Musings

Pretty sure this is the Heracleum that is not friendly to the skin–sap makes the human skin photosensitive, causing blistering and burning (wild/cow parsnip).

A couple of years ago I saw one flourishing over the hill, but this one is by our beach!

Pondering how to carefully remove the plant with no…downstream negative effects…no burns, skin blistering or brown streaks that can last over a year!

Moon over Whitefish Lake. Which used to have whitefish in it, I have read. Most people don’t call it that anymore…because? no whitefish? I prefer the old name to the modern one: South Manistique Lake.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Appearance and disappearance

On a quiet evening, a stroll can be so rewarding. The lake was quiet. [Last night we heard a loon.]

But not too quiet. Doe and fawn also out for a stroll….

And the peonies are beginning to open. Just yesterday they were closed buds.

And the lupine field remains gorgeous. Look at the color variation. I think this year my favorites are the dark purple-blue ones and the bicolor variants.

Posted at 6:56 PM | Comments Off on Evening stroll

Lake Michigan was quiet (for it) yesterday when we cruised by, and our lake was relatively quiet later today…after rain last night and breeziness mid-day.

And, this evening, plein-air dining…with birdie pepper/salt shakers! And rhubarb spice cake! Yum!

Posted at 9:57 PM | Comments Off on Slapped a deer fly, too

Yeah, pure Michigan. Like the idea, but I haven’t yet been willing to put this stuff in my gullet. Not likely to change that opinion, either.

Moving on, yeah, the fish-flies are still here, and this one wanted to be my best friend. Pooooooooof, I exhaled, and it was gone, off to find another sponsor in this hard, hard world.

Droney captured a lovely, still-sunny moment. Lordy, lordy, the lupine are lovely. We are enjoying them to the n-th degree!

And, we reunited with our good friends (sigh; love them!) who have looked after our place through the winter doldrums and captured-and-eliminated many rodents who sought to reside in Our House (aka cottage), against Our Wishes, through the winter quiet. We reoccupied The Cottage without much competition from Rodents or Bats, in great part thanks to the efforts of ukelele-playing Puppet-Woman, whom today we recognized as Saint UPPW….

Posted at 10:08 PM | Comments Off on Moving right along

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.]

Posted at 9:27 PM | Comments Off on What season?

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?

Posted at 11:01 PM | Comments Off on Briefly

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.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Comments Off on Snow; yes, snow

From our rural rancho, we headed north, in general up the Río Grande Valley. Then we turned west, and descended to the river. This is looking up the valley before we crossed the river and began our ascent of the eroded flank of a extinct volcano.

As we climbed, we eventually reached elevations where we saw the tall pines I suspect are Ponderosas.

We stopped in Los Alamos. We recommend the Bradbury Museum. It’s not named after Ray. The displays are eye-catching and up-to-date. This is from the section on current research.

The nephews tried the thick-gloves and found it not-so-easy to pick up light plastic shapes and put them in large-ish test tubes.

After lunch, we headed over to Bandolier National Monument. Because the winds were kicking up, we headed off on the main train, near the visitor center, which goes to, through, and by kivas, room-block ruins, and cliff dwellings.

This is the room-block ruins of Tyuonyi (Qu-weh-nee) village today—I’m left in black.

For comparison: 1923 US government photo of Tyuonyi, before stabilization of walls.

Stabilized walls of Tyuonyi at eye level.

Here’s a section of wall that has rows of holes that held beams that were roof/floors (low in this shot).

Here’s a close-up of petroglyphs on the wall (a crop of the photo above).

Here’s another section of wall. The roof/floor beam holes are even more obvious…. At the base of the canyon wall are the ruins of rooms. Some of these rooms would have been for storing food, rather than for living in.

Farther up the valley is a high-elevation cliff dwelling; it’s in that ovate. Starting from the left in the lowest blob of tree shadow you may be able to pick out a gleam from a handrail. That’s already one ladder up from the valley floor. Visitors continue to the right to three more ladders, eventually reaching that large cave to the upper right. It’s large enough to have a kiva (closed) with ruins along the margins of the space (I’m told).

We also really enjoyed walking in the Frijoles Valley. The wind was kicking up, and we were glad we set off walking just after our arrival in the valley. It’s now several hours after we left Bandolier, and the winds are fierce—as they were last night. This is mildly concerning because the fire warning levels are “extremely high” and we are out in the bush (as it were), and the electricity has already flickered twice. But, it’s on now, so I’m going to get this up! Or at least try to.

Posted at 9:33 PM | Comments Off on Los Alamos and Bandolier

Last night’s sunset. This landscape is dominated by light and shadow and shape. No wonder artists flock here. That is the visual dominance; living here you also notice the wind, dust, and temperature. Also sounds of birds (here), perhaps cattle elsewhere.

We cross a dry wash to our casita. In the solar lights along the path, the footprints in the sand looked like a lunar landscape with the treads of sports shoes not those of space suit boots.

Here’s a still life from the counter and wall left of the range in the main house.

This is the handle of the cupboard in the left edge of the photo above. The rest of the knobs are normal.

That’s Green Chili Bread on the left, quite spicy for bread. From the ovens of the restaurant/store we ate at last night. Paired with a normal, simple omelette. Superb breakfast.

After breakfast, I went out to the pool, took my shoes and socks off, and stood in the shallows. The Foot in the wild!

Our main focused activity today was to visit the historic plaza of Santa Fé, eat lunch, then head for the Georgia O’Keefe Museum. Stunning paintings, of course. Loved the photos of her, as a window into the person through her choice of garments, shoes, accessories, etc. This is a crop of O’Keefe’s 1939 painting Bella Donna.

Here are titles from her library. The display included a few sentences from a 1963 letter in which she observed that she’d taken three-and-a-half months to go around the world, then went across the Pacific to Bangkok and back with island stops. She went on to note that twice she’d been to Egypt and the place that stood out to her always was Peru. I assume the mountains….

Of course, there are few Stieglitz photos. And there were soundless moving images of them together, interesting—he seems to be putting up with being filmed while she seems to be somewhat cajoling him to participate (my hypothesis).

These are considered by some the first abstract photos. These two are from 1930 and 1929. Others in the sextet dated back to 1926. They are lovely dark, ghostly smudges, and not the kind of image I think of when I think of AS photos.

Off to cocktail hour chatting and laughing.

The title refers to my viewscape out the picture window in front of me at the casita, and what I noticed as I tried to formulate a title for this post. Very stream of unconsciousness.

Posted at 7:20 PM | Comments Off on Empty birdfeeders

Our first scenic stop was a wildlife area on the left bank of the Río Grande. Mile wide (not quite), and all that. Lots of suspended sediments. Also saw a trio of gulls (ring billed?) standing in the water; didn’t expect to see gulls.

This bright yellow flower was labeled as golden currant. We thought it smelled like honey, and the scent even wafted over the blooming rosemary causing confusion in identification.

These turtles had this section of a backwater/pond totally staked out. Love the one to the left of center with its head down and feet sticking out. Watched it for a while, and it never moved.

The cottonwoods are budding, yet the old leaves remain. The wind in the dry leaves has a different tone than the summer-green leaves. Duh.

Roadrunner. Posing. Like turtles: never moved.

Then we went to Old Town ABQ. This wedding party, as near as we could tell, was waiting to be summoned into the church, which dates to 1793. I ducked inside the church, and the priest was asking people where they’d come from…. Love the dads (?) standing off to the side in the partial shade.

Posted at 11:57 PM | Comments Off on Of wildlife and waiting