Snuggle Kitties

Gwendolyn and Loki

Jumping spider

Loki was thinking when Cater Mortis set in. Luckily, he snapped out of it. That was close, Loki!

Iris before and after Laurie whacked back Dr Huey. Dr. Huey was getting out of hand with long canes that were getting blown around and breaking the iris.

Resa looked up American Badgers and discovered they are on the endangered species list. Tristan said that’s because they are dangerous, mean, and grumpy. Craig piped in, “They will eat your face off!” I told them our badger is sweet. She said that the Cheo in the Badger recognized the Cheo in me, so it saw me as another mean and grumpy badger. There are advantages to being a mean and grumpy curmudgeon (Cheo).

We saw the badger again tonight. It listened to us for a few minutes, decided we weren’t a threat, and headed off to the apple orchard to hunt gophers. I photographed it with my phone because I had forgotten to check the batteries on the Bazooka’s camera body. Stupid paparazzo, as the critters like to say.

Close to sunset

¡Hasta la Vista! Babies!

Walter’s tail among the tatones in a different tree from yesterday.

We couldn’t find Walter and Willa in their cottonwood tree this afternoon. And for good reason. They were not in it. They had both flown to the tree to the west of their tree. It will be very hard to see them at dusk from now on.

Nora napping way up high in the cottonwood west of the tree she nested in.

Willa sacked out after making the flight to the new tree.

Western Tanager

Swallow, House Finch, Robin

Mother’s Day Flowers

Silver napping

Marina’s Incognito Pear tree has become rather sculptural.

Sunset

Teagan Does Metal

Dawn

Night To Day. Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price. Vocals by Teagan Riordain Geneviene.

I played an unplugged version of Night To Day on my freshly restored Elvis Presley Harmony guitar in my farewell to 2023 video on New Year’s Eve. I later recorded the metal version and asked Teagan if she wanted to sing it. She wasn’t sure about singing metal, but Teagan is a good sport, and she is adventurous when it comes to art and music, so she dove into the metallic pool and nailed it. Her ethereal voice is perfect for the ghostly theme of Night To Day.

If you have trouble viewing the video, you can listen to the song on SoundCloud.

Night to Day


Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
Vocals by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

[Verse 1]
I saw Sun crash to the ground
It threw colors far and wide
With yellows into reds consumed
Swallowed up by ravenous blues

[Pre-chorus]
Dusk sang dirges to the dark
Clouds ignited a fiery show

[Chorus]
See the darkness
Nighttime’s falling
Time to slumber,
But ghosts are calling
Feel the darkness
Your skin starts crawling
Who can sleep when ghosts come calling

[Verse 2]
As embers meander through the night
Shadows creep under bright moonlight
Dawn wakes colors that light the sky
Painting darkness red, yellow, blue

[Pre-chorus]
Defeating darkness that’s Eos’ way
She breathes life into one more day

[Chorus]
See the light
Ghosts dissolving
Time to rise
A new day’s calling
Feel the light
Your skin stops crawling
When you’re up to see ghosts dissolving

[Bridge]
Night to day. Day to night
Flesh and spirits, in a moment, fight
For the right to live or die
Trading places, one sacrificed

[Outro]
See the darkness
Nighttime’s falling
Time to slumber
Ghosts come calling
See the light
A new day’s calling
Time to rise, see ghosts dissolving

Rio Samba

Altissimo

Guard hummingbird en garde

Spotted Towhee in the tree. House Finch lands in the same tree. Spotted Towhee chases House Finch away.

Spotted Towhee was all proud of himself.

Nora Owl flew over where I could get better shots of her this afternoon.

Walter and Willa were in the top of the cottonwood huddled up together and dozing on and off.

Osric Owl was trying to sleep with the wind blowing his ear tufts.

We have had persistent high winds since Thursday night. Several thunderstorms blew through this afternoon dropping a quarter inch of rain, and pelting us with marble sized hail.

Solar Storm

Dawn

Flower storm

Sunset

Hint of the solar storm at 8:30 PM

When I walked out at One after 9:09, the lower part of the sky looked clear to my naked eye. But through the camera, I could see the solar storm.

The sky was purple, looking north.

The sky, looking west.

Sasha and Silver were impressed

Devilish Similarities

Dawn

I am getting so frustrated with WordPress’s constant idiotic changes I am ready to stop blogging. The issues the developers introduce are not worth the frustration of trying to comment, reply to comments, and put posts together. I just don’t need the added frustration right now.

Like the rest of our house, where there is little difference between outside and inside, so it goes with the temperature.

Yes! That is a badger about 15 feet from me listening to what I have to say.

When it first saw us, it hunkered down, but then as I talked to it lifted its head up to listen.

I got close to the minimum focus distance of 11 feet for the Bazooka lens on this shot. The badger looks like, “Yeah! Yeah! Ahuh! You’re so full of crap, paparazzo!”

Sunset

Sandias and Rio Grade at dusk

Sliver moon in the clouds.

Flowers, Skies & Owls

Nora Owl in on of her favorite spots. She was not hooting a grocery list to Osric tonight.

Meanwhile, Osric was hanging out on his gate when he got the urge to upchuck a pellet.

Walter was chilling and giving me Maddogs on a lower branch.

Willa was hanging out near the end of a branch about 10 feet above Walter.

Sunset

Eye Eye Mr. Bowie

Mr. Bowie giving me the eyes.

Distant Drums

Tiny toad

Nora waiting for Osric to bring food for Walter and Willa.

Osric waiting to take his catch to Nora.

Weird food pass-off.

Feeding frenzy

The Christmas lights of the mirror quit working. I replaced them with a neon rope.

It’s aLiVe!

Dawn

As. you can see and hear in the above video, I got the Frankenguitar wired up and working. I adapted Frankenfurter’s “Sweet Transvestite” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the song. I recorded myself playing and singing live and added effects in post-production. That’s why the solo is iffy since I only had one take to play it. You will notice in the credits at the end of the video the guitarist/singer is named “Teem.” Teem comes from telemarketers from foreign countries who call the office and ask for Teem. A trivia question: Can anyone tell me what Narazeth, PA, has to do with guitars?

It’s Alive
Adapted from Sweet Transvestite
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

How d’you do
I think you’ve met
My Frankenstein guitar
I’m a little brought down
Because when you knocked
I thought you would bring me a cigar
I’ve got it all strung up, come and look
Don’t judge the guitar by my cover
It’s not much of a guitar by the light of day
But by night, it’s one hell of a strummer
It’s my blue Frankenguitar
From Nazareth, Pennsylvania

Willa and Walter did not want to get up this morning. Walter finally gave me Maddogs for rousing her.

Iris

White iris and bumblebee

Morning sky

Marble lounging

Spunk, Glenda, and Loki lounging

Sunset

Flowers & Cats. Oh! Yeah! And Owls!

Wisteria

Tulips

Glenda

Loki: “Oh Lord, I beseech you to make the stupid Paparazzo put his camera down and clean the stinking cobwebs! Amen!”

Loki: “I’m waiting for the bolt of lightning!”

Spunk hammocking

Silver

Marble and Glenda are Cow Cats grazing on grass.

Sasha

Loki

Gwendolyn

Mama, in the morning

Osric Owl snoozing in the morning.

Walter and Willa

Nora Owl in the evening

Willa and Walter

Sunset

Captain Jack

Captain Jack. Lyrics and Music by Billy Joel.Vocals by Timothy Price

Captain Jack from Billy Joel’s 1973 album, Piano Man, is my latest cover. I first heard this song around 1974 after I purchased Piano Man. I fell in love with it. It’s not at all biographical; however, I had friends who got messed up with drugs in the 70s. A few died of overdoses, and a few committed suicide. Seeing how drugs destroyed people’s lives, I never had a reason to experiment with them.

These spent poppies go well with Captain Jack.