Busy in the neighborhood
Monday, 30 April 2018
The ferns are forging forward.
The rhodos (in the shade) are abloom.
And this, I hypothesize, is AT&T fiber splicing equipment (and personnel inside).
Musings
Flowers and power
Sunday, 29 April 2018
Love the tendrils and extra fillips of green on the buds and bud-stems of this red-red-rose.
As usual with my plant photos, I’m trying to focus the way I want, and miss the insects, unless they’re front/center bees or similar. Not delicate spider at 5:30 just off center….
Possibly, you may recall that Goo-Fiber came to our neighborhood last year, and we got powered up in mid-summer. Now, I see the AT&T folks/contractors are playing catchup on the same streets. This is the hookup stage, when people are working in trailers and the back of trucks with the doors open, that delicate work of splicing, I think. In the meantime, there are extra bits hanging here and there. This one has a temporary tether; excess flopping does seem dangerous.
Lookee lookee
Saturday, 28 April 2018
This flower spike is less that a foot high. If it keeps up with its neighbors, it’ll reach at least six and maybe eight or more feet, with, I expect, white blossoms. Next week I’ll check on its progress….
The red leaves are Acer palmatum/Japanese maple, while the green are some kind of oak. There are a “confusion*” of oaks in this state…. I especially like the lacy, serrate, palmately lobed, pointy maple leaves.
* My reality; my term.
Whitish blooms
Friday, 27 April 2018
I found a young magnolia, about four feet tall. It sported this magnificent blossom on top. Viva!
With an extra ration of Friday-humor, I titled this photo: bee-decked peony. 😎
Gardening choices
Thursday, 26 April 2018
As you may know, Dad was quite the gardener. His tendency was to tend (ha!) plants that produced edibles. He also grew some flowers, because he knew Mom loved them. He only kept one rose bush downstate, because they took too much fussing. The rose grew next to the grapes and on the same trellis.
Dad also wasn’t much for bulbs, like these iris, although we had wild ones that survived on their own on the property up north. Now, in the sense that you plucked them out of the soil in the autumn, and replanted in the spring, onions are darned similar to flower bulbs. And he did grow onions (and garlic).
The dogwood was totally in Dad’s wheelhouse, in that it takes no fussing once it’s established. However, the dogwoods of southern Michigan (that I remember) are swamp-loving red osier dogwoods, and so not suited for the downstate yard. Today, I was surprised to find this one in bloom; the others I saw were the pointy-petaled dogwoods—the rest of the round-petals have finished.
Progression of the dogwood blooming season…and today is 101 years since Dad was born. Me, I don’t garden much, but I’m good with photographing garden products, whether fruits, veggies, or blossoms.
What season?
Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Despite all the spring blossoms, I found these juniper berries today. I usually associate fruits/berries with no earlier than mid-summer for woody plants. [Turns out juniper berries are “fleshy cones;” live and learn.]
Making up for…deficiencies
Tuesday, 24 April 2018
I made yesterday’s post on the fly, which is theoretically “just fine.” Looking back, I didn’t draw from our full set of images-of-the-day, and blah blah.
As we sped east across OK, then AR, we saw far more spring vegetation than we remembered from westbound. This image shows more green than I remember from most of the hills and valleys, but, hey, pretty!
We saw towers that I hypothesized were for fracking, but this is an old-fashioned oil derrick. Plenty of them!
We found truck loads often unidentifiable (because: covered/closed), but this was all onions, all the way.
And this was what I think of as transformers, but maybe I have that wrong.
And, at home today, this flower was a tight bud with ants walking on it when we left. No longer!
The storm last night left traffic lights as mere flashing lights (folks, they become four-way stops—so STOP and WAIT on cross traffic for your turn), but things were fine at our house, judging from the microwave and coffee-machine clocks (nevertheless, Chummbeee was confused…).
Briefly
Monday, 23 April 2018
Eastbound for long miles means your body clock gets confused when you cross time zones…and maybe, despite the odds that you’ll run late, it’s easier to get up with the sun. That was this morning for me…and the east-facing window meant I had a good view of the sunrise. Thank me for not offering progressive (aka repetitive) shots of the sunrise…a wee bit higher and a wee bit higher…you get the idea.
And, down at breakfast, a yogurt dispenser? Don’t recall seeing this before. No info about what kind of yogurt was dispensed…plain? with tons of additives? Greek? So suspicious, I am.
The day was long miles. Some were sunny. Some were rainy. Some were spitty, perfect for the intermittent wiper setting. Some were bright. Later, they became dark. We crossed several state lines, the last bringing us into the ATL time zone. I am posting this as we roll the final miles before we reach the city…the magic of technology, no?
Eastbound
Sunday, 22 April 2018
We met long-time, rarely seen friends at the restaurant of a Pueblo center honoring the nineteen pueblos of New Mexico for a languid brunch. I found the architectural details quite interesting. This lighting inset with mural: fun.
And in the courtyard, a dance circle. No one was dancing when we checked, but I liked seeing the linear footstep patterns that gave clues to the patterns of the dancers’ movements.
And, while the ladies retired to the restroom, the gentlemen chatted carefully holding the leftovers. Great guys!
Then it was time to begin the eastward trek. Over the first pass, we were in rangeland again.
However, we had a few miles of colorful, rugged landscape to go.
Rugged, colorful, and stratigraphic.
And, sometimes, complete with train.
Then, by Tucumcari, we found row crops in irrigated fields. Grain?
Somehow, when westbound we did not notice how large this wind farm is in the TX panhandle. Gigantic. Operated by a division of Southern Company. [Goo-ing indicates this is the Cactus Flats facility, with 43 wind turbines.]
Very Texas to have cattle and wind plants coexisting. Jessayin: we went through TX twice on this trip, and never set foot in the state. [You can only manage that if you pick the section of TX you cross VERY carefully; we picked the panhandle.]
OK sunset.
I was going to title this “Don Dinero,” but it didn’t fit. We saw a pawnshop with that name in ABQ; “Don Dinero” means Mr Money.
Snow; yes, snow
Saturday, 21 April 2018
Darn. You can’t tell it’s snowing in the picture, even if you squint. But it was. Lazy drifting flakes. No accumulation. 😎
I nosed around outside after I finished my packing—first of suitcases and similar, and then of the car. I wanted to get pictures of the place, memory pictures we call them. I also found clear evidence that the plants have progressed into spring in this not-quite-a-week that we’ve been here. Poplar?
Our first stop was at Cerrillos, a boom town for a bit, and now a grid of unpaved streets. We walked from the visitor center a couple of blocks to this combination rock shop and natural history/history museum. The former was free and the latter $2. We just looked at the rocks.
Outside, we checked out the petting zoo, and this aggressive mama-to-be got plenty of happy pats from Nephew #2.
Returning to the car I found this just-opening lilac bush and happily shoved my nose into the bee-free blossoms.
Next stop was the Saturday packed-and-busy former ghost town of Madrid. Perhaps the best thing about the town was this bumper sticker. And that the main road was paved.
Our final sight-seeing stop was for us a return visit to Sandia Crest. Still ice on a few of the trees, but the wind wasn’t so stiff and the temp was much higher. We shared our watermelon (of course!) snack with other folk in the parking lot, then rebounded to descend to the city.
I think the nephews enjoyed the view. Down in ABQ, we said our goodbyes and they headed to the airport while we headed for first-class down time. Sigh. Such good times, with many laughs and a great week of getting reacquainted. Great weather, some fine food…. Lucky us.