Red Dawn, Pink Dusk

November 24, 2014 Timothy Price36 Comments

Despite the beautiful display of morning and evening colors, the rest of yesterday was not good. A cold, strong wind blew all day, and one of Tristan’s tenants put regular dish soap in the dishwasher, and that drove the final nail into the coffin of the dishwasher that Tristan had been nursing along, hoping to get more life out of it. Since we don’t use our dishwasher, I pulled it out from under the counter, disconnected everything, loaded it in the truck and drove it Tristan’s — that was after I coaxed, or more like tricked, the truck into starting. It does not like to start in the cold. One would think pulling a dishwasher out should be a relatively simple task, but no, it wasn’t, and the beast fought me every step of the way. Fortunately, I had lots of help from Spunk and Laurie which made things a little easier.

Murphy’s Law was in top form when I started working on replacing dishwashers at Tristan’s. When I looked under the kitchen sink for the shutoff valve to the water supply, everything was wet. There were two leaky lines that had been dripping for who knows how long. After I got the replacement dishwasher hooked up, the water connection at the dishwasher was now dripping as well. The old copper compression gasket wasn’t seating properly to the new connection. I made a run to Home Depot, where I learned that I couldn’t buy compression gaskets, because we are not supposed use 3/8 copper supply lines anymore. So I had to buy a dishwasher kit with a new flexible supply line (better) but it was just barely long enough, and it included a bunch of parts I didn’t need.

Replacing the supply line to the dishwasher fixed one of the leaks under the sink, but the other one was at a plastic connector that the tech who installed a water filtration system in the house used to connect the cold water to the filter. The copper wasn’t playing well with the plastic and it hadn’t seated properly. I pulled hard on the copper tubing like I was trying to pull it out of the plastic connector. That seemed to finally seat the copper better with the plastic, because it stopped leaking; however, bumping something against the connector might make it start leaking again.

As the French say “les choses sont contre nous”, and everything seemed against us today. At least the the beautiful colors of dawn and dusk were a good reminder that things are not really all that bad.

BN&SF

October 27, 2014 Timothy Price22 Comments

Yesterday Laurie and I with Susan and Lois took an excursion down south of Albuquerque to look for Sandhill Cranes for our birthdays. After photographing cranes we headed east behind the Manzanos where we visited two of the Salinas Pueblo Missions, Abó and Quarai, and then continued north, around the mountains, and back to Albuquerque. Along the way we photographed landscapes, saw several trains, and had an interesting, uniquely New Mexico, encounter with a local couple along the way.

After Glow

October 21, 2014 Timothy Price28 Comments

I took a walk out to the river at sunset to see if the cranes or other birds were flying in to roost for the night. No cranes, but the glow after sunset was really beautiful.

Wild Grasses

October 17, 2014 Timothy Price12 Comments

Lavinia reminded me a few weeks ago that I was going to go back in the Fall and get photos of the grasses at the rammed earth house that was on the Corrales Garden Tour in June. I went out in the late afternoon a a couple of weeks ago and photographed the grasses from the periphery of the property. While I was on the ditch bank I heard sandhill cranes on the river, so I walked out to the river to look for the cranes after photographing the grasses at the house. I didn’t see cranes, but I noticed that the native grasses in the bosque looked like they were on fire backlit in the late afternoon sun. I’ve alternated photos of grasses at the rammed earth house and photos of the native grasses in the bosque, ending the series with a photo of backlit cottonwoods.

The Last Day

September 30, 2014 Timothy Price17 Comments

The last day of September, the end of a fiscal year, seems to officially end summer and usher in the fall.

Living on a Prayer

September 20, 2014 Timothy Price18 Comments

A brave Mantis and early morning rain on the Rio Grande.

Thunderheads

September 15, 2014 Timothy Price26 Comments

Thunderheads appear, change and disappear very quickly in the desert southwest. They can produce sudden and heavy rains, high winds, intense lighting storms and hailstorms. But often they form and put on a show, changing into all kinds of shapes, and then evaporate without a sound or drop of precipitation.

The first four photos were taken over a timespan of 10 minutes while driving on Highway 550 to Highway 528 and on to Corrales Road. The Weather Service interrupted the radio to announce the there was heavy rain and flooding on the other side of the Sandias from these thunderheads.

The last photo was taken from our deck where we sit and watch the clouds form and change over the Sandias through the bamboo and cottonwood trees.

DSCF1630 — Thunderheads over the Sandias from Corrales Rd. just east of Hwy 528.

ThunderheadsSandiasWide9-14-14 — Wider view of thunderheads over the Sandias and stretching down the Rio Grande Valley taken from Hwy 528 just south of Hwy 550.

DSCF1611 — Thunderheads over the Sandias from Hwy 550 west of Hwy 528.

MatterhornCloud — Thunderheads as seen from our deck.

Designer Darkroom

August 31, 2014 Timothy Price11 Comments

I painted the outside of the darkroom and put up shelves for storage of the remaining equipment and supplies that are still in the dance room. There are three photos of the darkroom with a view from the top of the step, a view from floor level and a fisheye view just for fun. In-between the photos of the darkroom, I have a photo of our sunflower forest, and a photo of Veteran’s Honor with grasses, our black bamboo forest and trees behind it.

Yard & Clouds

July 31, 2014 Timothy Price20 Comments

Thunderheads built up in the eastern sky, threatening to give us another early evening thundershower.

Rammed Earth & Native Grasses

June 13, 2014 Timothy Price19 Comments

“This integral arrangement — minimalist home of rammed earth walls, plus native grasses — works perfectly as a unit.” reads the introduction to the writeup on the Roger and Mary Downey Garden for the Corrales Garden Tour we went on last weekend. The house sits in the center of the property surrounded by native grasses. Since this is only late spring, the grasses are just starting to grow. The grasses are best seen in the fall when they have reached their full heights and display their varied colors — colors that are reflected in the rammed earth construction of the house.