More slo-mo as requested. Some of you may find this vid boring. Others will be fascinated to find out that the total time elapsed in making this vid was only one second. That’s it. I tried to count the number of wing beats and I came up with something like 72. Can you imagine beating your wings 72 times in one second?

I snapped this at the Botanical Gardens this weekend. I like it’s cheery face. Rick’s Dad is stable at the moment, but he does have a post-surgery infection at the moment and is running a fever. They have been keeping him in a “doze” under sedation and will be bringing him out of it little by little, starting today. Please keep him in your thoughts!

My Mom is still visiting, so I’ll take my usual blogging back up next week. I do have some new slo-mo vids to share with you, so stay tuned!

I thought this photo taken this morning of my bee balm looked like a burst of fireworks, so here it is. New Jersey likes its fireworks, obviously, since for the past several nights that’s all we’ve heard. First one little town will have their fireworks display, then the next town will have theirs the following night. Plus the neighbors have been setting off illegal fireworks on and off during the day and night. It’s getting a bit old since none of us are fans of loud noises. The dogs have held up well though and I’m proud of them.

Rick’s Dad came through the surgery, but it was much worse than they had thought so the surgery was a long and difficult one. We hope his recovery goes smoothly.

It’s cloudy and cool here today so far. We were hoping to spend the day lolling around the pool but it’s not really pool weather. We have a pork shoulder smoking on the BBQ for our pulled pork sandwiches later today. Of course,  now it looks like we have some rain on the way… Freshly made coleslaw and sweet corn on the cob will round out our 4th of July barbecue. Yum! Hope you all have a great holiday!

Sorry I’ve been neglecting my blog for the past few days but things have been a bit hectic. It all started with Rick getting stranded in the airport in L.A. without a flight home due to storms here on the East Coast. 24 hours and many missed stand-by flights later he finally arrived home. This put going to upstate New York to pick up my Mom and bring her back for a week’s visit with us off by one day and we’re still trying to catch up. My friend Carolyn from Rhode Island also came for the weekend, albeit one day later!

Add to this the fact that Daisy has been sick (we think she’s turned the corner to recovery now) and Rick’s Dad goes in for open-heart surgery tomorrow you can see why I’ve been a bit lax. Please keep Vaughn in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow.

Until I can give more time to blogging, please enjoy Alex and his favorite toy.

Finally, he gets tired of the whole thing ...

Back to a new slo-mo vid for you. Who knew that butterflies [or maybe these are moths?] use their wings like birds do? They always look like they are just flitting around and not taking deep strokes. This is a series of clips put together in one video. Watch for a bumblebee to helicopter in on the third butterfly segment.