Bennett's birthday party

WHAT A GREAT PARTY! Thanks, Eri & Mike. Now Ben is officially 3.

Bennett and all the kids (large and small) had a super time in the jumping tent. So many kids!

And we got to see our "other daughter", Erin. It has been quite a while.
There was food. Lots of food.
And kids. Lots of kids. And everyone helped unwrap the presents. Lots of presents.The cake was amazing. Great job, Erika.

Experimental pictures

These are all taken in the aquarium in the family room. I borrowed some stuff from Dana and have some pretty obvious problems with control of the light and colour. But rather satisfying for a first (OK, maybe fifth) try.

Some lessons learned:

• clean the glass carefully,
• be very patient,
• understand the camera / flash conversation better, and
• it will work.
  

Young angelfish

Neon tetra

Jungle. There is a lot going on in this one.

OK, some new stuff starts

This is short, but I have been getting a bit of flak from some quarters about my poor performance in updating this mess. So ...

There will be some more new stuff soon, but this might be the more interesting.

After 14 years, almost to the day, we have a new truck.
Same as the old one, but not such a funky colour.

And the rear opens to get stuff in and out easier.
There will be a lid on the back as soon as the old lid gets re-painted.

We have chickadees in residence in one of the houses I built last year. The babies are being fed by the two tiny parents. The whole neighbourhood is full of baby birds abd attendant turf wars and battles. Quite fun.



Cardinals, robins, grackles, starlings, doves, house finches, chickadees and who knows what else.




The chickadees are really quick, but I caught this one bolting out to get more food.





Penny's orchid has been in flower like this for close to three months.



So, there was other stuff, too. Mike and Eri got us a great hotel room last weekend (many thanks and the staff still remember). We went to dinner (Fred's Not Here), the theatre (Dirty Dancing), walked up Yonge Street at about 1 am in a monsoon (golf umbrella came in handy), and went to the market (St. Lawrence) on Saturday morning. Happy birthday to Penny!

I have borrowed Dana's camera to try an experiment.

Watch this space.