Baby Love!

 

February 12, 2015 little Bronson came into our lives.

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa couldn't wait to hold him.

 

 

Aunt Heather, Maddie and Reese were overjoyed over this new addition to the family.

 

 

Maddie will probably be a great babysitter!

 

 

Bronson was a big crowd pleaser at Grandpa's 70th birthday party.

 

 

 At Easter Melissa loved showing him off in his new shirt and tie.

 

 

At times, Bronson seems older than his age.  I wonder what he is thinking???

 

 

Here's his doting Aunt again!

 

 

Hey Grandpa......leave my toes alone!

 

 

Love those happy parents, and their sweet, contented baby.

I feel so blessed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Big Tree Park

Duane and I love taking short field trips to places of interest.  This past weekend he told me about a tree he saw while working at Glendora Hospital.  It was across the street, and he thought it was a Carrotwood----one of our favorite trees.  But it wasn't......

 

The tree is in its own little park with a covered picnic area.  I think we will return with a picnic lunch one day.

 

 

It's fascinating to look at, and just imagine what it has witnessed from its planting in 1880.

 

 

I took this photo in the wrong direction, but it says it was planted by Edgar J. Owens.  He imported it from Australia in the 1880's.  It's botanical name is Ficus Macrophy Ila', commonly called the Moreton Bay Fig.

 

 

We had fun climbing around on its massive roots.

 

 

It is 90 feet tall, the branch spread is 110 feet wide, and the trunk is 30 feet in circumference.

 

 

Wouldn't it make a terrific treehouse?

 

 

In any case, it is a magnificent specimen.  I'm pretty sure we saw one like it at the Santa Barbara Mission graveyard a couple of years ago.  We'll have to go back and see....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out With The Old......In With The New (Fence, that is...)

 

Ever since I can remember, I've been looking at this fence in the back yard.  It was in two sections, one wood, and the other chain link.  It was right next to the pool and spa.  Ugly doesn't even begin to describe it.

 

 

The wood section had a block wall under it, part of which could have easily been 75 years old.  When we were going to finally get the wood fence replaced, the workers noticed that in a 24 foot area, the wall was about to fall down.  It moved quite a bit when you pushed it.

 

 

Needless-to-say, this part of the block wall had to be replaced.  What was to be a one day fence repair was now going to take four days, and an additional contractor came on the scene.

 

 

When you replace sections of block walls and have to match the other sections, it's not easy, but luckily we had a great team working on it.

 

 

The fencing contractor and the block wall contractor turned out to be related (hmmm), but they worked very well together.

 

 

The wood fence was looking good.

 

 

And, the block wall matched the old wall very well.

 

 

The wood fence was then placed on top of the wall.  You may notice a small gap at the bottom of the wood fence, but they fixed that nicely and now you can't even tell it's there.

 

 

I'm thrilled with my new fence.....now I think I have to look into drought resistant plants, because everyone in the State of California has to use 25% less water than they did in 2013.