Cactus Kate

Hi, faithful readers.

I haven’t posted for a whole month, and I couldn’t let a month go by without a post.  I haven’t missed a month since the beginning of the Cactus Kate ‘blog in January 2008.

Janet and I are hopping on the AmTrak again in 2 days to visit Julie in Winnemucca.  I am sure the trip will be much more bearable in the summer…no snow, no delays, better scenery.  We are leaving Green River at 5:58pm July 2, and returning to Green River at 8:38am July 7.  I am really excited about the trip, and about seeing my bros – Janet & Julie.  I gather there is a BBQ at Julie’s house on Saturday, and we will be somewhere in a park on July 4, waiting for fireworks.  Can’t wait!

Paradox Pizza celebrated its 1 year anniversary on June 1 (same day as my 33rd anniversary of life).  There is a celebratory free lunch on Friday, July 2 from 11:00am to 1:00pm.  Congratulations, Susan!  Thanks for your hard work, and great pizza!

There really isn’t much else going on.  There will be BIG changes to my ‘blog coming soon, but that will have to wait.

Thanks for reading!

There have been so many new birds around this spring!  I can’t remember this variety, or this number of birds.  I have added new birds to my life list, and taken some decent photos of them.  I wanted to share the latest backyard birds with you all!

Black-Headed Grosbeak (seen May 24, 2010 at my parents’ house).  I liked his personality:

My trees have been full of Bullock’s Orioles.  I have a bunch of mulberry trees in my yard which are almost in full fruit.  The orioles come around for the berries, and I have seen them picking up things to make nests, so I am hoping that they are making nests in one of my trees.  Below are Mr. & Mrs. Oriole, and a young male by himself.

Here is a very handsome Pinyon Jay.  I hadn’t ever seen one of these before.  I think he’s lovely.  He’s smaller than the scrub jays, and bluer.   He was in my parents’ side yard on a windy afternoon.  You can see the wind ruffling his feathers in the third photo:

My yard has also been flooded with Western Tanagers lately.  I have seen one of these before, but there have been at least five in the trees.  They are not very mellow – they hop all over the place, and are hard to photograph.  However, when they do hold still, they are beautiful!

Thanks for checking out my latest birds!

It’s been a while since I have posted, and that is because I have been SUPER busy – with work AND fun!

Rich and I went camping May 16/17 in Ten Mile Wash, and did some exploring, and had a great time.  Here are some photos for you to enjoy.  You can live vicariously through my pictures, and see why there are still SOME things I like about the Moab area…it’s absolutely beautiful, when you get far enough away to appreciate the lack of tourists.

The first photo below is a little double arch in the Ten Mile Point area.  It was great, and we climbed up on top of it.  The second is an incredibly bright ball of paintbrush (Castilleja chromosa).  After that is a GREAT photo Rich took of some Rough Mule’s Ears (Wyethia scabra) near Tombstone Rock.  Last is a Yucca harrimaniae that I just thought looked nice in its surroundings.

There were SOOOO many birds in the morning!  I got to add a Blue Grosbeak to my life list, although I didn’t get a very good picture of him.  I am posting the pictures I DID get, though, because it’s the only way I can convey how BLUE he was!  There were lots of Say’s Phoebes around where we camped, and lots of Ash-Throated Flycatchers.

There were Yellow Warblers everywhere, too.  I only managed to get a decent shot of Mrs. Yellow Warbler, though.  Mindy had a GREAT time running around, chasing lizards, getting in the wash and getting soaked, etc.  The first photo of her below is after one such wash experience, and she looks utterly annoyed that I would dare to photograph her looking goofy and skinny-legged.

Below are some panoramic photos I took and pieced together.  They turned out alright, and they show the area a little better than a single picture can.  The first is of the Rainbow Rocks area, the second is where we camped (if you look closely, you can see the red 4-Runner near the right side of the photo), and the third is from one of the MANY ‘Ten Mile Point’ areas.

We really did have a good time, and took lots of great pictures.  It had been years since I went camping, and I forgot how much I love sleeping out in the wild, where it is so quiet your ears ring, and so dark it’s amazing, and you can see every star.

Thanks for reading!