Disparate Weather

Yesterday it was lovely.  Warm with a light breeze.  Partly sunny. 

As we all know, yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.  For as long as I've lived in the Albuquerque metro area, some unknown person(s) have painted a large shamrock in the middle of the intersection of Southern & Sara in Rio Rancho.  Here's a not-so-good photo showing it.

Today is not nearly as pleasant.  For starters the wind has been blowing like nobody's business.  Because of the wind there's a ton of dust in the air.

Those aren't just possible rain clouds off to the west, that's a whole lot of dust in them thar clouds. 

Around mid-afternoon the sun came out and the winds have died down slightly, but not a lot.

Glad I went to the Botanic Garden yesterday and had planned to stay at home for this afternoon.

Papillon

A Sunny Day

I hadn't realized it has been a month since my last entry!

After a series of days that have been cold/chilly or windy or both chilly and windy, today was lovely.  It was cool but sunny with very little wind.  I had seen a notice in the paper that the Botanic Garden at the Albuquerque BioPark was going to have an exhibit of blooming bulbs.  I thought, how fun and decided to go.  When I got to the Botanic Garden, they had notices up that the Blooming Bulb display has been postponed.  Since I was already there, I decided to go on in anyway. 

I got some nice photos and had fun doing so.  When you first walk into the Garden area, there's a large structure that's covered in vines.  During the spring and summer months, it's a lovely green spot.  Even now, at the end of winter, it's still fun to look at - to see the bare bones of the vines and the supporting structure.

They still had some leftover flowers from a flower display shown in January and February.  Here are some of those.

The above are both cyclamens.

I have NO idea what this next flower is but it sure looks nifty.



Next up is a male wood duck chasing away another duck who was wanting in on some bread dispensed by some other attendees at the park.

Here's another duck going bottoms up to feed.



And here are a couple of ducks doing a nice circular pas de deux (web de deux?).

I hope you've had a nice day where you are.

Papillon