Cats
A happy dragon fly was flitting around this morning. We did a lot of yard work today. Can you find six differences between the 2nd and 3rd photos? Rosencrantz was sitting in the window by the front door wanting in, but I was on the deck. Instead of going through and letting him in, I photographed him through the glass in the door to the sunroom. He finally gave up and walked around the house to join us on the deck and lay on the table with Guildenstern.
The roses don’t look too bad, but they are definitely stressed by the heat and limited water they are getting. Rosencrantz is as feisty as ever.
We’re leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when we’ll be back again. Well, we’ll be back sometime. With being in the air for around 14 hours, I might actually end up missing a day on the blog — c’est la vie!
Every morning I have to extricate myself from a clowder of cats and this morning they were wanting me to stay in bed with them. I think they can sense that something is up with all our preparations to leave for France on Saturday, because they have been clinging to us a little more the past few days. Another glass got broken this morning, and it ended up looking pretty artsy. We really like the large stemware, but they have a way of making their way to the edges of counters and tables where we tend to brush by and knock them off.
Speaking of France, I have had several inquires about what photo equipment I’m taking to France. The last two photos show the lineup of bodies and lenses, sans my Fuji X-Pro1 which I used to take the photos. The two Canon 1Ds bodies, the 17-40mm ƒ/4 and 70-200mm ƒ/4 zoom lenses, the 50mm ƒ/1.4 and 40mm ƒ/2.8 lenses, plus extra batteries may seem like a lot to carry, but they are not, really. I’ve been carrying one body, either a 5D or a 1Ds, the two zoom lenses, the 50mm lens and an extra battery with me everyday for the past 6 months in my laptop/camera messenger bag (not shown). The last photo shows how the cameras and lenses all fit nicely into my Lowepro Passport Sling Camera bag that I’ve had for a couple of years now. The Lowepro Passport is a compact, yet roomy bag that is really comfortable to carry. The zoom lenses give me a range from super-wide angle to telephoto, and the 50mm gives me a “fast” normal lens. The 40mm lens is a compact lens, and while not a true macro lens, it focuses close enough to allow me to crop to near macro levels, allowing me to leave my much larger 100mm macro lens at home.
Here it is May 1st, which means there’s only ten days felt before we leave for France. In the meantime, we have finals to study for, backup watering systems to finish, salsa dance on Friday and work. The kitties were lying around reflecting this afternoon as was a band’s tour bus that I moved my car for so it could take my usual parking spot this afternoon.
Puck was very proud of the results of his roll in the dirt when I got home. He trotted up proudly and posed like a king, asking me to photograph him to show everyone, pardonnez mon Français, how pucking dirty he got. Speaking of French, my fluency in French expletives improved greatly last night while I snaked out the drain. I had to go at it from the clean-out below the sink, the drain in the laundry room, and the clean-out outside (twice each), and then plunge the sink before I got the sink to drain freely. On the bright side, I got finished in time to photograph trois tulips in the twilight.
Guidenstern came up with a new kitty fashion for laying around on the deck — “Leaves and Filtered Light.” Kitty fashion is like sand painting — it only lasts one day.
Laurie and Tristan finally talked me into dumping my dumb phone for a smart iPhone 5. I think the smart ones in this matter are T-mobile and Apple, because the monthly service and the iPhone 5 work out to be 7.5 times higher than the service for my old dumb phone.
When I went out to the ditch late this afternoon to check on irrigation water, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked I saw the wild, gray kitty “snaking” me like Stretch used to do when it was time to waterboard him. This kitty hangs around a lot, but I normally only see glimpses of it running away from me. This was the first time it was still and let me talk to it and photograph it for a few minutes before it ran off.
The rest of the photos are of the tulips blooming along the fence on the west side of the house.
The new tulips I planted last fall are coming up — big yellow, red/yellow and peachy-red tulips. I’ll have to wait and see if there were other colors in the mix, as I’ve forgotten what all I planted. Guildenstern was out rolling in the dirt, and wanted to be held, of course.
The “chemtrails” as some people call them, more commonly known as “contrails”, made quite interesting patterns crisscrossing under the sun this morning. As the temperatures continue to warm, I’m seeing a lot more bikers on the road. Laurie left the door open to the study so the cats could be in it with her the other night — Puck was very happy to lay in his favorite spots he missed since I put the door on the study.
Off Center & Not Even 