A Little New… A Little Old…

Under the scrub brush
Bashful bosque bunny hides
Peek! Boo! I see you!

While I was looking for some old photos for Tristan, I came across three of the weird sign photos I took when I was studying Geography and Photography at the university.

Me driving a tractor before I learned to walk

When I tell people I learned to drive before I learned to walk, they think I’m bat guano crazy and full of kitty kaka.

Critter Fest

Our morning walk started with a beautiful crescent moon peeking through the clouds.

Clouds capped the Sandias.

Lots of cranes huddled together at dawn

The beavers were up early and splashing a warning that there was a dangerous paparazzo with a big yellow dog standing near the edge of the water.

A Bosque Bunny was up early, also.

Sunrise

Kitties: “It’s too early and too cold for you to be pestering us, pesky Paparazzo!”

Don’t you think it’s a little early to be hitting the catnip, Silver?

Spunk: “What are you looking at me for? Jake did it!”

Jake: “I didn’t do it! I swear! I’m telling you the truth. You know Spunk is lying. He’s always trying to get me in trouble.”

It looks like you got caught in the mosquito net again, Jake.

Sunset

The morning clouds left a dusting of snow on the crest.

Daddy Owl @ dusk

Bunny Log

Hare date 8-15 in the blessed year of our mother goddess Freyja two-thousand twenty-two. The human who walks around shooting everyone with a Bazooka was trying to irrigate. After the water that came flooding in, and forced me out of my culvert, stopped, the bazooka-wielding Paparazzo walked out to the Acequia Madre and discovered the water had stopped running in the mother ditch. Word had it that the giant diesel pumps up north that fill the Acequia Madre from the Rio Grande went south, so now il Paparazzo has to finish irrigating in the wee hours of the morning under the crescent smile of Máni.

¡Adios muchachos y muchachas!

Lining Up

Morning sky at 5:30 am

Bugs

Wynonna

Swallow

Mama Owl napping. Daddy Owl on the lookout for dinner.

Mama Owl back at the nest as it’s getting dark. Looks like three little fuzzy heads in the nest.

Mama Owl flying off in search of food.

A wowlet looking at me while one of the other wowlets is stretching its wings.

Fuzzette

Under crystal clear, blue skies I made a very interesting discovery.

Fuzzette, Fuzzy, and Nora Owl

Fuzzy has a big sister, Fuzzette, who Nora Owl finally allowed to come out into the world so we can admire her beauty and cuteness.

Ducks in a row.

Fuzzette

Sucker

Fuzzy

Fish

Osric Owl napping in his outpost about 200 feet from Fuzzette, Fuzzy, and Nora Owl.

Bucky Bullfrog

Fuzzette

Marina’s Incognito Pear Tree looking rather pear-shaped.

Nora Owl napping with her ear tufts blowing in the wind.

And you thought Unicorns were equestrians!

Fuzzette is rather intense.

Tulip tortured by the heat and sun.

Fuzzy wide-eyed and presumably bushy tailed.

Lady Banks

Fuzzette has expressive eyes.

Tulip with a slight blush of pink.

Osric Owl doing ear tuft semaphore.

A sunny bunny.

¡Adios muchachos, muchachas!

Two Firsts and a Wet Skunk

I got water for my first irrigation tonight. It’s so dry the land soaks up the water for a long time before it keeps flowing. Furthermore, the water level in the acequia madre keeps fluctuating, which changes the water pressure. Between bone dry land and changing water pressure, it’s going to take a long time to get everything watered tonight. I may not get everything watered tonight.

That little fuzzy head in the darkness is Mama Owl’s and Daddy Owl’s new owlet sticking its head up for the first time to say “Hello world!” I was talking to Jim between calling the owlet and taking photos, and Jim asked “Why don’t they stick their heads up when it’s light?” I told him that owls like darkness.

Mama Owl and Daddy Owl in a cottonwood in the bosque looking for Junior’s dinner.

If anyone has suggestions for names for Junior, I’m open.

“¡Hola Mundo!”

The left fork in the Y in my irrigation ditch flows through a culvert where Scrappy Skunk was sleeping. Poor Scrappy was rudely awakened by the water and he came out one end of the pipe but got offended that I was videotaping him. He crawled back in the culvert, came out the other side, went back in, and stayed in the culvert until the water got too high and finally forced him out. He was an embarrassed wet skunk when he finally climbed out of the ditch and ran off. You can watch Scrappy Skunk in all his wet glory in the video below.

Tonight’s flowers, bunny and moon follow.

Beatrice Bunny

Travel Photo Challenge Day 4 Christmas And The Continental Divide

Christmas 2020 sunset

One reason I don’t generally do photo challenges is that life in real-time is so much more interesting than the challenges. For Day 4 of the Travel Photo Challenge, I am starting off with four photos that are less than four hours old from when I took them to when I’m posting them. To help maintain proper social distancing, and keep things nice and airy, we celebrated Christmas with family outside this afternoon. We had two fire pits and two space heaters spread out to keep us warm.

I’m not featuring another photography today, I will resume with a featured photographer tomorrow. My Day 4 Travel Photography is from December 2009 when Laurie and I hiked on a short portion of the Continental Divide Trail west of Cuba, New Mexico.

The landscape was not as exciting as the badlands, except we could see Cabazon looking to the southeast. Cabazon is the largest of 50 volcanic formations in the Rio Puerco valley between the Jemez Mountains to the northeast and Mount Taylor to the southwest. Mount Tayler is a large volcano that stands at 11,305 ft (3,446 m) above sea level. Jemez Mountains has Valle Grande, a large 13.7-mile (22.0 km) wide volcanic caldera with a high point at 11,253-foot (3,430 m) above sea level. Cabazon stands 1,100 feet above the valley floor. The top of Cabazon is 8,000 feet above Sea Level.

The Continental Divide Trail is a 3100 mi (4989 km) trail between Chihuahua and Alberta. The continental divide snakes its way up the western side of New Mexico, through Colorado, heads northwest across Wyoming, along the border between Idaho and Montana, and then up the western edge of Montana. Runoff and rivers on the western side of the continental divide flow into the Pacific Ocean. Runoff and rivers on the eastern side of the continental divide flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

We celebrated Christmas outside and kept warm with fire pits and space heaters.

A Christmas bunny dropped by to wish us seasons greetings.

Jupiter & Saturn on December 25, 2020.

Looking SE from the Continental Divide Trail at Cabazon and another large volcanic plug in the distance. December 2009.