Monday, 20 January 2020
Ignore the power lines. [I’m usually not attracted to greenish-yellows, but this array did not bother me, perhaps because of the golden tints?]
We’re amidst the coldest cold-snap of the season, meteorologists say. I’m welcoming the sun, that’s fo-sho.
Sunday, 19 January 2020
Sunday stroll with The Guru: highlight…a rainbow. Human-made-not natural, but in my book: a rainbow is a rainbow is a lovely event.
For a colorful chronicle, see The Guru’s narrative.
Friday, 17 January 2020
What a gorgeous dawn! Hate the neighbors’ McMansion dominates our early-day viewshed.
Hellebore buds. I understand that hellebore/lenten rose breeders have even developed dark shades.
I think of this as fringetree—wrong. It’s in the witch-hazel family, and is called Loropetalum. I certainly don’t scrutinize specimens closely enough to gauge botanical taxonomy.
Wednesday, 15 January 2020
Have to start with the ultra-shiny gold Ford! Could NOT be shinier! Note: this is NOT a new model, and this is NOT the original paint.
I spotted it on my way to Old Fourth Ward Park. While the sun was out.
And the turtles gathered on this one rock. The one they can climb up on; the others are too steep-sided at the water level.
Coming back, this window was totally reflective to my eye, but my magic phone/camera did, I saw when I did the download….
Confession: I used two, count ’em two, wide-wide shots…must be a record??
Monday, 30 December 2019
Hey, bee! Come back! Your presence will make soooo improve this photo. Sigh.
Got no story with this one…beyond the blue, blue sky. Which is enough.
Friday, 27 December 2019
Now that’s a bright blue Ford. It is a Ford, right? But not a flatbed…and not slowing down…it’s fully stopped.
I call this yellow jasmine, although some call it yellow or Carolina jessamine. Jasmine and jessamine may sound the same—or not—depending on the speaker.
Despite the blooms in the image above, it’s leaves-down season here (many non-deciduous species flourish, however), and a bit overcast today. Love having this piece of woods in the midst of the city.
Tuesday, 24 December 2019
Unseasonably warm today, and I found bees busy on the neighbor’s rosemary. None of the Wise Dudes carried rosemary…too plebeian?
Possible proof that the critters in the manger (probably actually a house) included a Levantine wiener dog?
Outdoor bow…strong backlight…robust color…okay, I went for the EZ snapshot. Especially liked the twist tie.
Wednesday, 18 December 2019
With a major push of over 740 miles, we “Texas hecho,” that is: we finished with Texas, and are sleeping in Louisiana. ’Bout darned time.
The first photo is of dawn through the Window (formation), Chisos Mountains. The second is intended to illustrate leaving the Chisos Basin.
Ah, yes, toddling down the road in these parts means an interview with Border Inspection personnel. Darned perfunctory quiz this time. He almost forgot to ask if we were US citizens. Don’t think we were stopped for even a minute. A battery of powerful cameras take many photos of vehicle and occupants before you stop—and also of the traffic in the opposite direction. Very creepy. My messy hair and sunglasses are now backed up in databases from Texas to Moscow, I’m hypothesizing.
Pushing north to get out of the park, then turning east…power generation…Texas is an energy state, but it’s not all petroleum-based energy.
Only bison of the trip.
Auto racks in sunset light somewhere near Waco, I think.
Yawn. Over and out.
Tuesday, 17 December 2019
As we were leaving the dining room, these wispy clouds came in, I think generated by the sun hitting the air. Cool, cool morning. Frost on the windshield cool.
With a big, hot breakfast on board we headed out down the trail to The Window of last night’s sunset photograph.
Here’s the mountain face to our right, to the north, as we began our descent.
Look at that! A Mexican jay.
You can tell it’s chilly…and windy. I have my coat on over three layers and am glad I can stuff my hands in my pockets. Yes, I have on a windproof neck buff, ear band, and a baseball cap—all of them. That’s the left or southwest wall of the Chisos Basin behind me.
That gap is the Window that we’re descending toward. That’s the desiccating blossom stalk of a Havard agave, if I remember right.
Detail of a boulder we had to go around. It looks different than most of the other rocks around this immediate area.
Lookee over there! Way over there, thankfully…long lens…a trio of bears, perhaps a mom and two cubs. They were way up on the slope to our left and pretty far away and not interested in us. Whew.
Getting closer to the window. Are those clouds coming in? I promised the Guru we had to go early so we wouldn’t be out in the heat of the day…but where’s the heat???? 😉
We trekked carefully past a spring and crossed the water several times to work our way down to finally view through the Window! Vista found! Now, time to ascend. Glad it’s cool finally, but not looking forward to headwind through canyon above Window.
Here’s the spring water, and the trail-builders worked hard to make steps in the bedrock to make hikers safer.
Took a side path for a short distance for another view out the Window. From here you can hardly tell how deep the canyon is.
Upbound.
We got out just fine, took a lunch break, then headed out in the pickup. Here’s the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo from hear a hot springs. I know this cane as carrizo from my time in Oaxaca. Yes, that’s Mexico on the other side, so let’s all call it carrizo, or car-ee-so.
Driving along, making our way back to the turn that will take us back into the Chisos Basin for the night, we found this coyote by the road.
I’ll take this as a goodnight from our patron peak, Casa Grande, right above our modest room. I’m sure all the rooms here are modest. The bling is in the views. And the critter sightings.
Monday, 16 December 2019
We stayed in an end-of-the-road town, too small to have chain motels, and I supposed that’s why the one we stayed in, clean and maintained, offered no breakfast. So we went down the street, and enjoyed a hot breakfast at a little café. We learned from observing the men who came in that the proper greeting is, “Buenos días, how are you?” and that it’s possible to wrangle 157 horses before breakfast. I don’t know how big the crew was doing that.
We ventured into the local grocery store for a few supplies. We skipped the many institutional sized cans of food (pozole, anyone) and Mexican brand cookies, and even these Jesus candles. Looks to me like he’s modeling a wedding dress, but I probably don’t understand this imagery.
Then we began moseying downriver, following the Rio Grande toward its mouth far away. We passed a large state park (miles) and some ranches. Found this mostly grown colt and perhaps mom getting their breakfast.
That’s the Rio Grande, or the Río Bravo to people living on the other side, in México. As in: “I can see Mexico from my pickup.”
Took the old road for a stretch, going through surprisingly still active dispersed communities. This church was hanging on, but the second one in this area was decrepit and unused.
Hoodoos overlooking the RG/RB. (From a pano, if it looks a bit distorted.)
Finally, we crossed into Big Bend National Park, and our first stop is this dramatic canyon, named for Santa Elena. Last time we were here, the water was much lower, and we walked into the cleft. Computational photography means detail is visible in the dark canyon faces.
Meet Mules Ears. There’s a trail going over to it, but we were content to look from here.
These olive tinted layers caught my eye.
This spot is called Sotol Overlook. These are sotol plants, pronounced soh-tohl, but the Guru says they are so-tall. 😉
I walked up the hill from our room and heard noise in the brush to my left, looked, and: wow! two deer grazing. I froze and prepared to photograph. They were unconcerned. I got this shot when the second one crossed the street, looking down at the Guru sitting in the porch-shade (difficult to see).
Golden hour on the rocks above the lodge.
Sunset through the formation called The Window.