Today we had to get a pair of tires for the truck, but before that we headed over to my mom's, to wish her a belated Mother's Day, since I had to work yesterday. Alex picked out an orchid, and I gave her a rooted cutting from my begonia. We'll do more later. Usually I give her plants to plant in the garden, but it's still just a touch early (we had temps in the 30s just over a week ago!) She's going back to New Mexico next week, and won't be back until the end of the month, so won't be doing any serious gardening until then. I think we're planning a trip to the Botanic Gardens once she's back in town.

Two pictures from mom's house:

While there, we appreciated her lilac.

Which is hiding...


A praying mantis egg case! (Technically an "ootheca".)

After getting the tires, we went to Pelican Pond for a walk. It was very warm today, in the mid 80s, and it was lovely to be outside. While it was to far off to get a decent picture of, there was a pelican today!

There were lots of flowers blooming:


Honeybee on honeysuckle!

Five more pictures of flowers:

Globemallow, with a sweet pea in the background.


Bluebells


Chokecherry


Blue flax


Another of the honeybee on the honeysuckle.

Also quite a few birds!


I really liked these three crows.

Four more pictures of birds:

Geese and goslings! One of the parents was hissing at us.


Red-winged blackbird! You can see his nice bright shoulders.


No actual bird in the picture, but you can see the woodpecker hole! I have seen flickers nesting there in previous years.


A crow!

Bella in the water!

Some things found on the shore:

Small claw.


Much bigger claws!


A very pretty shell. A lot more color than these usually have; typically they're very plain, matte white.

Less nice, I did find two different fishhooks, with their lures and lines. There are a bunch of fish line disposal receptacles all around the park, so it frustrates me to still find them just discarded along the shore. :/ Of course I took them and disposed of them, but I'd hate for a dog to find them with a paw, or a bird to see the lure and try to swallow it...

There's a little... water management structure at one end of the lake. I've never seen water through it, but it looks like the intent is to help control the flow of water into the reservoir. But there are some murals there now:

Two more:

They all appear to be views of the lake. Very nice!

It was a lovely day to go for a walk, though Bella was again very tired by the end of it, haha.