Sure enough, that clue led to another and we came upon this baby Zebra… who seemed to be thinking about dinner and wishing she had some company too.

All of sudden, a clump of hay was thrown on the ground from some unseen source, and right away another Zebra materialized out of nowhere . . . talk about wish fulfillment – she got dinner and a friend – just like that. She must have watched “The Secret”.

So, if it was feeding time, other animals would be on the move, and we should be able to spot them . . .

Too late, we realized that this baby giraffe was running for a door, and would soon disappear (they must feed giraffes indoors).

But, just before she vanished, she gave us one of those looks that says it all as far as what animals think of zoos.

And somehow, we knew that we were not going to see any more animals that day, and that no one was going to throw us any dinner either.

We would have to search elsewhere for that, and we did.

I did not take this beautiful photo. I have not yet been able to get a great hummingbird photo – but not for lack of trying. This one came from a website with free screensavers. (http://www.freedesktopwallpapers.net)

I thought my next post would be about the rest of my trip to the Zoo, but while sitting with my laptop on the garden swing this morning, I had such an amazing adventure, I got totally sidetracked.

The Hummingbirds have just arrived and that always feels like the real beginning of the paradise days of summer – that and when I first set up the fountain (haven’t done that yet). But this morning, a Hummingbird got herself in a terrible predicament.

Our front doorway is covered by a portale (covered porch) that has a skylight in it. The Hummingbird accidentally got up into the skylight well and her world no longer made sense to her – she couldn’t fly into that sky she could see so clearly.

I tried luring her down with a variety of plants from the Hummingbird gourmet menu, to no avail. Then I got out a ladder and put the plants up in the well with her. I set them on the beams – thinking she would be distracted from that fake sky and re-orient herself. No luck.

This went on for twenty minutes or so, with both of us building up a good head of stress.

As a person who would never want to fall off a ladder and break something (I do that pretty well just walking around on the ground), I reluctantly got out our rickety ladder and the garden gloves, and got myself as far into the skylight well as possible, looping one arm around a viga (beam) for support. My idea was to either guide her out of the well with my hand, or try to gently get hold of her and bring her down. The poor little thing tried to hide in a corner. She was terrified.

Then, all of a sudden, she seemed to calm down – as if she had made a decision. She jumped onto my leather-gloved finger and hung on for dear life. Hummingbirds are so tiny when holding still! I LOVED that she was trusting me. Now, I *really* couldn’t fall.

Luckily, I was able to keep my cool – and my other arm around the viga, and my feet on the ladder while I slowly transported her back to safety. She was so still, I wondered of she was injured, but as soon as she was back “on earth”, she knew just what to do, and she flew away.

I stood there feeling gifted by our adventure – and then remembered that for twenty-some years, I have been trying to get a good photo of a Hummingbird – to get close enough – and there we had been, beak to nose for half an hour, and I had not once thought about the camera.

Perhaps, out of gratitude, she will come back and pose for me one of these days.

Albuquerque has a beautiful zoological park, but we could find no animals, no matter where we looked . . . can you?

We found flowers . . .

and these guys . . .

We interrupted a parrot having lunch. He didn’t like it.

And we watched these two on their way to somewhere.

But there were no animals to be found. Were they all at a meeting or something? There were signs with arrows that promised some animals. We followed one that said “White Rhinos” and, lo and behold, an animal . . .

But wait, is that a white rhino? Is it a hippo?
But wait, it’s not a real hippo, it’s rock!
But wait . . .it’s not even real rock!

to be continued . . .

Santa Fe is an area that is just chock full of terra cotta pottery. Yesterday, I visited a couple of pottery yards looking for, not a terra cotta, but a purple pot. But I was reminded once again of how taken I am by the site of huge piles of terra cotta pots. And I remembered having expressed that in watercolor at one time, so I searched my painting archives (photos stored digitally) and actually was able to find it.

I don’t even like the color orange, but am fascinated by all the burnt orange earthtones – and have been collecting them in watercolor tubes since I moved here. There is an astounding variety.

This is a favorite photo of a line up of terra cotta pots that I took in Taos. I love the richness of the tones.

Those who know me know Dear Me! She has been around a long time and she is like me in many ways, but not all.

She has convinced me that we need a place to put the strange things that overfill our heads – and so our blog is born.

“A Dance for Joy with One and One-Half Willing Participants”
Acrylic on Canvas, ©2001 jwesolek, Private Collection

I painted this one night when something happened and I got very very excited about it. My husband didn’t – quite.

At first, I felt my own joy-level dropping a little, to match his, but I quickly decided to drag him to my level instead.

I don’t remember the exciting thing that happened that night, but I will never forget the joy.