Eideard

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Spotted this little dude just as we set off for our first walk of the morning. Cold and crisp temperatures, daunting to folks who aren’t fur-bearing.

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One of the delights of living in high desert country is the frequency of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. This was this morning.

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We were out for a walk just before sunrise, this morning, and turned along the bosque while the sunrise was catching the Ortiz mountains on the left – and Sandia Crest to the right about 50 miles away – while La Cieneguilla was still in late dawnlight.

My new pocket camera has a pretty solid 16X optical zoom – which would have been much sharper if I had my monopod along to shoot the Sandia photo at a slow speed.

In all, still a lovely autumn morning. Overnight rain here in the valley, snow on the mountains.

Yes, I changed cameras, again.

Good old Amazon’s exchange/return policy comes to the rescue.

I was less and less happy with the Canon I bought a couple of weeks ago. One of the oldest truisms in photography still holds, e.g., the quality of the lens is most important. So, as pissed off as I am at Panasonic about their battery protocols, I still want a camera in my pocket that takes the best quality for the price.

I returned the Canon and bought a Panasonic ZS8. $70 lower price. 16X zoom. It fits fine in my pocket. And as far as I’m concerned, the image quality with the Leica lens is lightyears ahead of the Canon.

BTW – I wasn’t trying for depth of field. That was taken at a 500th/second.

Taken while experimenting with a new pocket camera – Canon Powershot SX230HS. My old reliable Panasonic became old and unreliable. And I refuse to buy another camera from a company that inserts matching chips into camera and batteries that only allow their own overpriced batteries to be used.

Software in the Canon seems OK, so far. I’ve only been using it a day or so. I think the Leica lens in the Panny was probably better.

A morning shot looking South – after a few days and nights of rain and scattered showers. Amazing how verdant our landscape looks after a bit of precipitation. We’re up to about 4.5″ YTD. Woo hoo!

 
This was the view at sunset, last night – looking just north of west at Las Conchas fire smoke plume. The wildfire grew from about 1000 acres at sunset to about 6000 acres overnight. 8-12 miles away as the raven flies.

Los Alamos National Labs are closed today as are schools and everything else in Los Alamos County. The communities of Los Alamos and White Rock started voluntary evacuations. Several smaller communities closer to the fire totaling 400 households or so were under mandatory evacuation.

The fire is within a mile of LANL boundaries, this morning – and everyone from Homeland Security to surrounding county fire departments are added to the fire crews. We all remember the fire that destroyed hundreds of home in Los Alamos several years back and hope to stop that being repeated.

Yes – it’s west of us. That ain’t good. Prevailing summer winds vary from south to west. Air quality this morning is abysmal. The smell of smoke woke me during the night. It’s settling into La Cieneguilla Valley pretty thick. I’ll have a better idea after sunrise.

We’re probably safe; but, safe doesn’t mean a whole boatload with wildfires until they’re contained. Even then, with Rocky Mountain winds – any fire can jump containment.

UPDATE: Folks who haven’t lived in the Southwest aren’t used to the numbers describing size out here. We have wildfires bigger than cities in other parts of the country. In the last 6 hours the fire has grown from 6000 to 44000 acres. Two or three dozen woodlands homes are gone. Families got out with the clothes on their back and not much else.

Backfires and burn outs appear to have blocked the fire from the two main population centers, White Rock and Los Alamos. Winds have changed again and are headed into unburned timber towards Jemez Springs. For the moment.

UPDATE 2: Los Alamos is now under a mandatory evacuation. Shifting winds, strong winds – no one’s safety can be guaranteed.

The evacuation order does not include White Rock – though residents are urged NOT to go to White Rock in case that community is added to the evacuation. Los Alamos residents are divided into three groups to aid in an orderly evacuation and the reverse 911 system is in effect making robocalls to residents to let them know when it’s time for their section of the town to evacuate. [2PM MDT, 27 June 2011]

UPDATE 3: Los Alamos is now mostly empty of residents. Streets are patrolled by local cops, state police and the national guard to prevent looting. The fire is now up to 60000 acres.

UPDATE 4: Thursday 30 June, the fire is up over 92,000 acres. The town of Los Alamos looks secure; but, the spread up Santa Clara Canyon has rocketed past anything expected and the Santa Clara Pueblo and the Puye Cliff Dwellings look to be threatened.

UPDATE 5: Monday 4 July – folks are allowed to return home to Los Alamos. The fire is still burning at the northern and southern ends. Now up over 121,000 acres.

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The first two blossoms on one of my favorite chollas out in the back meadow by the bosque.

After a long dry winter and a matching spring – courtesy of La Niña – our high desert flowers have been sparse and late. This cholla is several feet high and often has nests from a few pairs of prairie birds; so, I tend to leave it undisturbed except when I can’t resist capturing a few snaps of its brilliant flowers.

You can see another dozen or so buds in the same frame – ready to explode in the coming week.

You know those little white flowers we see alongside the path at the fenceline every spring? They’re back.

Grandma’s maple