Verna and Bob's Weblog

Photography

Omigosh — It’s 2025 Already!

Of course, the Moon has nothing to do with the title, but we are getting queued up for the first full moon of 2025 in Arizona on June 13, 2025. I took the image above this evening with my Canon SL1 set to shutter priority 1/1000 sec. and F5.6. The focal length was about 250 mm through a Canon EF-S55-250mm zoom lens.

Anyhow, we’re late in wishing everybody a happy 2025, but we can do it now, so there it is.

Our plans for the new year aren’t very resolute, but they will probably include a longer voyage with the motorhome to the lands of our ancestors with some interesting attractions along the route(s). We may also go all the way to the east coast which will be a first for us in the big rig.

There will be no eclipses this time around, but we will be on the lookout for interesting photo ops and we plan to blog about it when we’re underway.

Cheers in 2025 and God Bless!

January 5, 2025 by Arizona Astronomy Photography Retirement Vacation

Christmas Eve 2024

First of all, Happy Birthday to my sweet wife, Verna! She got a new Iona Celtic Cross and chain for the occasion. It’s 14k white gold (the chain too).

As to the Arizona Christmas Eve Sunset, we’re quite lucky to get these quite often. Always a beautiful sight. Click on the image to enlarge.

We will be quietly spending Christmas Day here at our desert abode, just the two of us, since closest family is over 300 miles away and some even further out. We will be talking and/or texting to some of them, however, via the various electronic and social media. Our Christmas Feast will consist of Chicken and Dumplings, a wonderful southern favorite modified slightly for Keto diet purposes.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Remember the reason for the season – Christ the Savior is born!

December 24, 2024 by Arizona Food and Dining Holidays Photography Religion

Rosemary Flowers with Dewdrops

Here we are in the middle of November and the little Rosemary shrubs behind the RV drive (which goes around the house) are getting their little blue flowers. In this image (click to enlarge), the dew drops gather at the bottom of the petals to form little prisms/lenses.

The “dew drops” may actually be residual water droplets from the irrigation system that runs for ½ hour at 4AM to water the landscape flora.

We never have to shop for rosemary in the supermarket, since it is abundant and available year-round on our shrubs all around the rear of the house. Just look at the beautiful sprig in the photo. Image is from Bob’s Samsung S23 Phone Camera.

We’re still in “second spring” with day temperatures still in the high 70’s to low 80’s, but that will soon give way to our usual winter weather over the next few weeks.

November 19, 2024 by Arizona Climate Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Classic ’58 Chevy Convertible

We may have posted a classic Chevy like this one years ago on the Minstrel site when we saw it in Torrance back then. Today, however, this classic rolled up into the parking lot while we were collecting mail from the PO Box. A very nice gent allowed as how he would be OK with Damsel taking these photos of his treasure.

Images: 1958 Classic Chevrolet Impala Convertible with Continental Kit in mint condition – credit Verna – click on any image to view enlarged.

August 29, 2024 by Arizona Classics Nostalgia Photography

July Flowers

July has always been a good month for desert cactus flowers opening. After only three days, this month gas been no disappointment. All the flowers shown below have opened on or since July first.

This first photo is of a peniocereusgreggii “Queen of the Night” flower, two of which opened up last night (July 2). They are short-lived like many cacti flowers and were mostly gone this morning. We were lucky to spot them last evening to get this photo.

These next beauties also opened overnight. They are “Cherry Red” (trichocereus) cactus flowers and look almost hot pink in the morning sun.

Our old reliable “Bishop’s Cap” cactus produces flowers many times during the year. We bought this cactus over 25 years ago in a three-inch plastic pot. These were open on the first of July.

The “Star Cactus” (Astrophytum) is also one of those that produce flowers several times a year. This flower also opened on July first.

Lastly, is our showy “Red Bird of Paradise” or “Pride of Barbados” shrub which will produce these brightly colored flowers from April through September. We have three shrubs in the courtyard.

That’s all for now. Click on any image above to view enlarged in a new window or tab.

July 3, 2024 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Avalon 1998

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