Birthdays, FathersDays, Gardening and Fresh Kills

A busy month so far! No more fire and destruction, unless you count the baking time I spent in the kitchen! First up, a birthday for my niece:

Auntie got her the tutu her heart desired:

Assorted party guests, with their "just back from Mexico tans":

Some light crafts with paint, kids and flowerpots:

...and the Official Portrait By Auntie, of course:

Then I had a Christening/First Birthday for another niece:

Some dignified pictures in the church:

The "thank God it's done!" family portrait:

and then off to the First Birthday Party. This little girl had a FULL social calendar that day:

My sister's friend make the stunning cake. Not one for that CakeWrecks blog! This was as tasty as it was beautiful:

Some dignified gift opening...I believe she was gnawing her way to a Rosary:

On to Father's Day, spent with even MORE niece and nephews and assorted dads, moms, sisters and brothers. Of course, I felt compelled to bake something for the kids:

The angel food cupcakes were a big hit, which made up for the very unattractive Pineapple Upside Down cake (bleech) that I make each year for my Dad, who somehow thinks this thing is quite tasty:
I got some great random shots of the kids:
and then there is this lovely shot:
The official "up against the wall" shot:

Then I caught one of the little buggers attempting to taste test the cupcakes:
some "miniature golf" - get it??? HAHAHAHAHA...MINI? HAHAHAH..ok, nevermind.Finally, I caught up with some gardening, and SOMEONE was hanging out the whole time:

Twice, she brought me snakes while I was weeding. Damn showoff. The "morning snake":

The "afternoon snake":

Both snakes were spared death and re-released to the wild. Then, the coup de grace the next morning on my doormat. OH. MY. GOD:

Be grateful for this little bit of censorship. Apparently, the cat has gone Kosher on me. She only disemboweled and ate the front half of this monster. Picky.

Weekend drama with fire, whales and fighting crows!

This week started out with quite a bang, literally! Sunday morning, 5:30am... I awakened to what sounded like Armageddon happening just a few houses down from mine:

By the time I got outside, the majority of the firefighting was done:
Turns out the neighbor's house caught fire around dawn and that sucker burned UP. No, there are no photos of the fire or the damaged house. I may be a camera whore, but I am not going to photograph someone's misery. After checking in on the neighbor, I spent the rest of the morning ensuring my house was up to code! Some lessons I learned that morning:

1. People will actually get into their cars, drive to the location of a fire, and openly gawk. WTF? Have some manners people, this is not a tourist attraction. It's bad enough that the neighbors (i.e., me) are gawking.

2. People show up at fires and ask the fire victim if they want help cleaning up after the fire. As in...HIRE ME. They also want to sell them furniture. The damn house is still smouldering and these "ambulance chasers" were showing up!

3. The neighborhood continues to smell of fire and destruction for about 2-3 days following the event. And all the burnt and melted housewares, furniture and personal belongings are left where they were tossed.

4. The Red Cross shows up fast and they seem very helpful. And they really do wear vests!

So, to escape the touristy gawking, hawking of services and smell...I went to the beach to walk. Now, rumors abound in this town lately that there are two whales hanging around our coves. People swear they "see" them. People like my friend at work. So I headed on up to the highest point to observe all three coves at once.

On the way up the mountain, I accosted some wildlife and wildflowers with my camera:

Exhibit A: Confused Bunny Rabbit who shoulda taken that left at Albuquerque:

Exhibit B: Weird looking phallic flower:
Exhibit C: One Shy Gopher attempting to blend in with rock:

Exhibit D: Wild Strawberries...not for eating.
Exhibit E: Ostrich? Stork? Heron?

I became fascinated and stalked this poor thing awhile:

Exhibit F: Spiky Cactus type plant thingy:

Exhibit G: Pod People:

Or maybe where brains come from:
Or perhaps the origins of Cauliflower?
Is this the end result of the Pod plant?

Or this?

Or maybe this...?

Onward!

Exhibit H: Posing Gopher, distant cousin of Shy Gopher:

And here is the Ostrich/Stork /Heron creature, still climbing the hill:
So I finally made it to the top, and the view from Devil's Mountain was quite nice:No whale yet, but I spotted a flock of birds:
And look! The carnival was in town!
So here was the view from the top. Water..check. Mountains...check. Sky...check. Whale? FAIL.
Here I am, and no whales in sight:
Zooming in on the great expanse of Whale-less waters:

Then...suddenly, out of nowhere! Wow! A perfectly drawn and colored ...I mean... a beautiful Grey Whale... appeared on the horizon!
Now that I finally got to see the rare and elusive "local whale", I headed back down the mountain. Off the side of the trail, I noticed what appeared to be gang warfare going on between the Crows and the Ostrich/Stork/Heron Creature:
This can't be good:
Then all hell broke loose:
And the fighting ceased rather abruptly:
I continued on down the hill, and looked up to see a singing hawk overhead:

and then...WHAM..out of nowhere the Crow Gang shows up:
This place was too violent for me! I headed back home in time for yet another spectacular sunset. On a clear day... you can see the Farallon Islands from the porch!

A colorful sunset shot to end the blog: