This is the place I got the Dead Texan Burger. Need I say more?

 

 

I was awakened by rain, and went outside to see the effect it was having in the pre-dawn light. The Sandias where misty through the drizzle and light cloud cover, which had turned the rain to snow, leaving the cracks and craggy spaces in the face of the mountains white.  I climbed down off the roof after photographing the Sandias to find a sparrow playing at my feet. The rain fell ever so lightly as it fluttered through the vinca, before hopping onto a chimenea, where it strutted around the edge turning from one side to the other, but keeping its face toward me, as it made a quarter arc around the cast iron lip. Then it flew into the bamboo, not 10 feet from me, where it struck various poses while I photographed it. I was using my 70-200 mm ƒ/2.0 lens since it was dawn and overcast. The exposure was 1/80 sec at ƒ/2.0, ISO 100. The lens was zoomed to 200 mm.

When I took out the trash yesterday afternoon, the wind was still blowing hard. The towhees and sparrows where hanging onto branches of trees and canes of various rose bushes trying to keep from being blown away. I tried to use the wind to my advantage to sneak up on the birds to get a closer shot, but Rosencrantz and Puck where following me around meowing and announcing my presence to all the birds.  Cranes and geese flew overhead almost suspended in mid-air as they fought gusts of winds on their way to orchard north of us.  While everything in the last photo appears to be calm, the look on the towhee’s face shows how determined he was to hold onto his place on an overgrown Dr. Huey as the wind whipped its canes to and fro.

 

The dinner we worked on all day yesterday was a success. While all the dishes were excellent, the dessert, which I thought was the most work, was especially good and very spicy.  Preparing the meal ahead allowed us to do chores, hang out with the cats and read, and work on Laurie’s classes.

 

 

I photographed all the birds I posted today through the kitchen windows while I was helping Laurie prepare the meal for her book group that is meeting at our house tomorrow night.  On the menu is potted shrimp on toast with celery-radish salad, spice-rubbed roast beef tenderloin with red wine sauce, mashed potato and rutabaga gratin, braised fennel with orange, and gingerbread-brandy trifle for desert.  All the dishes are best prepared one to 3 days before the meal so the flavors can blend.  We’ve been working on the various dishes all day, while doing other chores in between.

I’m letting the filling for the trifle cool while I write the blog. It’s fairly complicated to prepare and a lot of work whisking egg yokes with ginger-brandy syrup, sugar and sparkling wine over a baño de Maria (double boiler, I believe it is called in English) until it turned to pudding. The recipe said about 8 minutes. At 5000 feet above sea level it took 30 minutes of vigorous whisking before the mixture cooked into a smooth, airy pudding. Now I have to whip cream and mascarpone together, then add the pudding to complete the filling. Laurie just finished baking the ginger cake.

The western sky at dawn had I soft pink just before the sun rose over the mountains. Puck was hopping around between the bonsai shelves, sniffing leaves and rubbing on things. Rosencrantz sat on the chair in the dance room and took in the sunbeams filtering through the glass in the sunroom.

This bodacious architecture is really quite out of place with its white columns and bright lights, as it sits across Central from Old Town, which has mostly old adobe structures. The building houses a law firm, which I would guess does not offer bargain legal services. 3rd, 5th, and 6th streets were all closed again tonight, so I went home on West Central and couldn’t pass up photographing this monument to the legal profession with its high intensity night lights setting it off agains the night sky. The yucca and portal are off the parking lot across Central from the Law Firm.

 

A roadrunner was sunning himself behind a catcus yesterday when I dropped Laurie off at Tristan’s. Many years ago we had an infestation of roadrunners on the property. When we were gardening, five or six roadrunners would circle around us sizing us up to see if they could make a few meal out of us.  Roadrunners seem more like dinosaurs than birds to me. After a couple of years of eating all the lizards, robins and other birds in the neighborhood they moved on. I haven’t seen a roadrunner in the yard in long, long time.

They’ve closed down several streets downtown the last few days for filming, forcing most of the traffic trying to get out of downtown onto 2nd Street. The problem is the lights are not timed to handle the extra traffic, so 2nd Street and all the side streets were jammed. While waiting to turn onto 2nd Street, I noticed the light on First Plaza was interesting. I finally got to Martin Luther King Jr. and while waiting in traffic to get on I-25, the light was nice on the old hospital building on MLK.

 

 

 

Tristan is restoring her 1980 280-Z. This is the new dashboard, center console and speakers. Laurie helped with sanding and painting parts to the steering column today.

I think the “Your Speed” sign was freaking out tonight. I’m not sure what the young woman in the shorts was thinking. The sun was setting, the wind was icy, and she was walking very quickly along along 5th street along the west side of the Kimo Theater.  I missed a shot of another young woman walking a block north of the Kimo who was bundled up from head to toe, arms tucked in tightly, chin down to minimize the cold wind on her face. It would have made a nice companion photo. “In Plain Sight” is filming their final season, and had a line of trucks, facing the wrong way, blocking 3rd Street this afternoon. The homie in Hair and a Homie and Homies and Homeless was an extra in the 2010 and 2011 seasons of In Plain Sight. Maybe he’ll get called up again.