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We have been back from our long trip for one week, and I would say we are acclimating to life in a rainy climate instead of the terrible drought in California. We were lucky to miss the dangerous brush fires now raging in California and a very late snowstorm in the Rockies just a few days after we drove through.

Here in Ann Arbor, we are back to a life without a nearby beach, without a vista of mountains, but with many good things including our own home and garden.

On the drive east, our car was packed very full. Two bicycles, several suitcases...
this was the trunk as it appeared on the last day of the trip.

From the Denver area to Michigan, the road is long and not very interesting.
Wind farms, corn fields, feedlots, construction sites, semi trucks,
and a few splatted bugs on the windshield -- that's it. Glad to stop. 

Our magnolia bloomed to welcome us home. Almost all the blooms have now fallen. 

Migratory birds are everywhere, fun to watch. Chicks are hatching.
I think this is a goose egg. Baby Canada geese are not really welcome in the parks,
as the geese are so numerous, dirty, and aggressive.

But these Sandhill crane chicks are very welcome!
Len has seen and photographed quite a few birds since our return. More to  come this weekend.
See Len's Flickr page for constant additions of bird photos.

An 80-year-old century plant is sending up its stalk at the Botanical Garden.
Once it produces a crop of "pups," that is little clones, and a flower,
the plant will die as all agaves always do. At 15 inches per day of
growth, it will soon reach the roof, as shown in the photo.
They will open a panel so it can grow up and up.

Lots of other things to do: last night was a meeting of my book club, written up here: "The Worst Kitchen in Literature."