Let’s flashback to 2004 late summer (when the weather was warm) when Mom and Dad brought Aunt Virginia to visit us. As I recall, we had a very pleasant visit and were laughing at Bob as he stumbled and rushed to get into the group picture before the timer went off. Click on the image for a larger view.

Last weekend we spent a little time doing some home and garden chores. We have had problems growing little fan palms in a couple of pots on the front porch, so this weekend we pulled them out and replaced them with some little red, white and blue flowers. The plan is that we will do like those commercial gardeners do and drop in the colorful flowers that thrive for a given season. Icelandic poppies, pansies, primroses all do fairly well in California winters. We expect to see marigolds, mums, poppies and daisies replace these in the spring and summer.

Image: Verna watering and cleaning off the porch. Click to enlarge.

I took this picture while Bob was in the sporting goods store getting the new firearm. These were in a planter adjacent to the store. A bed of bluish pansies made for a pleasant color combo, don’t you think?

I found out an interesting fact: Icelandic Poppies are actually native to the U.S.A. So why do they call them Icelandic Poppies? Maybe it’s because they tolerate colder weather so well.

As promised, we have a new video of today’s trip to the shooting range with our new Remington 870 Express Magnum home defender shotgun. I put the first few rounds through it and then Verna knocked the target off the hook. What a fun day and what a nice piece of home defender equipment! Press > to play. You can mute the volume too by clicking on the speaker icon.

Verna poses with the new Remington 870 Express Magnum 12 gauge security shotgun that we bought a couple of weeks ago. In California, they have this stupid law that makes you wait ten days before getting your gun. Anyhow, after we brought it home, we disassembled it to clean and inspect it so that tomorrow we can go to the range and put a few rounds through it. I believe we may have a new video to show tomorrow.

The shotgun itself is a 12-gauge utility gun featuring an 18″ fixed cylinder choke barrel, single front bead sight, non-glare matte finish with a 7-shot capacity. The receiver is milled from a solid billet of steel for strength and durability, and the twin action bars insure smooth, reliable non-binding action.

Verna likes it but she still likes her 20 gauge better. Click on the picture for the full-sized image.

On our weekly visit to the flower concession, I came up with this nice combination of irises and tulips and promptly photographed them. These look so nice with the complimentary colors and graceful lines under the soft illumination. This nice arrangement (if I do say so, myself) looks lovely on the dining room table.

One day last winter, we took a drive to the top of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. We had a hunch it would be very clear after the rain passed through the area overnight - Bingo! Right again! I took a candid shot of Verna as she was getting ready to take some pictures. There were breathtakingly clear views of Santa Barbara Island, Catalina Island and points up and down the coastline that day. Click for a larger image.