South Mountain Park - Phoenix/Chandler, AZ

On Monday and Tuesday I visited with friends Paul and Barb who are staying in Chandler, Arizona for a couple of weeks.  We went for a short hike in South Mountain Park on the south side of Phoenix and north of Chandler on Monday.

I went back on Tuesday morning and did another short hike up to Telegraph Pass  on the south side of the park from the Chandler side.

Havasu Visitors

Friends Phil and Jody arrived last Sunday for a few days of hiking and fun here in Lake Havasu City.  Of course I had to take them for the OMG! experience of sliding down the dry waterfall at SARA Canyon.

Later in the week the desert exploded with wild flowers.

My Langins - Descendants of Samuel Langin

Descendants of Samuel Langin Generation 1
1. Samuel Langin-1 was born on Jan 19, 1800 in Chipman, Queens County New Brunswick. He died on Mar 12, 1881.
He married (1) Rebecca Lamb. She was born in 1806. She died on Aug 21, 1842.
He married (2) Margaret Ferguson. She was born in 1821 in Ireland.
Children of Samuel Langin and Rebecca Lamb are:
2. i. Caroline Victoria Langin, M: John C. Gaunce, Mar 13, 1862 in Gagetown New Brunswick Canada.
ii. Joanna Langin.
iii. James John Langin, B: 1849[per DC; prob incorrect] in New Brunswick, Canada, D: Mar 25, 1904 in Mt Pleasant, Michigan, M: Anna Scovil Ramsey, Bet. 1867-1869 in Canada.
iv. Emily Langin, B: 1831, D: 1908, M: John A. McLean, Dec 17, 1867 in 1867 Dryden, Lapeer, Michigan USA.
v. Isaiah Langin, B: May 30, 1833 in Gaspereau Forks, Queens County , New Brunswick, D: Apr 04, 1908.
vi. Rebecca Langin, B: Bet. 1838-1864, D: Apr 08, 1940, M: Peleg Demmons Jr., Aug 25, 1870 in St. John County New Brunswick Canada.
vii. Samuel Langin, B: Abt. 1840. viii. Martha Langin, B: 1840. ix. Bertha Helen Langin, B: 1845, D: Jan 1929.

For the birds...

Bird watching has become a new past time for me while staying here at Lake Havasu.  I've been going for a daily morning bird walk for an hour since mid-January.  About twice a week I've been going on a guided bird walk in the state park next to where I'm staying.  The walk is lead by volunteer Jim Scott on Wednesday through Sunday.  Thanks to Jim I've seen 52 kinds of birds.  You can visit his blog at: cascaderamblings.blogspot.com/ .

Desert Flowers

The desert is getting really green around Havasu because of the rain we had a couple weeks ago. But I'm not seeing many flowers... now I'm sort of afraid the flowers won't be here until after I leave in a couple of weeks. I ran across what I thought was a Mexican Poppy on yesterday's hike but now I'm thinking that's not what it really is.

Havasu Birds

I'm seeing a lot of really great birds in the state park here in Lake Havasu.  In the past couple of days I've seen these[pics not by me]...

Ladderback Woodpecker

Red tailed Hawk

Lake Havasu Sunsets

We just keep having these great sunsets over Lake Havasu...

Lake Havasu Hiking Fun

My brother and sister-in-law have been visiting and we're getting out for lots of hikes.  Everybody got to slide down this dry waterfall...

On the hike out we ran across these mountain sheep...

I never had them let me get this close.

Uncle Stub's Bull Fiddle

I really like this picture of my Uncle Stub [Alton Knsiley-- actually my dad's uncle] and his bull fiddle.  He used to play it at square dances in Lansing, Michigan.  Dance steps can be called by the fiddle player into the fiddles megaphone.