I was awakened by a pink glow — by the time I got outside with my camera the pinks were turning into reds and yellows. The sky and clouds were interesting throughout the day.
Category: Sandias
The Eagle & The Crows
While I was out at the river at sunset, the bald eagle flew by high along the opposite bank of the river. As it passed the face of the Sandias, it caught up with a flock of crows. A few crows fell in behind the eagle at first, then the crows’ flight became more chaotic as the eagle flew through them. Five cranes flew close to me at dusk, they probably couldn’t see me in the low light, and the high ISO produced interesting images. The Sandias turned a nice “watermelon” pink tonight.
City Lights
On our way out the river on Saturday, Nicole mentioned that the beautifully warm weather we were experiencing would not last. Being an astute Burqueña, she knows our weather well — sure enough, we had snow yesterday, and today we had mostly cloudy skies with cold winds. I stopped on the way home and took photos of the city lights under a stormy sky for the panorama . The moon is 93% full tonight and the clouds were beautiful swirling around under it.
Fashion on the Rio Grande
After we finished the studio portion of our photo session, I took Nicole out to the river to do more photos on the Rio Grande with the Sandias in the background.
Shakespeare Cats
I found Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Puck keeping an eye on each other when I got home from photographing the Sandias and cranes this morning.
Scratch that Itch
I was trying to get Stretch to pose for a photo, which he wasn’t in the mood for, so he scratched an itch in defiance. The light and clouds were dramatic on the way in to work this morning, as was the light on a bicycle locked to the grating at 3rd and Gold.
Little Drops of Rain
I spent most of the day putting together my presentation on Troubadour poetry and music for French 385: Travels in Provence. It rained most of the day, and during a break in the weather I went out and photographed the storm passing over the Sandias. On my way out to the river, I noticed there were still a few drops of rain the wind had not blown off a rose bush — it reminded me of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You”, which has a verse that begins “Little drops of rain…” I had been reading medieval poetry all day and started thinking that “Thank You” could be modern Troubadour poetry.
Troubadours originally wrote their poetry in Occitan, the language of Provence, France, also called Provançal. I don’t understand Occitan, so I’ve been reading the poetry translated into English by William and Frances Paden in their book Troubadour Poems from the South of France. Women Troubadours where called trobairitz, and the most famous trobairitz is La Comtessa de Dia. After reading many troubadour poems, La Comtessa de Dia is one of my favorites. Here is one of her poems named Estat ai en greu cossirier / I have been in heavy grief circa 1169:
I have been in heavy grief
for a knight who once was mine,
And I want it to be forever known
That I loved him too much,
I see now that I’m betrayed
For not giving him my love
Bemused, I lie in bed awake;
Bemused, I dress and pass the day.
If only I could hold him
Naked in my arms one night!
He would feel ecstatic
Were I to be his pillow.
Since I desire him more
Than Floris did Blanchefleur,
I give him my heart and my love,
My wit, my eyes, for as long as I live.
Splendid lover, charming and good,
When shall I hold you in my power?
If only I could lie with you one night
And give you a loving kiss!
Know that I’d like
To hold you as my husband,
As long as you’d promise
To do what I desired.
Here are the lyrics to Robert Plan’s Thank You, 1969:
If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me.
Kind woman, I give you my all, Kind woman, nothing more.
Little drops of rain whisper of the pain, tears of loves lost in the days gone by.
My love is strong, with you there is no wrong,
together we shall go until we die. My, my, my.
An inspiration is what you are to me, inspiration, look… see.
And so today, my world it smiles, your hand in mine, we walk the miles,
Thanks to you it will be done, for you to me are the only one.
Happiness, no more be sad, happiness….I’m glad.
If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me.
Moon on the Rise
I went out to get the moonrise this afternoon. The clouds covered the moon when it first came over the mountain, but then as it rose behind the clouds it afforded nice photo ops. The geese and cranes are still hanging around, and the crows were thick at times, which reminded me of the movie “The Birds.”
Snow
We got a little snow before I went to class at UNM this afternoon, then the clouds broke up for a couple of hours, regrouped and it started snowing again. We got over an inch in Corrales, and I drove most of the way home in a blizzard. The storm let up as I got on the west side of Albuquerque, where I was able to get a panorama of it snowing on the east side. The snow had hardly settled on a wall at UNM before a student walked in it.
Loads of Dirt
The morning light was quite nice on the flowers in the bedroom. The temperature sensor for the weather said it got to 3 degrees F this morning, but the analog thermometer hanging next to it showed -2 right before sunrise. The weather widget is forecasting a low of 4 degrees for Corrales tonight, so the temperature is sure to fall below zero, even on the digital sensor.
Puck brought in 4 loads of dirt throughout the day. One reason is that Laurie cleaned the house yesterday. Another reason is that we have lots of fine dirt exposed from the trenches for the electrical upgrade. Once we are all done with the upgrade the power pole, wires and light in the photo of the Sandias will be removed.
On the “affordable health care” front, my annual blood work that was $98 last year is $350 this year — the same tests by the same lab.
Off Center & Not Even 