Explore, Flickr

I spent about an hour or an hour and a half yesterday just watching this family of Ground Squirrels. There was no sign of my Great Horned Owl family in their grove of trees - more roadworks going on just a few feet away from their trees, which may have had some effect. So, my camera turned to these furry little creatures. This one was in the middle of making its tiny screeching sound and I found its expression rather amusing! Actually, I burst out laughing when I saw the photo on my computer!!!

I'm running out of bright rose photos but found this one. The next photo should show why I enjoy seeing some vivid colour, even if it is store-bought!

I'm just about out of rose photos, so will have to see if Safeway has any nice flowers in this afternoon.

Hooray - a different coloured rose for a change! Bought a bunch of six of these gorgeous white roses yesterday - thank you, Safeway store! I wasn't expecting a white flower to photograph properly, but I think the slightly pink/yellow centres helped. Jan (Janoid), if you happen to see this, yesterday's photos were to make sure I didn't fall into one of those dreaded photographic "slumps", LOL!

Took myself off to the Zoo this afternoon and spent almost five enjoyable hours with my camera. Not sure if this is the female adult Snowy Owl or one of last years's young. Later in the afternoon, the clouds turned dark and we had a heavy downpour. Must be the fourth day in a row that I have arrived home soaked to the skin.

I was so thrilled yesterday to be shown several Orange Hawkweed flowers. They were growing along the edge of a parking lot for the park where we walked. This was a plant I had been hoping for a couple of years to see! More beautiful than I had expected and the background matched the flower itself. It is a weed that was introduced from Europe. Why are so many weeds quite beautiful?! Also known as Devil's-paintbrush. Isn't is beautiful, Doug?

This is where I spent the evening of the Summer Solstice! We walked around Manysprings pond, looking for all sorts of plants. It is such a beautiful wetland area at the foot of the eastern edge of the mountains, very rich in flora and fauna.

The centre of this Lily at the Greengate Garden Centres place was really quite impressive!

This is only the second time I've ever had a White-breasted Nuthatch fly down to my hand. The other week when it happened, I didn't get any decent photos, but today I had better luck. I did post a photo of one of these birds on my daughter's hand some time ago. (Note on 1st July 2007: wow, this photo, uploaded on 10th December 2006, suddenly appeared in Explore today for the very first time! Neat.)