the flight of the snow geese

Had to share with you the flight lift off of the snow geese down at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Turn your volume up as it's quite noisy. Since coming back I look up expecting to see lots of birds when I hear a regular sized flock of Canadian geese fly over. Enjoy!

the marsh grasses

This is the original picture the previous mandala. I'm partial to the color blue, but the oranges make this picture. There are different blues becaue there was open water and ice.

Marsh Grass

I was so glad to see some color in the winter landscape in New Mexico. The warm orange tones of last years grasses and winter willow were enhanced by the setting sun. The water and ice added blue highlights and more marsh plants added interesting patterns in the middle.

I upload the original picture tomorrow.

the cactus connection

Took a short trip to Socorro, New Mexico to see the sandhill cranes and snowgeese at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. web address is
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/newmex/bosque/ The birds were beautiful and the mass takeoff something to marvel at. I'll share more pictures in the coming weeks. The plants and the secenery on the way were beautiful, too. Avove is a mandala of a very large yucca growing in front of the hotel. My eye was drawn to it by movement, there were several sparrows hopping around inside the leaves and it was full of wonderful curling bits of the cactus.

the snowy field

The picture the privious mandala was taken from.

sunset on the winter fields

It's cold here today only 16 - it was cold the other day on my way home from Loveland at sunset when I took a picture of plowed fields covered in snow. There was a low hill on the far edge of the field, a bush that made an orangish highlight, and a tree in the foreground became the connecting element in the design. It's not a dramatic sunset, just the land illumanated differently. That's why photographers like early morning and late evening light, it's the quality of the light.

Looking out the window

Here's another mandala that has the look of a patchwork quilt. It's kind of hard to tell what's up. My grandson and dog were hanging over the edge of the couch looking out the window. Their shapes and colors make interesting design elements.

Jade plant flower

My jade starts blooming about a month after I bring them in for the winter. They are tiny star shaped flowers in a cluster. Only one is open in this picture, leaving the rest looking like rows of teeth. The pink is a bougainvillea in the background.

Peony and Bee

All my seed catalogs have arrived which means Spring can't be too far behind. So I'm calling up more of my flowers! Above is a white peony - with wonderful colors in the middle. The stamens go from purple to gold with the back quarter of a bee rooting for nectar. And white is not totally white with the folds and bends of natrual light turning to shades of gray.

Yucca pod petroglyph

We traveled south last summer, stopping over in Albuquerque to spend the night. Then next morning before driving on to Arizona we stopped at the Petroglyph National Monument http://www.nps.gov/petr/ on the northwest side of town. There are many interesting glyphs to see. The one above is yucca seed pods created by scratching the darker weathered patina from the volcanic rock on cliffs above the Rio Grande valley. They make an interesting graphic design. To add color in the center, I added purple from a passion flower mandala.

original snow bow

Here's the unusual phenomenon!

the snow bow

The snow is melting here for a couple of days. I will enter the picture this came from next because its unusual. I have a glider with slats The snow that was on the outside slat, just slid over the edge into this bow shape, when it melted a bit. It's gone now, but was something I hadn't seen before. The purple was a piece of ceramic left there after summer was over.

Into the new year 2008

Anything that flowers in the winter is a pleasant reminder of things to come. Especially on days like today that are cold and overcast. Above is a cluster of paperwhite narcissus. The green is a stem that because of it's placement has become a geometric element in the picture. The best thing about paperwhites is that they smell wonderful and can perfume an entire room. Mine have been going since Christmas and are about at an end, but very much enjoyed for the duration.