Cholla

Another Cactus

I have another cactus blooming in one of my flower pots. I think it is a different kind of claret cup cactus than the red ones I posted photos of before.

Sunset & Bulls Skull

Bulls Skull

About 12 years ago while exploring out in the desert I found a dead bull being eaten by coyotes. A month later I went back and found the bones that had been picked clean by the coyotes, ants, rat and maybe other desert preditors. I found the skull and brought it home. I now keep it hung on the fence where the sun shines on it each evening. I have taken lots of photos of it against the sunsets. I hate the fact that I can't take any photos there without getting some power lines in the pictures. I certainly never expected to find bird nests in the eye sockets of the skull but I did last year and I am now watching a pair of finches that are nesting in the other eye socket.

Bull Skull Nest

Last year I found an abandoned nest in the eye socket of my bull's skull but didn't know if they actually used the nest. This year in the other eye socket I saw a nest the other day. There was a pair of what we call red headed finchs going in and out. Some books call them house finchs. When I saw them leave the nest I stuck my hand in and felt a nice, tight little nest made mostly out of horse hair and grass. It is a much better nest than the local sparrows make out of hay, tumbleweeds and the neighbors chickens feathers. I hoped they would come back even though I had put my hand in their home. I was glad when I saw them again in a few days and was able to get a couple of photos of the nest and one of the male finch.

Finch Nest

This is a view of the back of the bull's skull. You can see more of the nest and I could see 3 eggs but I wasn't tall enough to get the camera to focas on the eggs.

Papa Finch

This is a photo of the male redheaded finch that I got when he lit for a second on the elk horns that are on top of the fence post we use as a stop for the gate when we open it.

The female doesn't have the red on it's head and front and is mostly gray.

Comments on Jemez Trip

Thanks, Cindy for all your wonderful comments on the photos I took on our trip to the Jemez Mountains last week.

Mail comments

I'm glad to hear that not everyone has the problems with the Postal Service that we do.

US Postal Service

So what if the US Postal Service is threatening to stop our Saturday deliveries. We haven't had more than a half a dozen deliveries on Saturday this year. The worst part is we don't get decent deliveries the rest of the week either. Ever. Last month most of my bills went to the guy two doors down from us and the month before to the couple next door. This Month? Well, there just missing. I'm talking about credit card bills where who ever gets the bill would have access to our credit card numbers and other information. I wouldn't know how to use someone elses credit card number but there are lots of crooks out there that would. We are also missing some person mail including my husbands fathers day card from our son. So why doesn't the US goverment just do away with the Postal Service and let a privite company take over? maybe then we'd get our mail.

New Comment

I have a nice comment from Montreal Flowers about the lupine flowers and wanting more information on them. I know they are a wild verity of a highbred that can be bought at some plant nurseries. The wild ones seem to like high altitudes and decent water, not drought conditions, to be able to bloom like this. I saw more on this trip than I have ever seen. You might try googling the name of the flower 'lupine' and see if you can get more information about them from one or more of the good flower and wildflower web sites that are out there.

Teakettle Rock

This is Teakettle Rock. It even has a sign to tell you it is but someone who visited here took the time to shoot a hole in the 'O' of Rock. It is a huge, ancient rock that looks sort of like a teakettle. It has an arch way on top for the handle. It sit is a little valley way, way, way back in the way back of the Jemez Mountains which are part of the Santa Fe National Forest. It is my opinion that the Jemez Mountains were once a volcano that has been extent for thousands of years. This has allowed all the trees, scrubs, grass and flowers to grow and let wildlife and people evade the area. But when that volcano was active it spit out tons and tons of rock, lava, and volcanic ash out on what would become this beautiful forest some day. When it spit those tons of rock there was this one spit out in the middle of an open area that just happened to look like a teakettle to someone that would find it thousands of years later. I have heard it said by some that it looks more like a huge ostrich pecking at something. The handle of the 'teakettle' being the 'neck' of the bird.

Swirly Clouds

I like this pic because of the swirly clouds in the blue sky. We did have great, natural light for photos.

Hidey Hole Under the Rock

From one side you could really see the hidey hole or small cave that was under Teakettle Rock. It makes you wonder how many wild animals have hiden there during all the thousands of years since that volcano spit the rock out and it cooled. Bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, wolves, skunks, foxes, and of course mice and rats. And did any Native Americans, or cowboys, or outlaws, or even kids wait out rain storms in it. I saw no sign of it at this point. The sand didn't look like it had been disturbed that much except by where Tuffee went in took a quick sniff and came back out. No I decided not to craw inside. The though of the other kinds of creatures that could be in there kept me out. Like spiders, scorpions, and other bugs. There could have even been a snake in the far back corner but I didn't think so. Mostly it was my old, decrepit body that said if you get down and in there you might not be able to get back out.

Under the Rock

This is the photo I took of the crawl space that goes all the way under the huge rock. It is next to the 'cave' in the above shot.

Me and the Rock

I tried to get Tuffee to stay with me while Lee took our picture but she didn't seem to want to.

Tuffee's Hole

On one end of Teakettle Rock was a hole through the rock that might have been close to 3 feet tall. I noticed Tuffee our Border Collie go through the hole and told her she had done it too fast as I didn't get a photo of her in it. Lee, jokingly told her she needed to go around and do it again. Tuffee does know what 'go around' means as far as herding the horses. And surprisingly she did it this time too. She went around the end of the big rock and came back through the small hole and posed perfectly.

How Big?

This photo give a perspective on just how big Teakettle Rock is compared to a man and his dog. Actually Lee and Tuffee.

Meadow

this the nice meadow that Teakettle Rock is in.

Wild Locast Tree

It was very dry in the mountains so I was surprised to see so many wild flowers blooming. The wild locast trees were beautiful with pale pink to a light purple in color blossoms. There were wild roses, iris, and lupines as well as many others that I couldn't name and were so tiny I couldn't get a decent photo of.