One month to go

Pincushion
Wild heliotrope

California Sunflower

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Mocking Bird

We can hardly believe our time here is almost ended. True we have been busy. After we learned our spiel for working in the Visitors' Center, we amused ourselves by hiking all over the preserve and learning more. I have not been hiking as much as Duane. I used to do a job like this so I let him learn this one. He has such fun developing new hobbies like birding and learning all about wildflowers for this area. The birds and flowers are very different from the ones we grew up with in Ohio, and the ones we came to know in Texas. He learned this stuff so he could lead hikes. He led two for The Nature Conservancy on Friday. We have also been busy using the GPS unit to accurately map out the hiking trails here. Duane has been hiking more this week than I have for a couple of other reasons. I injured a small tendon on the top of my foot on Tuesday so I have been resting my foot while sewing quilts for our three new grandchildren due this year. Today I developed a fever from something so now I'm not even interested in sewing. I hope this is just a 24-48 hour virus. We'll see.

We hope you enjoy our pictures. The wildflowers are really beginning to pop up and the animals are starting to move around more after resting this winter. Here in the desert spring is here already and lots of people are out and about enjoying our fine weather before it gets too hot. Today our small lot was full as about 35 vintage and classic car owners showed up for their annual stroll around our grounds. They caused quite a stir. Other visitors forgot they were in a parking lot and strolled around taking pictures as if they were at a car show! The trouble was that today was also the day the local Boy Scouts were here working on part of our most popular trail. It turned out ok. Everyone finally maneuvered themselves back onto the street without a single fender bender. Tomorrow promises to be just as busy, but we don't work this Sunday so we planned to drive around Joshua Tree National Park to see if their wildflowers are better than ours. We'll let you know.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane