Spring Time

Since Spring has sprung so I decided it would be fun to go to the Botanic Garden.  152 photos later, my feet were telling me that the new sneakers I'd bought were not the best choice for an hour and a half of walking.  So I headed home.

In the meantime, here are some of the photos I took this morning.

Over the years, I've seen any number of photos that people have taken of closed doors.  I like open 'doorways' instead.  I rather like this archway with the flowers showing through.

Here are a couple of photos of some of the blooming flowers.  I do so like tulips and daffodils.

Not surprisingly, the Botanic Garden has a goodly population of water fowls.  They have some large ponds and they are close to the Rio Grande.  This is closest I've ever been to a Canada goose.

I do appreciate this male wood duck 'posing' for me.  He is a handsome lad.

The park has a small train that circles the park.  It used to run on a fixed schedule, but the schedule is now a bit more irregular because of budget cuts.  They're now operating on a 'volunteer' schedule.  I know in the second shot, it looks like I'm about to be run over by the train.  I'm not.  I'm actually standing off to one side and am in no danger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

A Day Late (or Thereabouts)

I'm not sure why I didn't post this sooner - just laziness, I guess.

Last Friday was a lovely day.  I'd heard there was a display of tulips being held at the Botanic Garden as a follow-up to the display of cyclamens (mentioned in an earlier post).  I like tulips so I thought I'd head on down and enjoy the weather.

I got to the Botanic Garden and decided that the first thing I would do is ride the train.  Now, this is not a full-sized train.  This is a smaller version that is designed to chug its way around a route that encompasses parts of the Botanic Garden, Tingley Beach and the zoo.  Here's a photo of the engine:

There are actually 2 different trains, usually heading in opposite directions from each other.  Each train has 4 cars, 2 that are open and 2 that are partly enclosed.  I chose to ride in one of the semi-enclosed cars, here's a photo from the inside looking towards the engine.

It's a pleasant ride, if a little noisy - some banging and clanging as the train rolls along.  It's definitely not some sort of high-speed amusement park ride.  Gauging by the people we encountered along the ride it was faster than a walker, about the same speed as a jogger and slightly slower than someone on a bicycle.  All in all, it takes about an hour to make the full ride, not a bad way to enjoy a lovely spring day.

When I got done with the train ride, I went to see if I could find the tulip display I'd read about.  I discovered nary a tulip bloom in sight.  I'm thinking there may be a display in the near future, but someone gave the wrong dates to the newspaper.

It wasn't a total waste.  There was a magnificently blooming amaryllis.

Plus, here are some photos of some of the local duck population.  First of all, a male wood duck.

I have a fond place in my heart for wood ducks.  For years I entered my needlepoint in the Texas State Fair.  And for years, the best I could do was several second place finishes.  Then, one year I entered 3 items and they ALL won first place ribbons.  One of the entries was a picture of a male wood duck.  Gotta love 'em!

Next we have a male mallard.  He's just coming out of the pond and is giving me a hard look to make sure of the following:  1) that I'm not a dangerous carnivore preying on mallard ducks, and 2) that I don't have any food to share.

I like mallards because they were one of the first ducks I could identify when I was very much younger.

Have a lovely spring!  And love to all the folks trying to survive following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Papillon