Hazel

When I'm hanging out with my grandchildren I let them use my small point-n-shoot. Because Hazel (in photo here) will take a turn, then Ellery will have a turn, I wasn't able to tell which photos belonged to which girl. Because I like to print off a few of their shots to give to them, I came up with the idea of self portraits as a way of identifying the photographs.

New rule: as they pass the camera off, the new "photographer" must take a self portrait, thus identifying the photos that follow. I figured they'd do feet, hands, part of a dress, but Hazel turned the camera on herself and did this self-portrait. Luckily I was standing there with my camera handy.

Rainbow eucalyptus

I have some time now to process my Hawaii pictures and found this photo of beautiful eucalyptus bark. While in Hawaii we visited the Dole Pineapple plantation. Planted on the grounds were these beautiful Mindanao Gum trees (Rainbow Eucalyptus).

These are the colors of the bark. Patches of the outer bark shed annually at different times, and the bright-green inner bark shows through. It darkens and matures to give these gorgeous colors. (Wikipedia) (Disclaimer: These are the colors, I've done nothing in Photoshop.)

Spring showers ... again

and again and again. Parts of Sacramento area had hail today. Between the rain I went out to prop up a few plants and saw this iris ... still standing tall.

Iris are blooming.

I'm home! I enjoyed San Diego and being with my grandkids very much, but it sure is great to be in my own bed.

My roses & iris are still blooming. Because it's windy today, I picked some flowers to photograph indoors. Here's my favorite iris (for today anyway). I love the subtle colors and the bright orange beard.

Agave

While in San Diego I took the grandkids for walks, this agave is in our favorite garden just around the block from us. I liked the colors.

OB pier

Ocean Beach pier, taken on a recent walk.

Surf's up!

It's been 10 days since my last post. I'm in San Diego and have been hanging out with my 3 grandchildren (ages 2, almost-4 and 6). "Survived" the 8 days with them while my son & daughter-in-law celebrated their 40th birthdays on a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands. :-) They are back now & I took some time away to walk on the beach. The recent storms left us with a wild ocean. In spite of warnings, surfers were out. This shot was taken at Ocean Beach.

Pride of Burma

This plant was found on the botanical garden grounds, it is called the "Pride of Burma, Amherstia nobilis" Beautiful, rare plant, according to Wikipedia. Again, lucky time for us to be there with these beautiful rare plants and trees blooming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_Burma

End-of-the-day beach play

What a great way to end our day, playing in the surf, building sand castles, watching the sun set. Kailua has beautiful beaches and we were able to walk to this one from our rental house.

Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden‎

While in O'ahu we visited the Ho-omaluhia Botanical Garden (Kaneohe). It is well worth a day's visit if you are on that island. We packed a lunch, hiked the trails, enjoyed most of a day there. They have a great interpretive center with enthusiastic volunteers. Then there's the 400 acres to roam around.

This photo is of the blooms on the tree Leguminosae, Saraca thaipingenus. We were told that the flowers were used to dye monk's gowns.

Toursts in Honolulu

Here they are. Couldn't resist this photo-op. The owners of these birds hang out right outside the International Marketplace in Honolulu and are available for toursts to take pictures. The girls loved having them on their arms.

Hula girls

I'm working on my Hawaii photos: loved this one of my granddaughters. They had seen the dancers the night before and with very little encouragement started their own performance.

Finally posting

Can't believe it's been that long (3/22) since last post. A trip to Hawaii (I really did take a photo a day, well maybe a 100 or so), just didn't have email access to post.

Here's a sample. We found this beautiful beach near Kailua and had a great time swimming. I walked the beach and found this sailboat at anchor. So tempting to swim out & sail away ....

Leaving Hawaii

View as we were flying out of Oahu. So sorry to be leaving this island paradise.