Sayre’s Barn at Sunset

June 21, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

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.

Dragonfly Red

June 20, 2013 Timothy Price9 Comments

A red dragonfly was a great model in the golden light of the setting sun. We have one bloom and the remnants of another on Mermaid. The soft, pink rose is Queen Elizabeth.

Fifty Shades of Pink

June 19, 2013 Timothy Price7 Comments

If you were expecting to find something kinky, sorry to disappoint! Instead you get photos of sexy pink roses, hollyhocks and a bumblebee. The first rose is a David Austin that we don’t have labeled, so I don’t have a name for it. The bumblebee is on volunteer hollyhocks that are very happy in the dry conditions. The third photo is of Pink Promise — under New Mexico sun, Pink Promise is milky white with subtle shades of pink. It is the official rose of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The fourth photo is of Rainbow Sorbet, which offers a wide range of pinks with a bit of yellow in the base. The last photo is of Simply Marvelous which is more lavender colored than pink, but it has a few shades of the lower 50 pinks.

Cool of the Evening

June 18, 2013 Timothy Price7 Comments

I finally got to irrigate after 7 weeks, so the wet soil and mulch made for a cool evening for the kitties, bumblebees and damselflies to hangout in the clover. Laurie was sketching the yard, sans power poles, and Mama Manx was using her head to help Laurie hold up her sketchpad.

R&G in B&W

June 17, 2013 Timothy Price5 Comments

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, roses and an oriental lily in black and white.

Six Differences

June 16, 2013 Timothy Price3 Comments

A happy dragon fly was flitting around this morning. We did a lot of yard work today. Can you find six differences between the 2nd and 3rd photos? Rosencrantz was sitting in the window by the front door wanting in, but I was on the deck. Instead of going through and letting him in, I photographed him through the glass in the door to the sunroom. He finally gave up and walked around the house to join us on the deck and lay on the table with Guildenstern.

Rain Smuggler

June 14, 2013 Timothy Price4 Comments

Don’t tell anyone, but I did sneak a little bit of rain past customs. It’s a piddling amount, just enough to turn the dust on the cars into muddy drops, but it’s rain all the same. When I went out to photograph the clouds, a hummingbird hovered at what it thought was a safe distance from my lens, but even in the low light of overcast skies at dusk, I got a clear shot of it hovering in front of clouds. A crow flew through my photo of the backlit clouds, and as it flew over me I could see it had something in its beak, but it was so strongly silhouetted against the clouds, I couldn’t see what it had.

Home

June 13, 2013 Timothy Price9 Comments

I tried to bring rain home with me from Paris, but I couldn’t get it past TSA — no liquids on the plane. Even though there has been zero rain in the Albuquerque area in 2013, Tristan and David ran the drip systems and soaker hoses I set up before we left, so we at least we came home to a colorful garden.

France Day 30 Last Day In Paris

June 11, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

We spent our last day in Paris getting ready to leave — checking in for the flight, cleaning the apartment, preparing food and packing. We went out for a walk in the Tuileries got our last look at the Louvre in the late afternoon sunlight, and I took random photos in the Tuileries and on the street walking back to the apartment. We are leaving for the airport at 6:30 this morning.

France Day 29 On a Boat

June 10, 2013 Timothy Price8 Comments

The rain started falling during the night and continued all day yesterday. Our museum pass had run out, so we planned to go to some of the sites that were not on the pass, but we didn’t want to walk to them in the rain. There’s the metro, but then Laurie got the idea to take the Batobus which is run by one of many companies that run tourist boats on the Seine. The batobus’ route runs from the Eiffel tower to the National History Museum and Gardens with six stops in-between. Once you buy a pass you can get on and off the boat as much as you want throughout the day. We got on the boat at noon, got off at the National History Museum (flowers and frog photos are from the garden) and Grand Palias (the last Crystal Palace built in 1900 before wide-use of electricity made the architectural style obsolete), and then we rode the boat for a couple of laps, because the views of the monuments from the middle of the Seine are unique and were magical in the misty air and rain. We got off the boat and headed home about 8:00 pm. One person told us the Seine was 2 meters above normal — the current ran fast and the water was rough, so the ride was exciting at times. There are a lot of interesting boats on and along the Seine — many different types of tour boats, including large restaurant boats. Many barges make their way up the Seine, often sitting very low in the water as they move their loads up river; and many boats of various sizes and styles that people live in are moored along the river . The many bridges that cross the Seine looked like a labyrinth through my telephoto lens; the Eiffel tower was lacy in the misty rain, and the Palace of Justice and Notre Dam looked particularly medieval under the gray sky.