Wet and Dark

July 27, 2013 Timothy Price14 Comments

We had been without power for 15 hours when we left for Tristan’s and David’s to charge devices and get on the Internet. About 7:00 pm last night very high winds and pouring rain that took out the power. Puck was out during most of the storm and finally came in soaking wet about 8:30, bringing a good amount of the 2 inches of rain we got with him. He reluctantly posed for photos illuminated by our flashlights, but finally gave me a nice “Chat Noir” pose. The neighbor’s corrals and arena were still flooded this morning, and the horses were fed on the high spots along the edges. The morning sun was brilliant in the fresh air, and the sunflowers and bees were happy after the rains.

Breakfast with Guildenstern

July 21, 2013 Timothy Price7 Comments

Breakfast with Guildenstern can be quite an adventure as he sprawled out on the table and pushed our coffee cups to the edge, leaving them on the eve of destruction; then he laid on Laurie’s sketchpad while she was drawing the Sandias. Between trying to push our coffee cups to their death, and obstructing art, he did manage to get in some cute poses.

Monsoon

July 6, 2013 Timothy Price8 Comments

Three thirty PM the clouds let loose and we got a nice downpour. The Monsoon season is underway.

No Fun 4th

July 5, 2013 Timothy Price6 Comments

Corrales canceled the water fights this year, and since the bosque is closed we couldn’t go out to the river to watch the fireworks. I don’t know why they cancelled the water fights, but if it was to save water, that’s ridiculous as flushing your toilet uses more water than a squirt gun fight — so it must have something to do with guns and violence and all that — you know all those studies that show how squirt guns and water fights turn kids into violent criminals. Whatever the reason, no one can have fun in Corrales on the 4th. Despite Corrales, we had a great time with Jerri, Bob and Tristan and the lightning gave us a wonderful light show.

Macro Morning

July 1, 2013 Timothy Price9 Comments

I got out my macro lens this morning and René and I started crawling around under squash leaves to get photos of a bee inside a squash blossom. The bee was pretty cute, but after several snaps it got tired of having a lens in its face and showed me a hefty pair of bee fangs. I can’t resist doing macro shots of damselflies and dragonflies. I sneak up on them until they fly, freeze in place and wait for them to come back (they often do), sneak up a little closer — they fly, I freeze, they come back — and the process continues until I either get the shots I want or they decide I’m too close and don’t come back.

Mama Manx has a cave in the cucumber patch where she lays on the cool mulch under the shade of the cucumber leaves. When one of us gets too close to the entrance of her cucumber cave, she darts out like a moray eel, chatters at us, then retreats back into her cave.

Puck is working on his memoirs, “Don’t Puck With Me”, and while he was taking a break he pestered Laurie for some attention while she was reading. Guildenstern was intently playing with clover under my chair while I sat on the deck enjoying the fine summer morning.

Paws

June 30, 2013 Timothy Price10 Comments

Diné laid under the chaise lounge with her paws crossed, while beautiful thunderheads built up over the Sandias and floated by earlier in the afternoon. A vulture appeared to fly above the clouds as it circled over the river. The picturesque clouds turned into a dust storm in the late afternoon, but, alas, no rain.

Things Corrales

June 29, 2013 Timothy Price8 Comments

A few things you can find in Corrales.

One O Seven Point Three

June 28, 2013 Timothy Price1 Comment

Laurie noticed the temperature was 106º F at 4:30 pm, so I checked the max temperature for the day on our weather station and it showed the max temp was 107.3º F which is 41.8º C — just shy of the “answer to life the universe and everything”. The temperature was 99º F when I was checking to see what the max temp was and I noticed it said the wind chill was 98.3º F — let’s hear it for the cool breeze! I thought the photo of a backlit Camisole rose was the most representative of “sunny and 107”, but a backlit trumpet vine and Tuscan Sun rose were good candidates, as well.

Magic Mountains

June 26, 2013 Timothy Price16 Comments

Cézanne made many paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire. Some people think that was rather strange, but Like the Sandias, depending on the light and perspective, Mont Sainte-Victoire is never the same.

Sayre’s Barn at Sunset

June 21, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

I went out to check the status of water in the ditch (not running) and got photos of our neighbor’s barn at sunset, the best view I can get of the Sandias without breaking the law, a photo of the law and a nice reflection of the standing water in the ditch. I did see an big, old, finned Cadillac on the way home. The car was so big that with two lanes between us on Coors Road, it barely fit in field of view of a 55mm lens. Seeing an old Cadillac on the road reminded me of Loquillo’s song “Cadillac Solitario” where he is singing about being drunk in a Cadillac while parked under the three crosses on a hill overlooking Barcelona after his girlfriend dumped him. We discovered Loquillo in 1996 when we happened upon one of their concerts in Plaza Mayor during the San Ysidro festival. The crowd was huge, and the performance and sound was amazing. We learned later that Loquillo was a huge star in Spain with 25 records/CDs on the market at that time. We went to at least one more live performance by Loquillo while living in Madrid, and brought back several of his CDs.