August 2010

Time to catch up before the summer is over!

I need to back up a little in July and recount some summer activities.

We had our house number painted on the curb and then I added the mouse ears !

We also got a hummingbird feeder and that has been a great purchase.

I think we have at least 4 hummingbirds that we see each day.

They drain the feeder about every 3 days !

This one is cleared for landing !

They are territorial and will defend their area by making hi-pitched chipmunk sounds.

July 3-5 we went to the Freedom Festival in Provo and volunteered to help with the breakfast at the Hot Air Balloon field.  The weather was windy on the 3rd and this shot was made after the sun came up and they decided to fill the balloons.  Normally they would be up in the air before the sun comes over the mountains !

More about this photo later down  . .

Made another annual trip to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake

Macaws

Ostrich

Fruit Bats

Do you think I like things that fly ? Well, the Ostrich is a bird, but doesn’t really fly !

Grandkids L-R  Kameryn, Addison and Parker at the Zoo

While they were here we also visited the water park in Payson a couple of times

I was listening to the 10:00 pm news and they reported a storm cell over American Fork, which is about 30 miles to the North of us  . . . so I went upstairs to the deck with tripod and camera in hand and got this picture after trying about 50 time exposures.  Mt Timpanogos Temple centered between the bolts !

The next morning I sent it to the weather girl on channel 2 and they ran this picture on the news during the weather report. Sweet !

Pam doing some go-carting in St Johns, AZ during our trip on July 24th

Heading towards Moab just out of Monticello on the way home

Posted this Wilson Arch earlier during the winter and this one now to show the relative size

Square Foot Gardening this past week. The tomato plants are almost 6 feet high !

Lavender in full bloom

Already harvesting Peppers (bell, Anaheim and jalapeno), zucchini, Roma tomatoes and sting beans.

I decided to enter three pictures  in the Utah County Fair photography competition at the last-minute.

The picture of the Hot Air Balloon took First Place and Best of Show in my category.

The other two (one of  the lightning bolt and another time-exposure of the Carousel at Disneyland) both took a second place!

Congratulations to Matt on the purchase of his first home.

We helped him move on one of the hottest days this year.

It is a beautiful townhouse end unit 3  levels in Saratoga Springs with great windows and  views.

This has been a great summer for weather.

Not to terribly hot (didn’t make it to 100! ) and lots of active thunderstorms, which have been absent the past few years.

Sunset from our deck.