Fading Tulips

April is almost over. The tulips are fading in our bouquet. We are enjoying the warmer days of spring.

Growing Kittens

They are getting bigger. Took this on Saturday. They are just over seven months old now. Duma now weighs more than our old Maine Coon Fiona. Mehitabel is the sweet princess and still the smallest. They continue to amuse us with their antics. Fiona really likes them in spite of hissy fits and growls.

Party for the Dutch Students

Still catching up on our news. Friday was the last day for the Ian and the students from the Netherlands. We hosted the final party and everybody had a great time. Several of the students are musicians so we had a cool concert of rock with guitars and classical on the piano. Here is Piter on the guitar and Simon singing next to him.

Palette Princesses Book Club

It's a kooky name but it works for us. We are the Palette Princesses, a book group formed from women painters who paint at Studio UFO in Bellingham. We meet once a month to (in theory) discuss the book we've (mostly) all read the month before. In reality we talk about all sorts of things totally unrelated to the book. And we talk about the book too. We met last Friday at Eve's house. From the top are Marilyn, Donna, Helen, Susann, Pat, Eve, Valerie and Nancy.

Beach Abstracts

Photos we took while exploring Lummi Island.

Jack's Beach on Lummi Island

Wednesday we spent the day with our friend Ian on Lummi Island. Luckily we discovered Jack's Beach where we walked and took many photographs of the beach, waves, rocks and driftwood. It was overcast when we began our day but gradually the weather cleared and ended sunny and beautiful. Turned out to be an awesome day.

Skagit Valley Tulips

On Tuesday I went on my own to see the tulips. Arvin was busy teaching at Goodwill and Steve had other plans so off I went. Like last year spring is late this year. But not so late that I missed the tulips. I stopped at the fields and then the display gardens of RoosenGaarde in the Skagit Valley. I took both my Sigma DP1 and my Panasonic G1 to do a comparison study. The first two pictures are with the DP1, the last three with the G1. Turns out both are fine cameras but the G1 wins in flexibility and ease of use, not a surprise really. You can see more photos in my Flickr Gallery

Kittens at Play

Lovely lazy day today. I spent over an hour playing with the kittens and taking their pictures as we played. They had a ball and I got some pretty funny pictures. Mehitabel on top. Duma on bottom.

Anacortes Marina

Went to my brother Dave's and his wife Nora's yesterday for dinner and games. When we got there we took a walk to the marina so Dave could check out their boat. While he was working on it Nora and I walked around and looked at the boats. It was a lovely day.

It's feeling more like spring

All around the trees are sprouting flowers and new green leaves. At last spring is here.

Amazing Light

It rained all day on Easter Sunday until late afternoon. Then the rain stopped and the sun shone through from the west. First it illuminated the large cottonwood that sits between us and Lake Whatcom. Then the sun set and created an amazing light show.

Cooper's Hawk

Went walking with our guest Ian yesterday along the path near Scudder Pond in Bellingham. This beautiful hawk flew across our path and landed high in a tree. Then he flew down much lower where we could get a good look at him. Ian had his amazing long lens and got some great shots. I had my Panasonic G1 and the 45-200 lens and I got some good ones too. The bird posed for us and looked us over for a good ten minutes before taking off again.

Duma and Mehitabel

They never seem to tire of chasing each other. They entertain us with their antics.

The People's Painting

This is Trish Harding standing in front of the People's Painting. It was painted by 60 plus people over six months time. The small images in back are photos I took of the painting as it changed over time. Trish came up with the idea and facilitated the work. She did the final touches on the painting before it went on display in the Blue Horse Gallery. Last night was the opening of the Ship of Fools exhibit there.