The progressively colder nights and early morning frosts are leaving the roses a little rough around the edges.

After the rain and now colder weather falling upon us, the zipper spider was trying to make a last stand in the remains of her tattered web. A lizard tried sunning itself on a fallen leaf in the cold morning sun, trying to defy the cold that restricted its movement and slowed its normal darting about to a slow crawl.

Guildenstern took a break to supervise Laurie while she was clearing catnip from the roses. He had his coffee and pruners at hand, but wouldn’t lift a paw to help clear the last stands of catnip covering the roses.

The Sandias had a nice dusting of snow this morning.

The weather started out perfect for the balloon fiesta then it had to go Seattle on them. The rain started coming down steadily when I left the office late this afternoon to pick up Laurie at UNM, and it was continued since. The fireworks from Balloon Fiesta Park  ended a few minutes ago, so the people who braved the rain would have seen a spectacular display because fireworks are particularly beautiful, magical in the rain.

iSad came instantly into vogue with the death of Steve Jobs. It is sad to lose such a visionary and innovator who gave us what we needed even though we didn’t know we needed it. Whether you like Apple products or not, Steve Jobs’ genius has had wide-ranging influence and made all our lives better.

Dawn brought us a mottled sky, 
stirring the winds as she pushed the sun over the mountains.
Winds blew the clouds by and by throughout the day,
finally scattering them about the sky
as Dusk calmed the winds, and the sun changed into twilight.

The clouds looked like backlit paper that was scratched as we left UNM this afternoon.  Puck posed in the roses, and I included the goldfish balloon from Sunday’s launch.

 

 

Balloons were inflating all over Corrales again this morning.  The balloon inflating at the gas station seemed particularly Corrales to me. I also threw in a few special shapes from Sunday.

The rain is nice, especially since I didn’t feel like going out to see if there was water in the irrigation ditch when I got up for a few minutes at three this morning. The plants love the rain, but my bones and joints don’t like it or the cooler temperature.

Balloons took off from all around us in Corrales this morning, and one lone balloon somehow made it downtown.

We spent the early morning hours from before sunrise until around 10:00 am, hanging around the garden with the cats, watching and photographing balloons, kitties, roses and each other.  Between the two of us we got enough photographs to do a photo of the day for a couple of years.

I have a nice crick in my neck from photographing balloons yesterday and today. Laurie figured out a leisurely way to watch balloons through a long lens without cricking her neck. Although, later she was walking around the garden with the camera in one hand, coffee in the other photographing balloons. I should of photographed  her doing one-handed photos with the lens zoomed out to 300 mm, but there were too many other distractions. Her pig photo is surprisingly clear for a one-handed shot with  le long lens.

The balloons were flying high today, and didn’t really float by in clumps, so I posted individual shots of special shapes. Puck decided he needed to participate in special shapes and decide to be an appliance. We have lots of beautiful roses right now, but this one of Rio Samba was striking for Rio Samba. While the other kitties simply ignore the balloons, Stretch actually watches them.

I’m not sure whether Stretch was praying I wouldn’t waterboard him or if he decided that if he froze on his way climbing up on the BluRay player that I wouldn’t see him. He remained in the same position long enough for me to get some photos before I took him off and waterboarded him — poor kitty.

Guildenstern was laying over Laurie’s pencil box making sure no one could get into it. I had just gotten off the phone with Fedex, so the phone was on the counter along with my coffee cup. I had to call Fedex because a delivery of chairs that was supposed to be sitting on our doorstep when we got home yesterday was “refused by recipient”, initiating a return to the vendor. I told Fedex there was no one here to refuse the delivery. The customer care tech asked me for my name and address and said neither my name or address was on the package, so all they could do was return it. I emailed the vendor, but probably won’t hear anything until Monday. The confirmation email has my name and correct address for shipping. Someone messed up big time on that order.

The balloons flew over our house this morning. I did several photos, but since all balloon photos end up looking the same, I only included a photo of the Darth Vader balloon because it complements Guildenstern and how I feel about the chairs.