Bill and Lesley Murr

Bill & Lesley Murr say "Aloha" from Hawaii.  That's a nice vacation from their home in Alaska. 

from Chris and Linda Steward in the high mountains of Colorado

Hi Sue,

Thank you for posting our Cereus Cactus flowers on the update!  They are so beautiful and we would have missed them.  All is well here in the Colorado mountains.  Linda and I are enjoying the cool weather and the local animals.  Here are some recent pictures of some of our regular visitors.  We also have mule deer, bobcats, coyotes, marmots, and other smaller critters who roam around.  Linda is currently feeding 40 or so hummingbirds, and we have magpies, stellar jays, ravens, robins, swifts, bluebirds, and finches.  When they all start migrating south then Linda and I will get the hint and head your way.  Hi to Don ! 

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keith & Wendy Yeo in Manitoba

Received an email from Keith Yeo in Manitoba.  Good to hear from our Canadian friends!  They've had some rough weather but his backyard looks pretty.

From Keith: 

I have attached a picture of 1 of our flower beds. All the flowers and plants are two weeks behind so some are very short and haven't filled out yet.

Just in case, this is the color green.  lol 

Our weather has not been good, a lot of rain and cool days. A lot of people's basements have flooded. North of us about 50 miles the City of Brandon is diked up in July? to stop the river from flooding their north end.

1 of their main streets they decided not to dam the river in that spot just let the river overflow and close the street.

Farmers to the west of us are under water for the third straight year with no crops.

Farmers 3 hours to our north only got in 25% of their crops.

It is too bad they can't send the surplus to California where it hasn't rained in 3 yrs.

 

Because of the rain the mosquitoes are so bad that you can't stay out in the yard without a lot of body spray. They attack you right now with a frenzy because with such a short life span they need your blood to reproduce.

Wayne and Verna Sheppard

From Wayne and Verna Sheppard reporting on the Washington State fires!!

Verna writes: 

"Attached are some pictures of fire taken a few days ago.  The fire was across the river from Lincoln Rock State Park.  Not far from here, in Pateros, Brewster & Alta Lake many have lost their homes.  Several times that we went in to Wenatchee and East Wenatchee the smoke was quite thick.  It is dry and hot around here."

 

 

 

 

Tom & Julie Langwell in Idaho

Tom and Julie Langwell live in Idaho.  Julie says they have beautiful sunrise sky too as she took this from her bedroom window.

Charlotte Duckette

From Charlotte Duckette:

 

Roger & me out in our 49 Willys jeep

 Fawn about a wk old that we saw on this jeep trip

 

Dave Boldt

An email from Dave Boldt in Minnesota:

"This is what I do in Minnesota in the summer time, I swat mosquito's and watch the deer empty out my bird feeder."

Wayne & Gwen Black

Wayne & Gwen Black have returned from a wonderful trip to Japan.  Beautiful photos!  Thanks for sharing.

Fish market (those fish are 'planted upright in that ice) in Taipei

 Japanese Wedding at the Cherry Blossom festival in Aomori, Japan

 

Tokyo Harbor