While photographing René on his perch with the sun behind him, he decided to try some magic tricks on me. He folded out his wing like a cape, and then made his head disappear when he pulled his wing back.
Category: Sunset
Birds over Downtown
Those specs that look like I could have a very dirty sensor are actually birds flying over downtown Albuquerque with the sunset lighting up the Manzanos in the background.
Distracted by the Light
I ran out to get the mail this afternoon, which would normally take about 15 minutes, but I got distracted by the light, drove up to the north end of Corrales, and got back with the mail about an hour and a half after I left.
Sunday’s Sunset
I made sure I went out to the river and got the sunset on Sunday. Now that we are back on standard time, it will be dark before I leave the office during the week.
Fall Sunset
Another evening of the beautiful light at sunset along the Rio Grande.
Into the Eternal Light
As summer passes into fall, the frost turns green to brown, laying bare the tangled morning glories that sprung forth with new life each morning, another one has passed from among the living into the eternal light. A friend who we hadn’t seen for years, but still a friend nonetheless. Our prayers go out to her family.
Much Ado About Nothing
While this storm reportedly dumped 1/2 inch of rain on the NE Heights Tuesday afternoon, and while it looked impressive from our yard, it turned out to be much ado about nothing as it dissipated before it got to us and we got no rain out of it.
A Very Small Array
New Mexico has the VLA near Socorro – a very large array of radio telescopes for viewing the cosmos. We have a VSA in our garden – a very small array of cosmos. Speaking of the cosmos, the low sun shining through the clouds on I-40 was quite a scene.
Sayre’s Barn at Sunset
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.
France Day 26 Paris vaut bien une messe
In chapter 33 of their book “1066 and All That” W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman conclude their section on the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre with “After the massacre the French King, Henry of Navarre, turned Roman Catholic and made his memorable confession – ‘Paris is rather a Mess’…” Their humorous interpretation of “Paris vaut bien une messe” describes the time as well as the original saying. After Henry of Navarre took the throne to become King Henry IV he paid off his enemies instead of waging endless, costly wars against them; he also ended the “religious wars” that he had fought in when he issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598. With the help of the minister Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, they regularized the state finances, and then they set about cleaning up Paris and restoring it as a great city. They also undertook public works and promoted education throughout France to improve the life of all people so there would be “a chicken in every pot”, which made Henry IV one of the most popular French kings ever. Although he was popular with the people, he had political and religious enemies. On the third attempt on his life, Henry IV was assassinated in 1610 by a Catholic fanatic, François Ravaillac, when Henry IV’s coach was stopped by traffic congestion in the Rue de la Ferronnerie. You can see that Henry IV was a man of good humor from the painting of him as Hercules vanquishing the Lernaean Hydra painted around 1600 by Toussaint Dubreuil. And I think he would have enjoyed “1066 and All That” as well.
We were in the Louvre and Orsay multiple times yesterday and the photos show the changing light as we walked back and forth between the apartment, the Louvre and the Orsay from mid-morning until 10:30 pm when we got home for the night.
Off Center & Not Even 