30 April

The Baltimore Orioles were playing the Dayton Dragons, so this guy wanted to watch the game:

okay, that's not likely, but we do get Baltimore Orioles, the birds here in Dayton.  He was a colorful guy, only wish I had had the larger lens...(Mark didn't realize there was actually a bird by that name, too funny!)

Royal Wedding (29 April)

April 29th was the Royal Wedding...a friend of ours from NCR is a British exchange officer at WP.  He and his wife held a party to celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  Everyone wore neat hats...unfortunately, my pictures of those didn't turn out so well...Here's the hat I wore (was also my Easter hat, thanks to Rita):

25-28 April

It's been raining and raining.  But I really shouldn't complain considering the storms that went through AL yesterday.  We did get heavywind last night:  enough to move our grill (considering how heavy it is, that was some wind...)

25 April:

I was trying to get Peppy after she flew behind the tv... I took this picture after I knocked it over  and wanted to get some pictures before it died.  Sad, I was so glad when they bloomed...and now the poor flowers are dead...

26 April:
 It's been so wet, the mowers haven't been able to keep up, so the dandelions are in seed...

27 April:
Pizza for dinner...tomato, mozzarella, mushroom and arugula pesto.  YUM!

28 April:
The clouds parted right about sunset, so I was trying for some interesting background on my new flower.

Easter Pictures

I was trying to get pictures...Mark wasn't going to let me.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We've had more rain than needed so far this year.  Wish it would come in a more consistent pattern (and only on weekdays that I am working...)  So Rita and I went shopping for Easter Dresses (and wedding party outfits).

raindrops on the plants...

Good Friday (22 April)

Tad and Rita arrived today (after some car trouble...).  This little lush followed them here...

On a more serious note:

Maundy Thursday

Not only was this a special day, as the celebration of Jesus's Last Supper, it was also Pastor Toms's last celebration of it as our lead Pastor.  This is going to be a tough few days, knowing that we won't have him as our Pastor anymore.

20 April

Almost forgot to get a picture today...with everything going on.  I was also lacking creativity, so it came down to this:

19 April

It's nesting time...this robin is building her nest right outside my front door.  I was able to stand on the sidewalk and take the picture after she returned to her nest.  She obviously knew I was there, but didn't pay me that much attention, as she came and went a few times while I stood there waiting.

Here's another of her gathering from the lawn...

18 April

I'm catching up from yesterday as I await the thunderstorms that are hitting Dayton to leave, so I can go TDY.  I'm thinking it's a lost cause, and I'll just stay home...everytime one cell of concern moves away, another seems to replace it.  Oh-well, I wasn't the primary audience of the meeting, but it would have been nice to see some old friends.

A Tough Note

This was a tough note to write.  One of my mentors in DC was diagnosed with cancer in late 2009.  She is a fighter (was on her bb doing work, the day or two after surgery).  She went through all the treatments and was in remission. Although it came back earlier this year, she was looking good and ready to take it head on again when I saw her in Jan.  Unfortunately, I heard last week, that she is loosing that battle.  I wanted to send a note, but how do you not mention that they may only have weeks to live?

Catch up time

It's been busy this week.  I don't think we've been to bed before 11 more than once.  Mark got 'stuck' in Dc on Tues (so much for an out & back).  And late Friday, we got told that he was being 'summoned' to DC, therefore cancelling our planned trip for Monday...

13 April:  New babies
I had an orchid club meeting tonite.  The speaker was discussing wild orchids in OH.  It's neat that one can find orchid sin bloom here from late April through Oct!  Wow... I need to go looking.  He had some baby orchid plants for sale.  I need to plant these this summer, but they are Cypripediums and if I'm lucky, maybe they'll bloom in the next two years...  I'm scared that I'll kill them (there are quite a few in the jar), but it's kinda neat to see the plant in the early stages of life.

14 April:  Hostas
My hostas are coming up!  Spring must be in the air...

15 April:  Self Portrait
This was a bit rushed, as we were both running late getting ready for dinner and the opera.   I wish I had been smiling ;-(

16 April:
We somehow got a round of golf in despite the 1.5 inches of rain that fell before dawn...We then proceed to get stuck indoors the rest of the day (and I tried to catch up on sleep).  That put the picture off till the last moment...I got Peppy to stand still for long enough to get a close up of her claw...this was not taken with the zoom, but my macro.  She's a patient bird, with a big camera in her face and flashes going off.  I tried to get one of her eye, but except for some feathering right below the eye, the rest is out of focus.  Macro work is touchy...

Chess?

Here Birdie, Birdie....

It was raining (again), so I was stuck indoors...

Post Processing

It's amazing what you can do with post-processing...to think, to get the color in a b/w photo, one would hand paint the area...I did that quite a bit, as I always enjoyed the effect.

10 April

Can you believe that we are almost halfway through the month of April!  It was in the 80's here in Dayton, but very windy.  The trees are starting to bloom, although I don't expect the flowers to last long if the wind keeps up the way it has...

I couldn't decide which I liked better...Mark liked the first one, I like the second one.

I am a Runner

8 April

It's challenging getting the inside of the orchid, when it's a lady slipper...

Buddy...

Mark is calling this orchid 'Buddy'... there's going to be at least 5 flowers when it finishes!

Which considering we've had Carlos (my lady slipper) for almost 2 months and he doesn't want to open would be wonderful.  We think he's moping...

6 April

Although I played golf today and got a few pictures, I wasn't happy with them.  So, what to photograph...

5 April

This was fun setting up to see how I could stack the nuts without having them fall   It also let me play with the flash a bit.

The 'Eye' Has it...

2-3 April : Golf and Flying!

2 April:  The South Course at NCR opened for the season on 1 April, so we played on 2 April.   It was cold and windy...the course was in good shape, but it kicked my @#$!

3 April:  Went flying to get Mark current again.  Here's the spring view of the club.

Catch up

Here are the pictures of the day for the vacation (20-25 Mar).  I posted a few earlier taken on the ipod, but with the exception of the 26th, these are the 'official' photos of the day...

20 Mar:  Merry-go-round at the mall

21 Mar: I decided to take only one lens on the course, my zoom, to lighten the load.  However I really needed the macro, as I didn't see many birds.  These flowers were neat.

22 Mar: Cherry Blossoms in AL at Cherokee Ridge CC

23 Mar:  This golf course was called The Ledges CC. It wrapped around a mountain and there were ample drop offs.  The storms held off till after we finished.

24 Mar:
Growing up in Texas, we'd get blue bonnets every spring.  I love this flower, but haven't seen it in quite a while.  There were some growing on the side of the road, so i made Mark stop so I could get some pictures.

25 Mar: More flowers

Strange, I ended up with more flower shots as my favorites than golf shots.  Doesn't help that the grass was still brown.  I also missed getting a good one on Sat during the rain of the airplane looking forlorn...

1 April

A close up of the ice from our drink tonite:  Rosarita (tequila, Campari, vermouth)