View of the top of Black Mountain from a cache near by. 

Black Mountain

Black Mountain I was talking in Si's chat room about the nearest unfound caches to my home
(that are not Mystery Caches) There are two on top of this 'mountain' that I can see from my kitchen. We got quite close when we went to another cache near by, see next photo, but thought we would save the summet for another day. We were going to do them this w/e but somehow time got away from us and we did not get there. I will though one day!!

easter eggs I had a splendid afternoon with my daughter. She wanted to decorate Easter Eggs. She had seen in a magazine an article about painted eggs that had been filled with soil and growing grass in them rather like Chia pets and wanted to have a go. While she was painting her eggs with delicate scenes of Easter, I hard boiled my eggs and dipped them in the rainbow dyes!!

computers and printers

I hate them!! Just having a very fustrating time trying to print a simple sentence for a scrapbook lo. First it came out perfect on the scrap piece of paper I used to gauge the spacing I needed then when I put in the expensive coloured paper I need for the lo it only printed half the sentence and messed up the edge of the paper with ink. Grrr. Then the printer ............... well it's too awful to continue. I wont bore you with allthe variations I have tried to get the printer to print. All dh says is it must be me or the printer has it all stored in a buffer blah blah blah.

My daughter's shoes! I was tidying the family room today and tried to put my one pair of work shoes in the shoe caddy we have by the door. I looked for an empty compartment and found a pair or two in every slot and no room for mine, so I thought I'd rearrange the shoes to make a space for mine. I soon realised that every pair in the caddy belonged to my daughter, so I thought I would take a pic to share! 19 pairs in the caddy and I dread to think of how many more in her room or in the cupboard under the stairs!! I did manage to make a space for mine when I put her shoes back.

Garter Snake

You can just make out the garter snake we saw on our way back, it is about the thickness of a pencil and about 20 inches long.

Lake 

Waterfall

Waterfall I went on a quest today, to return a letterbox that I had taken home to dry out. Letterboxing is like geocaching but you do not need a Gee Pee Ess r.
Instead you use clues found on among others Letterboxing.org .

This was one of the first lb that I had found and during a walk to a multicache in the same area, we had stopped to check on it. I was not surprised to find it waterlogged and almost beyond repair, the original box was only a Glad cheapie and after a year in the wild it was cracked and needing some TLC. I took it home and managed to dry it out and retain the somewhat waterdamaged stamped images.

Time passed and although not forgotten the lb languished on my bookshelf awaiting the next opportunity for us to return it. It had been taken off the letterboxing site as an unclaimed orphan so no one was looking for it. Suddenly this week a couple of people have mentioned on the SCal lb message board that they were coming to my area and this lb was mentioned as being possibly still available and I had to fess up that I still had it!!

So today I put it back, well almost, in the year since our (opps) last visit the poisen ivy has completely taken over the area where it was hidden, there was no way that we or anyone else could get near it's original hiding place, so we found another place for it which is better than the previous as it is closer to the path and no bush (or poisen ivy) bashing is necessary. Now I just have to let the lb site know and hope for the best!!

After placing the box we continued on for a wonderful hike along the lake side and then after reaching one of our favourite places on the lake, where a cache used to be but is no more, we turned up hill and along the ridge of the hill looking down on the lake, where I took the lake photo and down the other side. We then made our way back to the waterfall, which is a clue for the letterbox and back to the car.

Birds seen:
Red tailed hawk
White-tailed kite
Northen Harrier
Osprey
Moorhen
Coot
Mourning dove
Western Gull
Western grebe
Little grebe
American wigeon
Great egret
snowy egret
northern roughwinged swallow
Anna's Hummingbird
Towee
Phoebe
Red-shafted flicker
Western Kingbird
California quail
Scrub Jay
Bushtits
White-crowned sparrow
Song sparrow
crow
and the usual unidentified LBJays (Little brown jobs)

As far as the eye could see

We have been going to the desert every year since we moved to California and have never seen the spring flowers so abundant. To fully appreciate this wonderful sight you really need to have seen the desert as it is most of the time, dry dusty and bare. To see these yellow flowers as far as the eye could see was breathtaking.

Desert flowers

We went to Anza Borrego to see the spring flowers. Tried to keep away from the crowds which were swarming around the visitors centre. We drove past the airport and found these at Peg Leg road.

Back home

Arrived at LAX after a somewhat bumpy journey. Everyone was there waiting for me. so glad to be back on terra firma. S drove us home, can't believe it's still raining. Nice to be back in my own home with my familyand my cats around me. I love and miss my mum and dad dearly but really miss my independance while I'm with them.