Since I don’t have a 220 volt outlet in the house, other than the dryer, I had to lug one of my dad’s old, 75 pound linear amplifiers to my neighbor’s machine shop to plug it into his 220 volt outlet — the tubes glowed. Like film photography and manually operated machining lathes and millers, high powered transmitting tubes are so 20th Century.
We are getting a nice variety of day lilies with interesting colors.
Better known as a Camel Spider, the Sun Scorpion seems to be something between a spider and scorpion, but it’s neither. They are solpugids, of which there are 50 species in the southwestern US. This one was in the catio and about 1 1/2 inches long, but they commonly reach 6 inches in length and can supposedly run at speeds up to 10 mph. They eat insects, small lizards, beetles and scorpions that they catch and kill with their jaws, as they are non-venomous.
A blue damselfly landed close to me, and I noticed it was eating an ant when I got it in focus under my macro lens.
The garden got about 3/4 inch of rain over the past few days, and with a good soaking from the irrigation, the grapes have gone wild (along with most of the plants on the property), and climbed into the apple tree, where they are dangling among the apples. I’m sure most self respecting winers would not allow their grapes to mix with their apples, but when we get a little water in our dry climate, grapes (and a whole lot of other stuff) happen!
Mermaid’s blooming.
Adult and juvenile hummingbirds feeding on trumpet vine and taking breaks from buzzing around chasing each other.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been enjoying the tall, wild grasses, while the garter snake has been coming back and hanging out on our window sill.
The day lilies are blooming.
Laurie got close to the window in the bedroom to try and get better reception on her phone and discovered a cute little garter snake in the ivy outside the window looking in.
The death car is a regular in the Dia de los Muertos Parade in November and there it was in Corrales’ 4th of July Parade. It’s quite distinctive and reminds me of the Adams Family. At least the driver is well prepared in case he ends up “coffin ready” on the streets of Albuquerque.
Off Center & Not Even 