3 miles of traffic control and even one lane of road ahead. Since I keep my camera with me at all times usually, I was ready to take shots as we went thru the consturction area going and also on our return home that afternoon too. You'll see a few shots of Whiskeytown Lake in between, right!! We really lucked out too, because going and coming we arrived just as our side was starting to move. Now that doesn't usually happen and we really appreciated it since I had a 9:30 am appointment.

You'll also see some of the flower & plants that are coming back from last year, plus see some of the new stuff that Kathy has been planting this year. The first shots were taken by hand and in a couple in the 'macro' mode, so are a bit fuzzy, sorry. All of the construction shots were taken inside the car while I was driving, so I cropped most of the picture to not show the dash or upper windshield reflections and a couple I cropped out the huge white garbage truck that was right in front of me, eh!! ;-)) The shots at Whiskeytown Lake were taken first with my 'polarizer' filter before the pictures of Kathy, then I switched over to my 'uv' filter and I think that filer cut thru the distance 'haze' a little better and my final pictures came out a touch better, I think. Kathy thought she looked to 'pale', so I gave her a tiny bit of suntan and she liked that much better. Women!! ;-))

When looking at the 'construction' pictures you can get a good idea of how much more highway we'll be getting. I'm not sure, but it looks like we'll be getting more passing lanes, as they've been doing for the past few years. Since it was such a pretty spring day and because we still have a lot of snow on the Trinity Alps, I just took a few shots at the edge of town heading West into 'Weaver' and towards Eureka, CA on the coast, eh!! For those of you that live in/around 'Weaver' it no biggie, but for all the rest of you you'll see what going on and get to view our beautiful snow covered mountains, right!! ~ Later, 'Viper'