Plowed earth lies barren
Fertile ground parched and thirsty
Spilled seeds will not grow
Moon tunnel lights night sky
Portal to the other side
Hallucinations sleeping souls
Keeper of our dreams
Jupiter sits on Sandia Crest
Saturn basks in a golden glow
Stars still hang in space
Midnight rainbow hangs at two
Stars peek through smokey hues
Brushstrokes blotches arcs
Orange, greens, magenta, blues
Jupiter rising into blue
Saturn sees the moon at two
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.
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
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
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.
While Mama Owl was up in the tree shootin’ the breeze, the little wowls were bobbing around in the nest. One of the wowlets tried to peek over the edge of the nest giving us a little beak peek.
Flowers are blooming despite the drought and freezing mornings.
Mama Owl through a tangle of limbs.
Sun setting behind bare trees and a smokey veil.
Moonrise
A look into the night sky.
Venus, Mars, Saturn, and two stars were nicely aligned this morning. On the 25th at 5:30 am, Jupiter, Neptune, Venus, Mars, and Saturn will be lined up similar to this morning. However, It might be too light for me to see Mars and Saturn at 5:30 am on the 25th. I’ll see.
The moon was surfing a contrail this afternoon.
Buddy in a meeting this afternoon.
Wild clouds moved through.
Daddy Owl holding tight in the wind. Mama Owl’s ear tufts lit up.
Sunset with the moon
Converging contrails at sunset.
Dawn
I got home very late tonight after helping the CenturyLink/Lumen tech get us connected to the fiber in our building and troubleshooting the upload speed. After two hours of troubleshooting, we got a good clock speed on Speed Test.
Dissipating clouds after dusting us with snow.
Speedy. We had 50 Mbps up and down. It only took a year to convince CL/Lumin we have fiber in the building.
The sky when I got home tonight.
My short story Cat In A Tree was published on MasticadoresUsa // Editora: Gabriela Marie Milton
You can read it at https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2022/02/28/cat-in-a-tree-by-timothy-price/
I got home really late again tonight. Below is the sky at dawn when I left for work, and three shots of the night sky when I got home.
Dawn from the Corrales Post Office
Moon phases from February 4th through February 15th.
Off Center & Not Even 