Week 34 - 2016 in Photographs

Day 232

 Friday is the first day of my photographic week and the day I generally post the week previous. No, the photos are not necessarily taken each day of the week to post. I have bumper days out with the camera when I could manage a whole month of posts. Over the years I have done this I have developed a file system to separate off the photos I deem acceptable for my daily post and I am frequently a week ahead. But today when I went to week 35 there was only one photograph there to post.

It has been a busy time here at Twix. There are three signs for Black Lake as if someone could not decide exactly where it was. Some time ago a neighbor back up the road started calling her place Tween because it was between Angel Fire and the first Black Lake sign. I am at the first sign and ergo Twix as in between sign one and two. And then there is Beyond Black Lake. Suffice it to say rural dwellers describe their locations differently than city dwellers.

Day 233

 Day 233 was taken at Twix. It is a red tailed hawk on the sentinel tree across the road. She is either there or on the power pole on the property line in my backyard. She hunts the prairie dogs and rodents from these perches. We're old friends and my activities seldom make her fly.

Day 234

 I leave Twix to sit pets (my don't quit your day job activity) which opens different worlds to me and my camera. The seed pods of the split leaf palm above are in a green house in Angel Fire. A certain rural perspective has invaded this resort town. There is up basin and back basin. The lake and the mountain sides. I admit going through a tangle of residential roads to get to places where I know the pet's name but not the name of the road.

Day 235

 The photograph below was taken on the mountain side near the wetlands. The one above on the other side near the lake. My new camera has a GPS function. So did the one before. I have never used it because there is something about life in the mountains which screws it up. And Google maps doesn't help. The roads do not make right angle turns either left or right. Sort of look like the wind chime above.

Day 236

I think the weather vane and the raven had a spat. They do not seem to be talking.

Day 237

This velvet buck was in Tween. Just off the road to Twix. Deer are so common in this area I frequently don't even stop but I had a mission this summer to take a photograph of a buck in velvet. This ten pointer was worth pulling off the road.

Day 238

There is a day in August when the wind comes from a new direction and has a new smell to it. It means fall is really here regardless of when the calendar says it is so. Grass does not grow much after that date and here and there is a preview of the colors to come. It is a busy time when you know things must get done before winter (generally at Halloween). I swear the calendar is wrong. Winter Solstice is more the middle of winter not the beginning. By the first of March spring is creeping in.