Wood Ducks on spring pond

This evening Jessica and I went to a friend's house to use his photography blind in hopes of seeing the Wood Ducks on his pond. We were told that each day there were anywhere from two to sixteen ducks using the pond. We went into the blind at 5:30 PM and the first pair of Woodies landed at 6:00. They were only on the pond for about 20 to 30 seconds, then they walked up into the woods on the opposite side of the pond from us. We didn't see any more ducks until 7:00 PM, when a group of 4 more landed. When they flew over the blind we could hear the "whooooooosh" or air under their wings. 5 minutes or so later a few more landed. Ultimately we ended up seeing a total of 9 Wood Ducks and 4 Mallards. We also saw the resident Muskrat swim back and forth across the pond several times. Oh, and there was a Ruffed Grouse drumming throughout the evening in the nearby woods. We left the blind at 7:30 PM, just as the spring peeper frogs were starting to sing. It was an unforgettable spring evening in the Minnesota Northwoods!

Petroglyph National Monument

After the ride i had yesterday, I needed a day off the bike. After breakfast (Denny's on San Antonio and I-25 - food was cool, particularly the sausage), and a couple tasks in the room, I headed for Petroglyph National Monument. Sounded like a good day to walk some trails.
Stopped at the Visitor's Center for info. From the Visitor's Center it was a mile drive down to Rinconada Canyon. The hike up the canyon is 1 1/4 miles one way. Take your time and look around, The pamphlet about the canyon highlights some of the petroglyphs. There are many more. If you just look for the highlighted one, you will miss a lot.
There is a easier way back - down almost the center of the canyon. Not as much climbing on that trail.
Still have some time and hiking legs left - so decided to drive up to Piedras Marcadas Canyon. This is the northern most section of the Park. The hiking trail is a little over 1/2 mile.
This canyon has many more petroglyphs. But, they are a bit further away from the trail. Many of the photos I took on this trail were taken using the telephoto zoom. That introduced in some movement while shooting the 3 HDR exposures. It looks that came out pretty good, but I would like to hike that trail again with my tripod.
Anticipating that I may come back to that trail, I turned around, heading back to the car, before I reached the last numbered (highlighted) petroglyph.
Back at the motel - soon to plan this evening's activities. Today's photo is a petroglyph in Rinconada Canyon.

Mill Trail in Redwood Regional Park

Mill Trail, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Here's the Mill Trail in the awe-inspiring Redwood Regional Park. Yesterday's rain cleaned all the dust off the leaves and turned the dull mosses a fluorescent green. There was even a stream flowing nearby, which had been dry a few weeks ago.
Redwood is an interesting park because its stream contains the habitat of the original rainbow trout. The rainbow trout was first identified here as a new species in 1855. The fish has since been introduced to many lakes, rivers, and streams around the world.

Happy Easter!

We are extremely grateful for our loyal blogging pals. We just love you all and thank you for your generous comments. Sometimes "life" can get in the way of the fun we have here and nudge us in other directions. First, the pooter as well as our provider had problems about ten days ago. Well, things were fixed, alright, but... for the past week and the next, grandpeeps are out of school and they will be hangin' over here with me and Mom - yay! (But again, Mom says that there won't be much time fer here til the end of this week - boooo!) We have gotten a cool tag and also an award and want to thank some wonderful friends for these. From Riley and Star as well as from Maggy and Zoey at Zoolatry (please visit a special blog tribute created by Ann for Helen, her Mom, who passed away on Friday).We've done this cool meme, but not for a long time. The rules are: Open your first photo file folder. Go to the tenth photo. Post that photo. Tell the story of that photo. Tag 5 other blogger friends to do the same!
This is the 10th photo from our newest photo file named, "Easter Emma." Emma is our youngest granddaughter and in this picture, she'd just participated in her first HUNT for eggs. Afterwards, there was a party, complete with African drumming (she was dancing here and so was I heheh!), a bouncy house and soccer balls everywhere with a net. I had a great time, decked out in my special Easter neckwear. I would like to tag Sam and Marge, The Feisty Three, KB and the Gang, June and Samantha and Cabana.
I was honored to get this very cool award from Miley and Alfie - humongous thanks!
Here are the rules: I have to post the award on my blog and list the 12 blogs that have brought sunshine into my life and leave a comment on their blog telling them about the award. And in order for them to accept the award, they have to pass the award on to 12 of their sunshine bloggers. Everybloggie friend of mine always brings Sunshine into my world, so it would be furry hard to pick just 12. I'm going to be horribly lazy, but I really want to get to your posts and barks woofs out! So... fur anybuddy who does not have this award, PLEASE (and I mean it!) lift it from my blog and spread the sunshine out there! Happy Easter!

Holes in the story

At my sister's house, insects lined up for dinner in order of descending appetites.

At my sister's house, mice held a Scherenschnitte party, but it was interrupted at an early stage.

At my sister's house, pixies were unhappy with their needlework, and unthreaded all the leaves.

Rose

A rose picture I took last year.

CariCATures

Thursday I didn't have to work (obvious if you read my Fun Fourth blog). I worked Friday and Saturday this week. Saturday was the first time I worked the RV park office by myself. The park managers stopped by a couple of times to make sure everything was okay. (It was.)
Other than working, Friday and Saturday were pretty mellow for me. Bob worked four hours on the 4th, all day on the 5th, and five hours today. Crazy man, I tell ya. But it doesn't hurt the finances. Thank you, Bob, for all the work you do.
He also went to Costco today to pick up food for our RV park potluck tonight. We took a veggie tray and a Key Lime pie. (The Key Lime pie was a winner. By the time our part of the line made it through the food selections, the pie was half gone; and it was all gone by the end of dinner.)
Being that this blog is so short, I have a few cariCATure photos of our kitties, Sunnie and Bowie.

Bowie zonked out.

He sleeps in weird positions!

King of the House of Card(board)s. 

In the photo above, you can see Sunnie's tail hanging out from inside the top box. Any time a new box comes in the house, the cats investigate.

"I haz conkered da boxes."Travel Bug out.