Here we are nearly to the middle of March and the temperature was 15 degrees F this morning at our house. Despite the frosty mornings, the crocus are blooming and the tulips are poking through the mulch, teasing us with anticipation of their first blooms.
We had a stormy Saturday that produced a lot of clouds, wind, and few snow flurries and but basically not precipitation at our place. Despite the weather, I managed to get half of the iris I had to dig up for the electrical upgrade planted, watered the tulips that are starting to come up, got a door installed on the study, and made it out to get photographs of the stormy day. I am feeling quite productive today.
I was awakened by a pink glow — by the time I got outside with my camera the pinks were turning into reds and yellows. The sky and clouds were interesting throughout the day.
On my way back from photographing the sunset in the bosque, I stopped to photograph the horses in the soft light at dusk. My buddy, Turbo, came out to say hi, and wanted to be included in the photo session as well.
While I was out at the river at sunset, the bald eagle flew by high along the opposite bank of the river. As it passed the face of the Sandias, it caught up with a flock of crows. A few crows fell in behind the eagle at first, then the crows’ flight became more chaotic as the eagle flew through them. Five cranes flew close to me at dusk, they probably couldn’t see me in the low light, and the high ISO produced interesting images. The Sandias turned a nice “watermelon” pink tonight.
On our way out the river on Saturday, Nicole mentioned that the beautifully warm weather we were experiencing would not last. Being an astute Burqueña, she knows our weather well — sure enough, we had snow yesterday, and today we had mostly cloudy skies with cold winds. I stopped on the way home and took photos of the city lights under a stormy sky for the panorama . The moon is 93% full tonight and the clouds were beautiful swirling around under it.
I got a text message from UNM LoboAlerts Emergency Messaging at 5:00 am this morning alerting me that UNM-MAIN CAMPUS and UNM WEST were on a 2-hour delay due to weather conditions. I peered through condensation on the window, and it looked pretty white outside. After I got up I could see we had about an inch of snow. Rosencrantz went right out to play in the snow, but didn’t stay out long, as I found him looking in the window trying to get my attention a few minutes later. I made him earn his way back inside by making him wait until I got a good shot of him before opening the door. Rosencrantz shot back in past Guildenstern who had to survey the situation before he decided to go out an walk around in the snow.
We picked up Tristan on the Westside on our way into school, and not a flake of snow had fallen west of Coors Road. Tristan said she was quite confused by the LoboAlert, but when we got to UNM at 9:00am there was about 3 inches of snow on the cars and Johnson Field. Staff who live on the Eastside closer to the mountains said they had about 4 inches of snow, and there was general mayhem on the roads as cars and trucks slid toward I-25.
I found Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Puck keeping an eye on each other when I got home from photographing the Sandias and cranes this morning.
I know there is a bit of “déjà vu all over again” in today’s spread, but the roses were speaking to me, and another super-wide photo of the cleared property with a bare cottonwood and a stormy sky was too much to resist. The late afternoon sun shining through the bird’s coleus created interesting patterns, as well.
I got home late last night from photographing Q~Lesque, and the moon was beautiful, peeking through the clouds.
Off Center & Not Even 