
How often does life
Find us tangled in small webs
Wishing to be free

Sunrise
Prime time loosed Laudes shades
Colors fly on clouds at dawn
Sunflowers’ faces looking east
Contemplating eschaton
Drama of their world
Between what is and what will be
A risen sun, the end of summer
From Terce to Sext to Nones is eternity
Arcoíris pulls on Vespers
Eternal promise lights cut dim
Sun checks out at Compline
Martins tucks it in
Sunflowers tall bow their heads
Rooted firmly holding sand
Contemplating darkness see
The end is at hand

Sunset

Miss Mantis models
On a sunny sunflower
Sassy she can be
Miss Mantis hitched I ride on me as I made my way from the car to the house through our sunflower forest. I felt something walking around on the back of my arm giving me little love pinches. After I put down a load of books, my briefcase and some framed pictures I was taking inside, I looked at my arm, and there was Miss Mantis enjoying the ride. I put her on a plant on the deck until I got everything put away. I walked back out to the plant, and she was there waiting. I put out my hand, she hopped onto it and I took her out to a sunflower where she was a very good model. I didn’t want to leave her in the plants on the deck because the cats would get her. I had to rescue a praying mantis from the kittens few nights ago.
Just when you thought it was safe to view a video post on OC&NE, I give you Bambi!

Our Majordomo texted me last night that there would be water to irrigate in the morning. I went out at dawn, but there was not much water in the irrigation ditch. There was a lot of sticks and cotton floating on top of the water. Therefore, I didn’t want to open my gate before the water was flowing over the main gate because a lot of the debris would clog up my culverts and ditches. I texted the Majordomo and asked when the water would be let in, and told him I’d be back home around 11:00 am to let in the water if it had come up by then.

I went to work, and we moved the remaining file cabinets, shelf units, tables and cabinets out of the downtown office. We put some of it in the storage room on the south end of the building, and loaded the rest of it into 4 pickup trucks and delivered shelves to a church in northeast Albuquerque, and then I delivered file cabinets and desks to our pharmacy in Corrales on my way home. At 10:30 am the Majordomo texted me that the water was up. I thought I would make it to Corrales by 11:00 am, but then an employee at the market asked if we had more desks. We did, so he got his truck and we loaded it with 3 file cabinets and two desks. I wasn’t going to make it home by 11:00 am, so I called Laurie and had her open out gate and get the water started.
Speaking of cotton, not only does it cling to plants and other things, it clogs up our swamp cooler. The above photos are the swamp cooler all clogged up again after I had cleaned it on Monday afternoon. I have to pull out the pads and brush the cotton off of them, and then I have to use a hose to spay the cotton out of the vents in the panels that hold the pads.

Around 1:00 pm, storm clouds were building up. It started raining around 3:00 pm.
This native bee was working the Shasta Daisies. The insects really love the Shasta Daisies while they are in bloom.

The rain stopped around 4:30 pm. I went out to shut down the irrigation gate at 5:00 pm and the storm clouds were breaking up.
A Pearl Crescent butterfly was also enjoying the Shasta Daisies this afternoon.

A yellow lily started blooming this afternoon.

While I was checking the progress of the irrigation water, I noticed we had one yellow Bing Cherry on our cherry tree. That’s the biggest harvest I’ve had in years. I think we had four or five cherries in 2018. The cherry was delicious.

Pre-sunset at around 8:00 pm looking southeast. Resa’s tree lighted on the left, Dale’s Peach tree in front (it has peaches), and Rebecca’s Black Bamboo patch with yellow tops in the middle right background.

Closer to sunset around 8:15 pm east/southeast. From left to right: Tiffany’s tree, Gabriela’s tree, Gigi’s tree, Teagan’s trees behind Gigi’s tree, and Susan’s tree.

Sunset looking west.

While the official high temperature in Albuquerque was 101ºF (38.3ºC), the temperature in the east side of the building when I left the office was 107ºF (41.7ºC). I stopped by Costco on the way home and parked in the shade under their solar panels. When I got in the car to leave, the temperature still read 107ºF. The temperature did not change until I got home and it went down to 99ºF (37.2ºC).

Black bamboo sprouting in Julie’s Giant Dr. Huey has a Japanese look to it.

Spunk posing for intermission.

Pre-sunset looking east.

Sunset looking east.

Sunset looking west.
The Flowers: Mutant Peace, Peonies and Rio Samba.

The western clouds were beautiful, but not promising for a clear sky in the wee hours of the morning when the Super Flower Moon gets bloody. I’ll get up a 3:00am and check the sky.
The Super Flower Moon Rise.

Super Flower Moon

Super-wide-angle view of the Super Flower Moon rising over the Sandias and Rio Grande.

Super Flower Moon in the clouds.

Can you find Venus?

You should be able to see Venus in the above photo.

There was nice color in the west, but I missed most of it photographing the moon.