No, this isn’t a post about financial investments and chances of getting a return. It is about investment of time and the luck of the weather.

Over the last several months, we’ve invested a lot of time in the landscaping around the house in Aguanga. We’ve added six trees (two olive and four pines) and at almost 20 shrubs. I’ve run drip irrigation lines to them all. We’ve pulled innumerable mustard plants and loco weeds. We’ve mowed and trimmed. I’ve gone after many gopher mounds. We have two goals for all this work: Less effort at maintenance and a prettier property. With each week having more to do, I wonder about the first goal.

Luck is needed for astronomy. Actually, it’s clear skies that are needed but without the luck to have clear skies, there is no astronomy. That’s been the situation over the past six months. I’ve only had a few nights when we’ve been out there without a major Moon and had clear skies. And on those nights, I’ve been whacked out tired from the work on the property.

As we move into Summer, I am hopeful that there will be less maintenance and more clear skies.

In the middle of March, I had a very nice trip to India. I was welcomed both by our business partners and the people of India. Here are some pictures from the trip. Please click on the images to get a larger sized image. The detail is excellent.

First a shot of a major laundry area in Mumbai. Here is where people get their clothes cleaned, and it is done well and delivered to their homes.

We were able to visit the Taj Mahal, and here are a series of images from that trip. Our visit coincided with the Holi Holiday in India. Wild colors are painted on everything in a great festival of joy. This shot shows PC, our guide, and the colors on the ground next to a bonfire site made of cow pies.

Here is the Taj Mahal seen from the entrance garden.

Now a detailed shot of the amazing inlays in the building.

A wide shot looking to the east as the Sun sets.

Finally, two shots taken the next morning, looking from the Red Fort in Agra.

India truly is a dynamic country. Many contrasts and tremendous energy.

A very large group of blackbirds filled our trees this morning. I walked out into a cacophonyThe Birds of bird noise. These are red-winged blackbirds who nest in Lake Riverside and surrounding areas. A very nice, bug group of birds. The YouTube version is ok, and if you can download the AVI (35mb) you’ll have your own copy. Update, killed the link because the same set of IP addresses kept downloading the avi. No point in slamming HostGator’s bandwidth.

If I were paranoid, I’d be thinking of The Birds

In the four and a half years since we got the house in Lake Riverside Estates, we have always wanted to be up for a real snow. We’ve had flurries before (back in December 2006 for example), but never a real snow. We know it happens because the prior owners spoke of some good snow storms and I’ve seen snow several times on the Anza Valley Web Cam.

Well, we finally got what we were waiting for. Not only a good snow, but on the Saturday night of a long weekend. Thank you Lord!

I feel a little bit silly making a big deal out of this, particularly since I grew up in Marquette, Michigan which is no stranger to snow. But it is a special treat for us in Southern California. After all, we are only at 3,400 feet above sea level. Hardly high in the mountains.

The fun started when my older daughter came into the room and said “It’s snowing! It’s Snowing!” We quickly went outside into a very nice heavy snow shower. We felt that the cats had to enjoy it, so Sam came out with my daughter.

At this point, we didn’t know how long it would keep coming down. But it did keep coming. So with dinner in the oven, we suited up to enjoy the snow. Both girls enjoy the falling snow.

The younger girl (three and a half years old) is well bundled up for the cold.

This was a heavy snow with big flakes. It seemed to me to be like a lake effect snow, but clearly no lake was involved here. The big flakes were coming down and our back yard pine tree was being weighed down by the snow. Lots of snow falling.

The next day dawned crisp and snow covered.

The observatory got through the night just fine.

Of course we had to go sledding. We made snowmen and snow angels as well.

Here is a panorama, looking east toward Anza. You can see the girls working on a snowman in the foreground. Note that they are really the only spot of color in the picture.

Altogether a lot of fun. About half of the snow melted that day, with the grass and roofs staying snow-covered until today.

Selections from the last several months of Magnificat.

James 1:25
But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does.

1 John 3:18
Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.

Hebrews 12:11
At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

Sirach 33:10-11, 13
So too, all men are of clay, for from earth man was formed;
Yet with his great knowledge the LORD makes men unlike; in different paths he has them walk.
Like clay in the hands of a potter, to be molded according to his pleasure, So are men in the hands of their Creator, to be assigned by him their function.

Hebrews 13:14
Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.

Jeremiah 17:14
Heal me, LORD, that I may be healed; save me, that I may be saved, for it is you whom I praise.

Mathew 6:26
Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?

Romans 12:12
Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.

Mathew 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Psalm 34:20-21
Many are the trials of the just man
but from them all the LORD will rescue him.
He will keep guard over all his bones,
not one of his bones shall be broken.

Isaiah 45:8
Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,
like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.
Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;
let justice also spring up!
I, the LORD, have created this.

Jeremiah 289:11
For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?
One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays.
The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises.
Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going.
All speech is labored; there is nothing man can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing.
What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.

What a day. Started to replace the broken spray hose on the kitchen sink. Stepping out to get some tools, the wind pulled the back door out of my hand and it swung around and broke a window. Then it turns out that the replacement sprayer won’t fit. So off to Temecula to drop off the window to be repaired and to buy a new kitchen faucet with a working sprayer. Unpacking the faucet and it’s missing a screw. Off to Anza True Value for the screw (they had it) and back to complete the install. Then I find that the cold water connection is 1/2 inch while the hot is 3/8 and the faucet is 3/8. Too late for the hardware store, but I found the parts to make it work. Then I notice that the water line for the ice maker is connected to the hot water line. Whisky, tango, foxtrot! That I’ll colic tomorrow. This house has always been full of surprises. Time for a drink.