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

A Lovely Summer's Day

I spent part of the day at the Rio Grande Botanic Park.  One of the reasons I went was to see the Butterfly Pavilion.  As to be expected, there were lots of lovely butterflies fluttering by.  (Oh, there was also the cutest family of ducks outside of the pavilion.  A mama & about a half dozen babies who acted like they owned the joint.)

After the Butterfly Pavilion, it was fun & rather soothing to wander through the rest of the Botanic Park.  Lots of flowers - begonias & roses & daylilies among others.

My favorite spot in the whole park is the Japanese garden tucked all the way at the back.  Extremely soothing.  Lots of shady spots to sit & reflect & relax & just commune with nature.  A couple of dragonflies seemed to be posing for me.  (Let's hope those photos come out OK!)  A few people walked through but for the most part I was all by myself. 

I did swing by the Heritage Farm area of the park.  I was minding my own business taking photos of daylilies when something in the foliage STARTLED me.  It obviously wasn't some small critter or a lizard, but was of significant size.  I backed up a bit & at first thought it was a cat.  Nope, it was a fairly hefty chicken.  During the day, the farm area lets the chickens go free-range.  (They're put in their coop at night - no reason to provide hot snacks for the local coyote population.)  It obviously agrees with them because they're of good size & have a rather carefree attitude.  It was fun to see them doing their thing.

Papillon