Happy as a pig in... anywhere?

They always look happy. They are always smiling. Even when they are asleep. Even when they are snoring. (All except for one noisy guy, right at the back, squealing away. No apparent reason. Just being pig-noisy.)

More animals and California State Fair pictures here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisontoon/collections/72157634626505496/

Two sheeps are better than one... or is that heads? And the wolves need a new sheep outfit!

Sheep's clothing is now a fashion statement, and Mr. Wolf had better take note:

At the California State Fair.

Last year, the groomed sheep work burkhas. This year: all the colours under the sun. And don't they look cute!



More animals and California State Fair pictures here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisontoon/collections/72157634626505496/

 

Midsummer heat and squirrel thieves

I'm finding it really hard to work in the garden in the summer heat. The weeds are rampant, and that's partly because I couldn't prepare the soil properly late last year, and partly because I haven't been as vigilant as I should have been. The squash are, of course, completely entangled, and as there are some unique heirloom varieties in there, with confusing shapes, it's hard to guess which are summer and which are "exotic" winter squash.

The tomatoes have broken some of their stakes, but they don't care, they love to ramble. However the "Caribbean cucumber" is now dancing with at least one tomato plant, and the various, unlabelled peppers are going to be a challenge. Are they ok for salad, or need an asbestos suit?

(Who was the idiot who bought one sweet yellow banana pepper plant, and one hot yellow banana pepper plant, and "forgot" to label them?  Oooops.)

I have to do midnight weeding and deadheading. And this autumn, the vegetable garden will be treated to blanket compost mulch. Like two years ago. Like should-have-happened last November.

The turkey family came and played on the deck today, and had fun in the leaf-mulch under the oak tree.

All walnuts have disappeared, POOF!!!, like magic. One day the tree was laden. The next, barren, with just a few empty green husks on the ground. Like magic, the squirrels are absent too. I think they are laying in their dreys, on their backs, rubbing their poor swollen tummies, and promising not to do it again next year. "Never again!"

I'll believe that when I see it.

Orange dragonflies and a Canon 100-400 zoom lens

I rented a lens for the next few days: a Canon 100-400, f 4.5-5.6 L IS from BorrowLenses (really good system: you choose the lens and the length of time you want to rent it, and they either ship it to you or if you're lucky, like we are, they ship it to a local camera shop and you can pick it up and return it there). I have used this lens before, but forgot just how heavy it is... and it's really not going to be right for what I wanted to do tomorrow but it will be fun over the weekend. (If you want to know more about BorrowLenses, nip over to Toon's Tunes, my other blog, and click the ad that your'll find there.)

So I played around with the lens, first indoors, then out. I couldn't get M (manual) + auto-ISO to work. But I did succeed with T (time) + auto-ISO. Wandered around snapping a few flowers, enjoying the lens' bokeh. I love the effect that you can get with long lenses.

And then... dragonflies! The vegetable garden was the place to be!

I really like this lens. The clarity is excellent, even when cropped and exported as low-res images. I need to work out more or something though, because it is heavy, and it's definitely not one for dangling on camera from a two-camera harness. You'll fall over sideways.

More pictures on Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisontoon/sets/72157634473958224/