On October 28, 2020, I posted One, Three, Four with five photos of Sandhill Cranes. Marina Kanavaki at Marina Kanavaki dot com commented: “One, three, four, three, three… that would make a very interesting beat!” I replied “¡Sí! C Em F Em Em as in C EmEmEm FFFF EmEmEm EmEmEm repeat.” I wrote lyrics and played the 1, 3, 4, 3, 3 chord progression on the guitar and recorded Cranes in the Key of C. I put the song together with footage of cranes flying above me, in a field, and over the Rio Grande.
This is the time of year to kiss calves and enjoy that sloppy taste of hairy bovine.
I originally posted this video in December 2017 on T&L Photos. I did not have the recording software and equipment I have now, so I made a new recording of the music and updated the video with the new audio.
Spunk and the other kitties are still reluctant to go into the bedroom with the kittens. The kittens are real monsters under the bed. Spunk decided they were okay and the screen, but Morgana still managed to scratch Spunk’s nose.
While I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the office talking to Jim, he noticed a moth on the front door. I picked it up and it sat on my arm fluttering its wings really fast. I did photos of the moth. In “Live View”, the wings fluttered in slow motion. I converted the “Live View” photos to gifs and then to video and put the above video together with guitar accompaniment. After the moth futtered on my arm for about a minute, it flew over to the wall by the door.
“Up against the wall you red neck…” Mothra†
†Mothra is a fictional monster that first appeared in the 1961 film Mothra, produced and distributed by Toho Studios. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothra to learn more.
I made this parody back in 2017. Inchcock did a post recently on memories about when he was in the hospital after he had a stroke. The post made me think of all the getting out and walking about Nottingham Inchcock did before and after his stroke, up until he was put in home jail where he’s been locked up in solitary confinement for months due to the COVID cooties. Of course, being placed in solitary confinement with much less access to medical services increases his risk greatly, but good old Inchcock takes his pain in stride and presses on entertaining us with the daily details of his dealings with life in solitary confinement.
A Day in the Life of Inchcock
Music by the Beatles
Lyrics by Timothy Price
Great pain, high spirits today oh boy
A lucky man standing by the Methodist Church
I think I should be rather sad
But I just had to laugh
I took the photograph
Out the window, mind you houses and cars
Off to Sherringham for shots, so quick, times have changed
Nicole the nurse she just stood and stared
Trying to stop my blood
Was this really it
Was I off to see the Lord
A Whoopsiedangleplop today oh boy
The phone went off a dingling and a dangling
T’was the nurse bitching about my ambling
‘You’re not in your Flat?’
And you don’t have the book
I’d love to turn you Down
Got back, had a Weeee!
Refreshed, and accident-Free!
Got back out front and had a cup
Doorbell rang and I noticed it was late
It was the Nurse she had no hat
Up the lift in seconds flat
She had a firm, tight end that was smokin’ hot
She poked me in the tummy and I came out of my dream…
Great pain, high spirits today oh boy
Four thousand holes poked in me tummy there were
Although the holes where rather small
I couldn’t count the lot
We still don’t know how many holes it takes to fill old Inchcock
I’d love to turn you Down
Video of Big Baby Owl’s encounter with a stink bug
The night before last, both owlets flew back over to the tree by their nest. They’ve been getting really good at flying over the past couple of weeks, and we have been finding them within 100 yards or so north, south, and west of the Tangle Heat Tree. They seemed to want to take a longer flight and reminisce about old times by the nest. They have also been spending their daytimes deeper in the bosque.
Last night I went out a little before 8:00 pm. It was cloudy and windy. I walked by the Tangle Heart Tree but did not see the owlets. I knew it was a little early, so I walked down to the south beach, walked back to 4th of July point, made my way back up onto the levee, looked for the owlets but I saw and heard nothing more than the trees swaying and the leaves rustling in the wind. I walked up to Beaver Point, saw and photographed a beaver, then I walked back toward the Tangle Heart Tree. About 200 feet from the Tangle Heat Tree I thought I heard a peep. I stopped and called the owlets, listened best I could through the sound of the blowing wind, and I heard another peep. I called again, and Big Baby Owl flew to a branch about 100 feet from me. About a minute later Little Baby Owl flew up on the branch. Both of the owlets were looking out towards the northwest when Big Baby Owl flew off in that direction, out of the bosque, and landed on the lower bank of the levee. I walked toward her and started the video.
It was after 8:30 pm, and quite dark, when I started the video. I was +2 stops on the exposure, and the camera was having a hard time staying in focus. The Owlet flew up to the upper bank of the levee, ran toward me stopped, bent over, and started trying to eat something on the ground. She straightened up and shook her head. A stink bug dropped in front of her and started walking across the levee. Its stink must have tasted pretty bad because she kept shaking her head as she persued it across the top of the levee. Once she reached the edge of the bosque, Mama Owl fley by out of view of the camera and landed in a cottonwood on the edge of the bosque. The owlet saw her, peeped, and flew up into the cottonwood with Mama Owl. I moved to where I could see the owls, but Mama flew off before I could get her on the video. I was close enough to the owlet to get her in good focus, and she can be heard peeping through the wind.
Big Baby Owl in the cottonwood by the nest on Thursday night.
Little Baby Owl looking back toward the bosque.
Big Baby Owl right after she flew up on the branch last night.
Resa, who has the Art Gowns blog, and Spunk have had a thing going for a while now. When I posted The Persistence of Spunkery a couple of weeks ago, Holly and Marina got confused and thought that Resa’s cat Jeep* and Spunk had a thing going. With inspiration from Holly and Marina and collaboration with Resa, I wrote a song about our feline matchmaking and creating a modern, virtual, long-distance romance during these times of Covid cooties between Jeep and Spunk.
Feline Matchmaking
Music & Lyrics by Timothy Price
Inspired by Holly and Marina
Collaboration between Resa and Timothy
Intro
Can we have long-distance love
For kitties locked down, locked in, Zoomed?
Verse
Jeep’s up north to the east
Spunk’s down south to the west
Jeep says meuw, not meow
Spunk says mew followed by a growl
Jeep is four dimensions in three
Spunk’s dimensions? Egyptian eyes
Jeep is a sweet girly whirly
Spunk has his destructive manly ways
Bridge
Girly/Manly ways attract
Equals
Virtual romance for a matter-of-fact
Chorus
Feline matchmaking during Covid cooties
Long-distance love-making, feline beauties
Purring, growling, rubbing screens
Jeep and Spunk have hit the scene
Bridge
Virtual love and Covid Cooties
Modern romance oh so beauti…
Full of screen-time Zoom Zoom Zoomed
Chorus
Feline matchmaking, Covid cooties
Long-distance love-making, feline beauties
Purring, growling, rubbing screens
Jeep and Spunk have hit the scene
*Jeep is named after Eugene the Jeep in the Popeye comic strip[1]. The vehicle we know of as a Jeep was also named after Eugene the Jeep by soldiers during WWII who thought the Willys MB light utility vehicle was “small, able to move between dimensions and could solve seemingly impossible problems”[2].
John at Las Vegas Photo Blog posted a video of church bells ringing in Banff, Canada, which reminded me that I had recorded the bells ringing while on the bell towers at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, in 2018. I found the video and decided it was boring by itself because the bells at Notre Dame were very loud standing in the bell tower, and they didn’t have any variation other than a bunch of bells ringing at once. Therefore, I wrote a piece of music to go with the bells and put together a rather strange music video called Non-Tubular Bells. I include photos from Notre Dame in 2018 before the fire, pictures of Paris taken from the bell towers, video of the American Flag at our neighbor’s house, video of our neighbor’s dogs playing in the Rio Grande, and video of the Owlets flapping their wings and flying a little.
I got a video of a Coachwhip Snake (Masticophis flagellum testaceous) swimming in the irrigation ditch. I know a lot of people have trouble with snakes, but they are really quite beautiful. It’s not often I see a Coachwhip Snake taking a swim. After we got back from checking on the owls and walking in the bosque this morning, I wrote a song to go with the video, appropriately named Coachwhip Snake. I recorded the song and put it all together in the above video this afternoon. Enjoy!
Coachwhip Snake
Lyrics: Timothy Price
Music: Timothy Price
Verse
Slither swimming in the ditch
Sloppy sine wave between the wake
Slips the bank scales in cross-stitch
Stops and eyes me with suspicion
Bridge
We stand we stare he and me
Paparazzo and snake admiration
Chorus
Masticophis flagellum testaceous
That’s what I said
Beautiful snake, braided scales
Colubrid whipped up in western red
Verse
Slither swimming in the ditch
Sloppy sine wave between the wake
Bridge
We stand we stare he and me
Paparazzo and snake admiration
Chorus
Masticophis flagellum testaceous
That’s what I said
Beautiful snake, braided scales
Colubrid whipped up in western red
A Sphingidae — Spinx Moth, AKA Hummingbird Hawk-Moth, was fluttering around feeding on our Purple Salvia with the bees and the butterflies. I made a short video of it and added one of our recordings of Caña for background music (I’m playing and Laurie’s dancing). The only sound on the original video was the wind.
Off Center & Not Even 