A few years ago, Mom gave me a cutting of this Crassula Falcata. Known in some circles as “Morgan’s Beauty,” this plant has grown these nice red flower clusters that have a nice delicate fragrance after the tiny red flowers begin to open.

We added this nice two-tone Santana Hibiscus bush to our backyard landscape today.

While in the garden taking pictures, I saw this little green spider crawling around on one of my morning glory flowers - sorta creepy and pretty at the same time. Mostly creepy though.

This might be a green lynx spider which are hunting spiders that spend their lives on plants, flowers and shrubs. Nimble runners and jumpers, they rely on their keen eyesight to stalk, chase or ambush prey.

Yesterday, we took possession of the new Glock 26 9mm semi-automatic pistol. It’s a sub-compact, lightweight, pocket-sized gun, that is a pleasure to operate. See the specifications below.

I found a very good YouTube® video demonstrating how to field strip the Glock 26. This gun is much easier to disassemble and reassemble than our S&W 908 9mm pistols. Using the video as a guide, I was able to strip the gun and put it back together in under 30 seconds - without hurrying. In the image at the left you can see the gun’s component parts after field stripping - the barrel, recoil spring assembly, slide assembly, frame and the stock 10-round magazine. Click on the image for a closer look.

Glock 26 Specifications

Weight: 560 g / 19.75 oz
Length: 160 mm / 6.29 in
Barrel length: 88 mm / 3.46 in
Width: 30 mm / 1.18 in
Height: 106 mm / 4.17 in
Caliber: 9 mm Luger Parabellum
Action: Safe action
Feed system: 10 / 12 / 15 / 17 / 19 / 33 round magazine
Sights: Fixed front and rear

Click on the image for a close-up of this little beauty.

JJ’s truck woke up with a problem. Verna noticed it and told him. After a while, our neighbor Don offered the use of a floor jack, even though there is one in our garage. I guess JJ didn’t know.

This picture is from one of the two webcams we have looking at the street. You can see both of them in real time (refresh for latest image) in the bottom of the left sidebar on the main page.

This one is out of the archives, and was actually imaged by Verna last year on our way home from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. This was taken from Pacific Coast Highway, State Route One, just inside the Los Angeles County Line. Zuma Beach stretches toward Point Dume in the distance. Click the image for the large panoramic view.

More than a dozen of the cereus blossoms popped open overnight. As you can see, there will be many more to come. We seldom see so many opening on a single night. This was taken very early this morning. By 10 AM, these beautiful flowers had all closed and were drooping having done their one-night opening. You can click on the thumbnail to see the full-sized picture.