The visit according to Phoebe

All but one of tonight’s photos were taken by five year old grandgirl Phoebe.  My daughter Robyn emailed me and asked if I could do a post on their visit here last week through Phoebe’s eyes.  As a mother, she is rightly proud of her daughter.  So here it is.  This is Phoebe’s first foray into the world of photography.  She used her mother’s Nikon camera.

Phoebe is pretty much attached to her mother’s hip at this point in her life, so of course she went with Robyn to check out and use the volunteer building’s bathroom.  Only a five year old would document a men’s urinal.

      Next up was documenting the patio.  I had enough rockers this year that all of us got to sit in one.

The first night involved picking out the dolls for her and her sister.  She also got a shot of Chef Jay, but neglected to take a picture of his wife Linda, the maker of the dolls.  Handsome men appear to be more important than crocheting ladies in this little girl’s eyes.

  The next day we did the Painted Desert Trail hike, and all three of us were busy with our cameras.

We did quite a bit of driving around, and I guess this is the view a five year old gets from the back seat.

On the home front, water problems seem to follow me around.  There was the brown water issue at Tamarac, the leaking fresh water tank since then, and here at Imperial the water quits running quite regularly.  My water tank seems to have magically corrected itself so it’s not as much an issue as earlier.  However, today a staff member delivered 35 bottles of water to my site.  Even after having an electrician out the water problem has not been solved.  Staff works four ten hour days here, so the water supply was to help me make it through the weekend should the water go out again.  I’ve got 2/3 tank of water and all those bottles, so I think I’ll be OK.  Aging physical infrastructure and budget cuts sure are effecting things on our refuges.

Lots of people love the desert southwest, but I’m thinking I’m not so enthusiastic about it.  Aside from my disappointing experience here at Imperial, I find I really like the greenness of the east.  Anahuac NWR is calling me home, and I do believe I’ll return there next winter.  I’m happy I spent a winter in the desert, but I’m yearning to see High Island and the coastal marshes once again. Before my mother suffered from the ravages of Alzheimer's, she always said I’d end up in Texas.  Perhaps she was right.

To finish up this post, I leave you with one last photo from Phoebe.  It’s not my favorite for obvious reasons, but I guess the acorn doesn’t fall too far from the tree…

                                                                                THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy