PAUL AND NOREEN ARE STILL EMPLOYED, sort of, and have full schedules. We did enjoy their company but we also wanted to head out alone. We had been to Boyce Thompson Arboretum before but it’s so interesting that we wanted to return. It is a real slice of desert with labels on the various cacti. The birds, however, are wild and elusive so we headed to the Gilbert Riparian Center for a birding fix, stopping along the way to find the invasive (but colorful) rosy-faced lovebird. We had seen most of the species at the center before but there were plenty to keep our attention. And we did add one new one, the hooded merganser, to our list.
Lovebird Mergansers
I hadn’t seen my second cousin Ginger since the late 60s so when she turned up in Arizona in Ron’s genealogy search I was excited. We emailed a bit and decided to get together in Mesa near where she lives. She caught us up on her bit of the family and brought along some great photos of her as a kid and of our grandmothers who were sisters.
