CATCH UPS

Here's a few miscellaneous catch up items.
Recently Beki spent several days at January's and they hit a lot of garage sales and thrift stores. Her PT Cruiser didn't have a spare inch it it when she packed to go home.

Ta-Da !

I did it!

A couple of years ago, the Lancasters had part of their lawn dug up and they planted a rose garden.

That's a lot of roses.

Alas, they had a hard winter and it got most of the roses so now Julie is working to make it "flower garden".

Julie wrote:
Here are photos of the former rose garden which is now a flower garden due to the loss of many roses during a really bad winter here a couple of years ago.  It is more beautiful in person and still has a long way to go.  There are many bulbs which aren't in yet and I keep transferring plants from other parts of our yard so hopefully in a couple of years it will be packed with flowers in every color.

Here are a few photos of the house being burned across the street from our house.  It has been empty since we have lived here so it is good that it is burned before someone buys it and lives in it as is - yuck!  On our walks in the winter Toby and I have seen a few animals enter through the roof to keep warm.

 

(Note to family.  The volunteer fire department burns these abandoned houses for practice.  This is what Ruth will probably have done with that house on her back property when she gets an extra $500 to cover the costs of bulldozing and leveling after the fire.)

Lastly is a picture of our little frog that I was able to save from the snake.He lives in a planter area next to our back door and it has been fun seeing him come out of his hole when the weather is perfect! 

And now for another "nature" story, here is a picture of the bird nest on my patio.  I'll keep you posted as things progress. 

And yet another sort of "nature" story, Robert recently scaled Mt. Whitney

Here's a little blurb about it.

Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m).^[Trial Difficulty: Moderate to strenuous, depending upon your experience and skill level. The trailhead elevation is 8,365 feet. The elevate at the summit is 14,497.61 feet. At high elevations, altitude sickness affects many people.

 Good for you, Robert!