Gray Matters

I walked out to the river at dusk to see if I could get the moonrise. Only gray clouds from the approaching storm.

Demons and dragons closing in on Resa’s tree.

I woke up a 3:30 am, walked outside, and shot the moon as it slipped through the clouds before disappearing behind the trees.

A tree held onto the moon after it slipped through the clouds.

Mars, Jupiter, and Venus at 3:48 am.

There Unseen

4:17 am in the falling rain. There’s a planetary alignment behind those clouds.

I looked to the west and saw Wile E. Coyote laughing at me.

4:45 am. I can see the moon, Mars and Jupiter.

The alignment if there were no mountains, trees or clouds.

Esatern sky at 4:51 am, 5:07 am, and 6:30 am.

A Shasta Daisy Galaxy

A bored Buddy in a meeting this morning.

Water like chocolate in the acequia madre.

Skies & Roses

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are among the stars at 3:30 am.

Jupiter with a couple of moons at 3:30 am

Saturn at 3:30 am

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn at 4:45 am.

Sunset last night

Cloudy conditions this afternoon.

I got home late, so I got the sunset tonight.

The moon was still covered by clouds at dusk.

Dragonflies & Roses

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn starting to line up as they shine through the thin cloudcover.

Sunrise

Dragonflies

Sasha was checking out the temperature. “Hey, Paparazzo! It’s upside down!”

Rio Samba, Abraham Darby, and Altissimo

Moon in the clouds

Crescent moon at 34.4% full

Shapes

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn 4:50 am.

Jupiter is making its way around Mars preparing for another alignment.

Do you see any shapes in the clouds in the above photo?

Do you see shapes in this photo?

Dancing With The Stars

Out at 4:00 am dancing with the stars and planets and La Llorona and Chupacraba

Since I got home late tonight, I didn’t do any redneck roofing. Instead, I went out to check on the owls. We had not seen any sign of the owls for the past 3 days. I think part of it was the fire department was running their super noisy airboat up and down the river all weekend watching for fires in the bosque. On Thursday, 30 acres of bosque burned south of Montaño Blvd., about 8 miles south of us. All was quiet tonight. The first bird I encountered looked like a juvenile Western Blue Bird. Then Daddy Owl came swooping through the property and landed on Susan’s tree. I thought he was going to get a squirrel squirreling around up ahead of me, but he didn’t go for it. But then our bunny came running out and he showed interest in the bunny. Laurie bravely stood between Daddy Owl and the bunny as we told Daddy Owl to leave our bunny be. We told him he can get all the squirrels and gophers he wants, but we draw the line when it comes to our bunny.

As we were heading to where the owlets hang out, a Cooper’s Hawk buzzed us and landed on a nearby tree for a few seconds. When I got up to the Tangle Heart Tree, Mama owl was just taking off to go shopping. The owlets were there peeping like crazy wanting Mama and Daddy to bring them food. A few minutes later Mama Owl returned and gave Mary whatever she caught. When I looked at what Mary had in her beak in the photo, it looks like a cicada, but I can’t say for sure. Mama, flew back to Wowlmart, as Shey calls it, but it was getting dark, so we didn’t stick around to see if she or Daddy Owl came back with anything interesting.

Mars and Jupiter

Western Bluebird

Daddy Owl on Susan’s tree eyeing our bunny. He gave up after we told him no.

Cooper’s Hawk

Mama Owl flying off to Wowlmart.

Smokey sunset.

Sliver moon

Redneck Roofer

Jupiter is making its way around Mars in the center of the photo. Venus is just rising on the left and Saturn is on the right. There was a nice alignment of stars that are at the top of the photo.

Since our cover over the deck was looking like it would rip anytime in the wind, Laurie suggested that we put a permanent roof on the canopy over the deck for our anniversary. We had thought about it for years but never did it. I ordered the supplies Sunday morning and picked them up Sunday afternoon. I started working on the roof at 7:00 am this morning and ran out of screws and energy at 7:00 pm. The vented part of the roof took a lot longer to build than I had anticipated. All my joints are complaining tonight.

Twelve hours of work with only water breaks.

Our pink Peony is blooming

I spied this beautiful rose hidden in the bush when I was on the ladder.

A spray of our anniversary Petunias

Owlets On The Tangle Heart Tree

Daddy Owl Shopping for dinner

Laurie was out before I was, and got Peter, Paul, and Mary on the end of the Tangle Heart Tree.

When I got up to the Tangle Heart Tree there all three owlets were in the tree, but Peter was in front of Paul and Mary was sitting on the backside of the left-hand branch.

Peter, Paul, and Mary from the backside of the Tangle Heart Tree.

Paul looking over Peter’s shoulder

The Owlets were frolicking in the Tangle Heart Tree (click on the gallery to see a slide show).

A pensive Mary

Jupiter rose a minute after Mars this morning. They were very close together. Stars in the early morning sky. The moon rose looking away from Venus.