Well...I have been doing some part-time work in my old stomping grounds, doing some deep cleaning on my much neglected home and learning medical coding so that I can become a Certified Professional Coder (CPC). This is a growing field and affords a lot more flexibility in work hours and the ability to work at home (a real plus for me).
Here are some recent pictures of my orchids. The hummingbird is one of many who fight over my two feeders. They are small little guys, but boy do they have spunk!!
These orchids are paphs - better known as Lady's Slippers. The green one was purchased on Father's Day and the other 3 are from the Santa Barbara Orchid festival, which I went to with a friend on July 9. All but the deep red one are still in bloom. I haven't had too much success with paphs in the past, but I think I found a spot where they are happy. They brighten my kitchen table on an eastern window. They get filtered morning light through the curtain and are able to take advantage of the cool air that comes though when the evaporative cooler is on. They seem happy there.


This purple one is called Shady Lady. She is really lovely.

The white one is a Miltonia and has a sweet rose scent in the morning.

There are so many interesting things about orchids that defy the whole theory of evolution. This one is scented in the morning because it has to attrack the bees to pollinate it. Other orchids have a wonderful musky scent at night because moths pollinate them. Still another orchid (angraecum I believe) has a very deep flower. Darwin postulated that there must be a moth with a long (30cm) tongue that had to evolve to pollinate it. Years later they found that such a moth exists. To me this speaks of the wonders of creation. The orchid could not have survived without being pollinated and could not have waited for the moth to come along.
This red one was purchased in October at an Orchid Show at Gubler's Orchids. It has a wonderful spicey scent and is currently in bloom again. It is called Nellie Isler.

I couldn't resist this final one (for now). Al and I purchased this Vanda (Bangkok Blue) the same day we bought the green lady's slipper. It finished blooming recently. I have one other Vanda. Their flowers are absolutely beautiful and I hope I am successful at being able to get them to rebloom.

Well, that is all for now. For a while Al and I were going on almost weekly hikes, but then I started to take my coding class, which is every Saturday. Also, it got so hot for a while that we didn't feel like walking in 115 degrees. Hopefully we will go back to our hikes in the near future and will have some interesting stories.

Meanwhile, back at home, I was able to give a little attention to my orchids. Some of them are in bloom right now. I am actually excited about this yellow cymbidium, which finally rebloomed after more than 10 years. I was about to give up on it when it decided to bloom again this year. Another orchid in bloom is my purple phaleonopsis. This is absolutely beautiful (I think) and is in full bloom right now. I am really looking forward to expanding my hobby and possibly sharing some orchids as gifts in the future. I may even try to trade with others to expand my collection.

The first day of semi-retirement

I quit my job last Friday and am doing some seasonal work for now. Hopefully I will be able to get enough periodic jobs to keep me afloat so that I do not have to find another full-time job. I really want to focus on my family and home for now.

Yesterday we went to the Sepulveda Basin for a walk. There were hundreds of red-winged black birds, many kinds of ducks with their little duck families and some un-named varieties of other birds.




We saw cormorants in their nests feeding their young. That was sort of fascinating. They were all in one or two trees on an island. As we gazed at them with the binoculars we realized there were about 15 or more nests in a tree. It was like apartments. We saw a bluebird, which we have not been able to identify. It was probably a little larger than a robin with some lighter orange markings, I think on the chest. We were looking at it through binoculars and by the time we got close enough to attempt a picture, it flew away. The wild flowers were in bloom with fields of lavendar, white and yellow blossoms and a few California poppies.