Confusion

Albuquerque exists in an environment known as high desert.  High as in being a mile above sea level.  Desert as in - not a lot of precipitation on a yearly basis.

That said, this has been one wet month of May.  It started raining yesterday and has been intermittently doing it right up until about mid-afternoon today.  Then the clouds moved off (mostly) and the sun came out just in time for sunset.

Whatever blew through also blew in some cooler temperatures.  Normally daily highs in mid-May are in the upper 70's.  Today, the high was forecast to be in the low to mid 60's and I'm not sure it got up that high.  I had to turn on the heat this morning.  Not very high, but enough to take the edge off.

The weirdest part has been the snow in the Sandias.  I tried to take a photo around noon, but the clouds had rolled in and looked to be dropping another light layer.

All this while the vegetation around town is still doing the spring thing.  Notice the green in the lower fifth of the above photo.  Or this lovely bush, I think it's called Spanish Broom.

Later the clouds pulled back a bit.  You can see small areas of snow at the top of the mountains and just below the clouds, if you squint a bit.

Tomorrow it's supposed to start warming up a bit.  And we might get more rain later in the week.
Either 1939 or 1941 are the wettest Mays on record.  If we keep going the way we have been, we might just beat the record.  Considering how recently the state was listed as being in a drought, any and all rain is welcome.

Papillon

It's All Happening at the Zoo

It's been years since I went to the Albuquerque zoo so I decided to go Friday morning (yesterday).  I thought - it's a work day and a school day so it'll be quiet and uncrowded.

Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha!  Snort!  Smacks hand on desk!  Ha, ha, ha! 
(Excuse me while I take a short break.)

Okay, I'm back.  (Brief episode of low-level giggling.)

After you re-read the first paragraph, I'm sure you can picture the look on my face when I pull up in front of the zoo.  Not only is the parking lot FULL, so are all parking areas within walking distance.  And there looks to be most of the school buses in the Albuquerque metro area, plus a couple from Santa Fe.

Needless to say, I promptly put the zoo in my rear-view mirror.  I had NO desire to be trampled by large hordes of very short barbarians.

This morning I woke up and the thought occurred to me.  Saturday morning is generally when crowds of parents and children converge on the park near my house to do whatever sport they do.  If they're all at the park, then they can't also be at the zoo.  Shall I try again?

I decide to go for it and was very pleasantly surprised when I get there and note that the parking is only about half full.  There were numerous people there, but it was not nearly as crowded as on Friday.

When you first get to the zoo, you're greeted by a rather contentious group of flamingos.  They seem to spend half their time eating and the other half bickering with each other.  (Notice the ruffled feathers on some of the birds.)

Here's a cougar who was kind enough (bored enough) to pose for me.

 

This tiger came out, took a look at us and walked back indoors.  I know there's a dark spot on the wall behind him.  No, he's not urinating, it's a spot that's being repaired & hasn't been painted yet.

His behavior was mimicked by the zebras.  They walked out, looked bored and walked back indoors.

The sea lion on the other hand seemed to be having fun posing for all of us.

 

Finally, here's the zoo's baby giraffe.  I'm not sure how old he is, but he's a cutey.  He was very curious about me at first, then decided eating was more fun.

All in all, I had a pleasant time and left just as the parking lot was beginning to fill up.  Timing is a good thing.

Papillon