Birds!

Today on the way to work, I saw a killdeer! This is only the second time I have ever seen one in California. Too bad I didn't have the camera with me, although I doubt I could have gotten a good shot of it anyway. It was scurrying towards a field of tall grass pretty quickly, and by the time I could've pulled over it would have been well hidden.




Then on the way home, I saw a pair of mallards resting on someone's front lawn. It was only a few blocks from the house, so after I got home I grabbed the camera & walked back. Didn't want to scare them away by getting too close, but I did get a couple of shots. I think this one came out the best.




The bat-faced plant in the front yard is starting to bloom. Getting a picture of one of the flowers was more difficult than photographing the ducks; at least the ducks weren't being blown around in the wind. Also, the flowers are pretty small and the camera kept trying to focus on the leaves instead. This was the best shot I could get. Pretty blurry, I know. I'll try again tomorrow.

Feeling pretty angry at Ralph right now. While he was watering plants & refilling the pond, a large black widow came out from the low wall surrounding the pond. He of course had to kill it, despite my protests (his argument "It's scary!" my argument "It's not hurting anyone, it's outside where it belongs, and it eats mosquitos which spread disease.") I don't know which is making me angrier; the fact that he killed it; the fact that he completely and utterly ignored what I had to say as if it had no importance whatsoever, or the fact that if I had kept my big mouth shut instead of saying, "Oooh, what a cool spider!" he wouldn't have seen it in the first place. I don't like being angry with him, especially at the beginning of what should be (have been?) a nice weekend, what with tomorrow being his birthday and all. Foo.