Sandia's and Balloon

This balloon was having trouble getting up the other morning. It was probably to warm for good ballooning. You can see part of Albuquerque below the Sandia Mountains.

Eclipse of the Moon From New Mexico

The moon, (and the sun) always comes up over the Sandia Mountains where are about 50 miles east of us, although it depends on the time of year which part of the mountains  where the moon come up. It can very quit a bit. This is the moon coming up the night of the eclipse. It wasn't completely dark when it first pushed up over the mountain. The eclipse actually started about 7pm here and was complete at 8:24pm and over with an hour later. I took lots of photos as I don't expect to ever see one again. I am glad I have been able to see as many as I have. About 3 that I can remember, and several of the sun as well.

Sandia Mountains

Took these photos Christmas morning of the Sandia Mountains as seen from my yard plus a little sparrow that lit on a post.

More Flowers

Morning Glories

Vitex Bush

 Blanket Daisy

Wild Sunflower with mountains

Sandia Mountains

Geranium Flowers

 Some kind of bulb flowers, name forgotten

Sunset

Fire on the Mountain

Thursday morning early there was a fire started on the Sandia Mountains. It is thought it was manmade as their hasn't been any lightining in New Mexico in months. The fire was in a deep canyon between two peaks. We could see the smoke coming up out of the canyon from our back yard. I took the first photo through a dirty window. But there was so much smoke and blowing dust all the photos are blurry. The last photo shows the smoke coming up the best. This morning they said the fire was about 60 percent contained. It was in very rough country and hard for the firefighters to get to it. Mostly there were planes and helecopters doing water drops. We couldn't see them as it was just to far away from, about 50 miles or so.

On Friday morning my neighbor say smoke billowing up a few miles from us and was reaching for her phone when the fire trucks went out. Someone had already called them. They found an abandoned mobile home, and a couple of sheds on fire that they thought was arson. In about a mile radious there were 3 or 5 more fires set in piles of trash and brush. Really looked like an arsonist was at work. This was following 5 fires set within a few miles of each other at the foot of the Sandia Mountains about a month ago.

I can't understand how anyone can set fires that could cause the whole area to go up in flames considering the drought in our state. If the fireman hadn't got them out so fast many homes could have caught on fire or someone could have been injured or killed all because someone thinks it's fun to play with fire.

Sunrise - Sunset

First 2 photos are sunrises over the Sandia Mountains.

Next 2 photos are sunsets over the Sandia Mountains. Sandia is Spanish for watermelon. The sunset photos show the pink color that is frequently seen at sunset on the mountains that gives them their name.

Sandia Mountains

Some views of the Sandia Mountains the other day with a layer of clouds over them.

Canadian Geese

This bunch of Canadian geese were on a pond to the side of the Nature Center. Those are the Sandia Mountains in the background as they are in so many of my photos.

Black and White Photos

Decided that all this snow was right for taking some black and white photos. Sometimes I just prefer the old fashioned look.