Tim and I share a birthday. For years we have done something on that day. Yesterday was no exception. This year we opted for a quiet day in the bosque and along the banks of the Rio Grande. It was a spectacular, cloudless afternoon. We saw a lot of crows, some geese, and a couple of cranes. Over the next couple of weeks many more cranes will be arriving. Yesterday, above all, colors took center stage.
Saturday afternoon in the bosque.On the way to the Rio Grande.The Rio Grande is quite low now, and the shoreline is parched and cracked.Rio Grande, golden cottonwoods, Sandia MountainsTim studying the scene on a cloudless October afternoon.Laurie along the Rio GrandeGloriously golden cottonwood branch.Tim photographing a gloriously golden cottonwood branch.“Is it time to eat yet?” Heading back to the house after an afternoon walk in the bosque.
Silver, one of the Price cats, seemed to be watching for his people’s return. As you can see, Tim had cameras with him.
We have had a stretch of cloudless sunrises the past couple of weeks. When I went out to pick up the paper this morning, I was thrilled to see some clouds. This sunrise seemed to have the potential to produce crepuscular rays. A few minutes later they did emerge. These are certainly not the most spectacular rays I have seen. You might have to look hard to see them. But the sky was beautiful in this blue hour. So, I grabbed the camera to see what I could get.
I did not see the crow until I looked at the image on the computer. It was one of those surprises that can just appear. The icing on the cake… It was a beautiful New Mexico way to start the day.
New Mexico skies, as many of you know, can be amazing, spectacular, beautiful, menacing… Add whatever word you wish, and you will see it here one day. These two images are from June 2, 2019. I haven’t been out looking for crepuscular rays at sunrise since I fell and smashed my glasses and face in December 2017. Fortunately, the camera and lens, which hit the driveway first, were completely fine. Way to go, Canon! By the way, I had been out chasing sunbeams at sunrise. On June 2, I went out to get the newspaper. What greeted me? Crepuscular rays! These aren’t the most beautiful or magnificent ones I have seen here, but I was thrilled to see them after such a long time. I grabbed my camera, hoping to be able to capture them.
Sunrise with Crepuscular Rays, and Clouds Below Sandias
This was such a wonderful Blue Hour with the crepuscular rays and clouds below the Sandias. It made me feel alive in a way I had not felt in a while.
Later that afternoon, stormy skies moved in over the Sandias. At my house I didn’t get much rain. However, I enjoyed watching the clouds and thinking how different the sky was from sunrise that morning.
Stormy Skies, Mid-Afternoon
Both images were taken in my front yard, facing the Sandias to the east. The angles are a little different, but you get the idea.
As I looked at these, I could not help remembering the skies of the 2009 Monsoon Season. Night after night after night we saw blazing sunsets. I always love the New Mexico skies, but part of me hopes the 2019 Monsoon Season can rival that of 2009…
May in Corrales is one of those times in the yearly cycle as significant to me as the smell of green chile roasting in early autumn and Balloon Fiesta in October. Corrales is enjoyable all year around, but May in Corrales as the Dr. Huey roses are in bloom has become a ritual. I posted one set of images a couple of weeks ago. These are more images from the Price home on May 18, 2019.
First, Special Cats
Spunk doesn’t mind being photographed – if the mood strikes him. Therefore, I have more photos of him than the other Price kitties. On this day one of the black cats let me take a photograph too.
Spunk, The Professional Model CatSpunk: Playing or Modeling?One of the Black Cats, Najar, Observing the Goings-On on the Deck
Second, Interesting Plants
Although in May in Corrales the emphasis is on roses, the Price Garden has many other plants. These are a few that attracted my attention.
AlliumHoneysuckle
Iris
Iris
Third, Roses
Bud of the Rose, ‘Rio Samba’Climbing Rose ‘America,’ Cascading Over the DeckGorgeous Roses! ‘Cherry Parfait’ This rose in full bloom greeted me when I got to the end of Price Lane and Tim and Laurie’s beautiful gardens.
Regular readers here know how much I enjoy not only Corrales, but also so many things New Mexico has to offer. I hope you are enjoying them, too.
San Ysidro and Dr.Huey: another spectacular day in the Land of Enchantment. This weekend is the Festival of San Ysidro, patron saint of agriculture and farming. San Ysidro is also the patron saint for Corrales, an independent village that sits on the west bank of the Rio Grande. Nearly every year the Festival and the Corrales Rose Society’s Dr. Huey Tour fall on the same weekend. This year was the Sixth Annual CRS Dr. Huey Tour.
The day was spectacular. The sky was crystal clear and the temperature was perfect. Here at my house, most of the roses have finished first bloom, but ‘Mermaid’ is just beginning. In Corrales, Dr. Huey was not only at its peak, but also most of the other roses. While this is not the typical order of things, it made for a beautiful day.
I have a lot of photos to show (and many more for a later time), so I’m not going to “talk” much. As they say, hopefully “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Painted Lady Butterflies
Painted Lady ButterflyPainted Lady ButterflyPainted Lady Butterfly
Iris
White Iris
Roses in the Price Garden
Although I have been in the Price Garden many times in many seasons over many years, I have never seen it more beautiful than today.
Price Rose GardenPrice Rose GardenPrice Rose GardenPrice Rose GardenPrice Rose GardenPrice Rose GardenPrice Rose GardenPrice Rose Garden
Dr. Huey
Dr. Huey in the Price Rose Garden
The giant Dr. Huey growing ‘somewhere’ in Corrales is in great shape in 2019. A lot of underbrush had been cleared out, and we could clearly see at least three Dr. Hueys: the tall one, and at least two shorter ones, one on either side. We were happy to see these so healthy this year. They are ‘survivors’ in a harsh climate, survivors that retain their beauty.
Dr. HueyDr. Huey
Spunk
Spunk
Tim and One of the Chile Guitars
Tim and the Chile Guitar
First Day to Open the Deck
While I have many more pictures to show, like Beaker the parrot taking a birdbath in his water, more Spunk and a few of the other kitties, and such, I wanted to end this evening with the way we finished the day and have so many other times: eating wonderful food with friends, laughing, just enjoying the day and company. Thanks Tim and Laurie for the hospitality on a day spent celebrating San Ysidro’s gifts and Dr. Huey!
Enjoying the Opening of the Deck and the End of Day
Although my favorite time to photograph flowers in my garden is morning, when it is light but the sun hasn’t yet risen above the Sandias, yesterday the light was pretty good in late afternoon.
Did you watch the Kentucky Derby? I think it was the strangest one of my lifetime. When all is said and done, I’m glad none of the horses were injured.
Once the winner had been decided, I went out to see what was happening in the yard. Because the light in my small Albuquerque yard is very different in late afternoon than in early morning, I saw different things to photograph.
Lizard
A lot of lizards live in my yard. I rarely photograph them, partly because they run away. This guy was comfortable and held his ground.
LizardLizard
Shrub Rose ‘Pike’s Peak’
This rose was a gift several years ago. I should have photographed it a couple of days earlier. However, you can still see the beauty it adds to the garden. I was heading out to photograph it when I saw the lizard on the railroad ties.
Shrub rose ‘Pike’s Peak’
Developing Baby Pear
I have two pear trees: one is a pollinator and the other produces good eating pears. This now-small pear should become a good eating pear some time in August.
Developing Pear
Floribunda Rose, ‘Chihuly’
This rose pretty much speaks for itself.
Floribunda rose, ‘Chihuly’
Today is Cinco de Mayo, observed just for fun by many people. Today might be a good day to spend late afternoon in the garden… Enjoy whatever you do today. 🙂
Garden flowers are delightful, especially when they survive Albuquerque’s spring winds. These flowers are blooming this week and have maintained pretty good shape. The hybrid tea rose, ‘Gemini,’ is blooming (the first HT to bloom), but shows what wind can do to rose petals. Above all today, I’m showing some survivors in the high desert…
Cinnamon Delight
First is the unusually colored ‘Cinnamon Delight.’ I grow this in a container on my patio. It blooms almost nonstop from early spring until a hard freeze in the fall.
Miniature rose ‘Cinnamon Delight’
Climbing Earthquake
Next is the miniature rose, ‘Climbing Earthquake.’ Ralph Moore, hybridizer of many roses (mainly miniatures) hybridized this lively little beauty.
Miniature rose ‘Climbing Earthquake’
Spring Fling
Miniature rose ‘Spring Fling’
Marmalade Skies
The floribunda rose, ‘Marmalade Skies,’ can produce very large sprays of roses as well as well-formed single blooms. Sprays are developing. Maybe in a week or two I’ll have some pictures of those.
Floribunda rose ‘Marmalade Skies’
Pansies
You know I’ll show pansies when they are blooming. 🙂
Pansies
Autumn Sage
Autumn Sage requires very little care in the high desert. Hummingbirds, especially the females, it seems, prefer it over the hummingbird feeders.
Autumn Sage – loved by hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies
BeBop
I cannot keep from smiling when ‘BeBop’ is blooming. I also laugh about the time a photographer who didn’t know roses (“you have to grow them to know them”) told me I should have waited until the wind stopped blowing to photograph a similar bloom. The petals grow this way, and to a great extent are how it got its name.
Shrub rose ‘BeBop’
I hope you have a great week enjoying the garden flowers where you are. 🙂
On this weekend of many different celebrations, religious observances, and good weather, is there a better time to celebrate spring blooms? Probably any time flowers are blooming is a good time to celebrate them. I photographed these in my yard this weekend.
Here in the high desert roses are beginning to have buds. However, they will not bloom for a few more weeks. Therefore I have planted flowers that bloom earlier – and later – than roses.
‘Nelly Moser’ is a well-known clematis that grows up one of favorite roses, ‘Mermaid.’ The rose provides good support for the clematis. In addition, it provides shade for the roots. The two coexist quite happily.
Clematis ‘Nelly Moser’
Earlier this year I showed some blooms of the dwarf peach, ‘Bonanza.’ The peaches are now forming. You can see how many tiny peaches are packed onto the branches. If I want good-sized peaches and healthy branches, I must thin these out this week. Otherwise, the peaches would be very small, and so many could weigh down the branches.
Baby Peaches that Need to be Thinned
Pansies are remarkable flowers. They grow well all through autumn, go dormant in the colder parts of winter, and joyously burst forth in spring. They come in so many different colors. Each bloom seems to have its own expression.
Wake-Up-Bright PansiesMagenta Pansies
The weekend has been beautiful in Albuquerque. Wishing you a beautiful week wherever you are.
A stormy sunrise had accurately been predicted by the Weather Service for several days. The prediction was correct. Although the sun was trying to peek out between the clouds and mountains, the clouds soon won out. As predicted, we had showers later in the morning. The sun broke through in the afternoon. Now, however, a light rain is falling again. Those of us who live here are happy for the rain!
The neighbors behind me have two friendly, wonderful dogs, Sampson and Inoki. They always greet me when I’m out. Inoki is a born model, and I have posted images of him before. Sampson is a little camera-shy. This image is not sharp, but it is the only one I have. Sampson brightened a stormy sunrise!
Sampson, My Neighbors’ Friendly Dog. He and his brother, Inoki, always greet me when I am out.
New Mexico Roses: a change is definitely coming to the High Southwest Desert this weekend. The first cold front of the season is arriving in New Mexico, with unseasonably low temperatures and snow in some areas. This is a little early. The cold will not last long. But if the temperatures drop low enough, most of the roses will be close to the end for 2018. In this time of change, I offer a look back at some of the roses growing in New Mexico gardens, some mine and some of friends. All of these were photographed out of doors, as growing, in natural light. I groomed some of those in my garden. I did not groom roses growing elsewhere. You would not find those entered in a rose show. “It’s not what you look at, it’s what you see.” I saw beauty in all of these.
From My Garden
David Clemons’ Miniflora Foolish Pleasure. One of David’s Earlier Creations, It Does Extremely Well in the High Desert.Gemini Macro. Note the Unfolding SpiralRoute 66, a Shrub Rose. The White Eye and Colorful Stamens Are Striking.Spray of the Shrub Rose, Route 66Othello, a David Austin Shrub RoseAnother Incognito Image That Does Not Fit Rose Show Guidelines, But Which I Use for CardsIncognito. I Could Not Enter This in a Rose Show Because of the Bud Form and “Detracting” Rain Drops. The Word Most Often Used by Non-Rosarians Is “Sensual”Mermaid MacroMermaid, Hanging Down a WallSombreuilPhotographed in the Garden, but Edited Later. I Also Use This for Cards.Chihuly. Photographed in the Garden, but Edited Later to Highlight the Relevance of the Name
From the Garden of Friends
I Loved the Stamens on this Single RoseR foetida bicolor: “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there” ~ Miles DavisA David Austin rose in friends’ garden
Change is on its way. I hope you have enjoyed a stroll through some New Mexico gardens with their roses. I have certainly enjoyed sharing them with you.
