Christening the New Baby

presenting......La Donna Mobile

We thank you all for name suggestions , but we felt she wanted to be “La Donna Mobile”.... with apologies to Verdi.

The aria is "la donna e mobile" which we are corrupting - In Italian, it means " the woman is fickle"...and our Donna is certainly ( we hope) not that! But she does want to be on the move.

Home Sweet Home a close second - after all she is our home on the road. And Wa-Wa was in the running - maybe we need a plaque for the runners-up.

Took us a while to decide who would sit where - and the load of 7 hit the road to the tunes of the Metropolitan opera hour - alas no Verdi.

Maiden Voyage - Where - how far? At the last minute we decided on a quasi-adventure - not some local state park. Tent Rocks - a little to the north into snow land (Albuquerque really is a dividing line) - so into the Cochiti Reservation, on whose property the national park is. Last bumpy, washboard 5 miles was a test of something.....not wanting to spend too much time on this type of road.

Greeted with more snow than expected. But the hearty took off on the slushy path to the caves. Lots of animal tracks in the snow. Picnic tables in the sun where we opened a bottle of champagne and toasted La Donna Mobile. A cow moseyed down the road. A mountain jay came to beg for leftovers - a bold guy - but not as noisy as his flamboyant eastern relatives…(am I sounding like a bird-watcher?)

Matias got the prime seat on the way back - zonked !

petroglyphs and lunch

in reverse order - lunch and petroglyphs

and then we ate and ate and ate

at a large Hispanic grocery with a groaning food court..

dessert first

On the outskirts of Albuquerque, with new housing developments crowding up around it, is Petroglyph National park. We filled our water bottles, put on our hats and off we went . They believe that most of this group of "etchings' was made around 1200-1400 , carved into a lava flow from long-extinct volcanos in the area. The interpretation of the symbolism does vary - in part becuase the pueblo tribes are somewhat secretive about their native lore. But some of the later ones do show some Christian influences, left by the marauding Spaniards.

AGMC "Rock Club," Mars and the Moon, a con?

System:		Trigonal	Colour:	Amber-yellow, ...
Lustre:		Sub-Adamantine, Vitreous, Resinous	Hardness:	2½ - 3½

Name:

Named in 1852 after the type locality, Barranco Jaroso in southern Spain.

Jarosite

The members of the Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Club (AGMC) are a serious group of rock collectors, geologists and mineral hobbyists.The 100 people attending the monthly meeting look the part. Pony tails, long hair, digging garb and faces wrinkled by the New Mexico sun. These people are not yuppies. One of them I met at the last meeting has several turquoise claims which he personally mines near Gallisteo.

Tonights program was delivered by the head of the geology department at NM Tech and it was The Joys of Jarosite.

The mineral Jarosite has been discovered on Mars and he has led a research team showing how Martian Jarosite when compared with earth Jarosite found in New Mexico, proves the existence of water on Mars at some point in time.

He delivered a very erudite lecture which, while highly technical, was prepared for people who did not have a technical degree but could follow the scientific process he led and the conclusions drawn from the study.

As soon as the lecture was over we made for the stairs not wanting to socialize during the refreshment period and as we arrived at the front lobby of the Natural history museum a man approached us and said, “I’ve been listening to the lecture and if there were ever a group that would like to see what I have in this box, it is that group.” He held up a metal briefcase for me to see.

Oh no, I thought, this guy is going to try to sell us fools gold (pyrite) several spectacular samples of which we had just looked at near the exit of the AGMC meeting, which were brought in, in preparation for the next field trip to Bosque Wash. Keep your hands on your wallet I thought, this has got to be a professional con if he thinks he can pitch these guys.

“What’s in the box,” I asked,

“A lunar rock,” he responded, “I just came in here to find a safe to put it in for the night, but I haven’t found one.”

Right I thought, and he is going to tell me there is Jarosite in the lunar rock. Well, he’s talking to the wrong guy.

“Where are you from,” I asked

“NASA, we’re here for an exhibit tomorrow,”

Mars, the Moon, Jarosite all in one evening. I wish I had paid more attention, but we had already planned to take Matias to the NASA exhibit after school Tuesday. I am going to ask my friend with the metal briefcase to show him the moon sample.

Birding and Birders in the Bosque - bjg

sandhill cranes, harrier (and other) hawks, ravens, snow geese, lots of duck varieties, pie-eyed grebe, a flock of mountain bluebirds, moving so fast I couldn't pin them down, bald and golden eagles lurking in the trees.... and photographers

Bosque del Apache - National Wildlife Park

An all-day trip organized by the Museum of Natural History here - 2 mini-vans and lots of seniors.

Nature photography not my thing , so I was going to focus on the birders. But they turned out NOT to be stereotypically eccentric...instead, very companionable. Landscape photos not my thing either - but the colors were so amazing. And I can't cull them down to a few.

Arriving (bjg)

a bit out of order..... we arrived in December with a trailer of basement goods to sketchily furnish Amy's old house (she has moved).

And then we got busy - lectures, field trips, house hunting, school busing, catering, and finding a new toy - a small RV. And the pile of Christmas cards, still on the desk. Christmas photos buried, but may dredge them up....

We're here through April.....and then?

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Birding with the experts (MLLG)

New Mexico Museum of Natural History had a trip to the Bosque del Apache to do some birding, and these people take their birding seriously. Unfortunately for you, I am not so serious and was more interested in taking some pictures than identifying what kind of bird I was looking at.

So if you can identify these birds, tell me what you are looking at and I will reward you with a 5 x 7 print of any of the pics. They are also available in color if you prefer, but you might be better off asking my companion for those.

Who me?

Soaring

Make Room !

Duck Butts

Look good from 2000 ft.

The highlite of my day was a green chile hamburger at the Owl Cafe. This is where the atomic scientists hung out when they were preparing for the first atomic bomb test in 1945 at the nearby Trinity Site.