The Daily Rave

The hummingbirds are back! The sweet little black-chinned males have been scoping out the hummingbird feeder for the last week; they are in their territorial phase right now. My lady desert dove who always uses the same nest year after year up in the eves of the porch had her first chick hatch the other day. On a sad note, way off in the distance north-east from me up towards Las Vegas, NM you can see a huge column of smoke in the sky from one of the fires that's been burning there for a few days. We are in a very bad situation with the drought and high winds we've been having...

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Originally Posted by SiouzQ.

The hummingbirds are back! The sweet little black-chinned males have been scoping out the hummingbird feeder for the last week; they are in their territorial phase right now. My lady desert dove who always uses the same nest year after year up in the eves of the porch had her first chick hatch the other day. On a sad note, way off in the distance north-east from me up towards Las Vegas, NM you can see a huge column of smoke in the sky from one of the fires that's been burning there for a few days. We are in a very bad situation with the drought and high winds we've been having...

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I was told some time ago that the hummers return around tax day. It's always been an easy way to remember and watch for their arrival. My first showed up about a week ago. We have mostly Broad-tailed here.


Best thoughts with the fires. It's been a strange winter here with the winds and heat, but mostly the dry conditions. There are some pretty severe fire warnings for the next few days, but the big fire SE of Boulder put a scare into folks and the fire teams have scrambled to catch the smaller fires so far. There have been a couple of short lived evacuations not that far from front range towns.

Thank you all for the kind wishes. We had a very quiet anniversary, cold and windy out so inside most of the day until he grilled the steaks!! No hummingbirds yet, but a pileated woodpecker in full strut was looking for stumps....finally found the one that hasn't been removed yet. My patient husband lets them rot, then finally digs them out, so the woodpecker was a bit disappointed at two spots that had stumps last year!

It's been cloudy and rainy and cool here for the past week or so until yesterday when we had a glorious sunny day with a high of about 75*. I went out on my back deck last night about 9:45 to sit and watch the stars as the sky was so clear and was lucky enough to see the ISS as it passed overhead. It was the 5th time over the past 6 months or so that I've been lucky enough to see it and the 2nd time seen by accident.
Hoping to enjoy a long spring and summer of relaxing under the stars and watching our solar system as we travel through it, you never know what you'll see.

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Originally Posted by Alan

It's been cloudy and rainy and cool here for the past week or so until yesterday when we had a glorious sunny day with a high of about 75*. I went out on my back deck last night about 9:45 to sit and watch the stars as the sky was so clear and was lucky enough to see the ISS as it passed overhead. It was the 5th time over the past 6 months or so that I've been lucky enough to see it and the 2nd time seen by accident.
Hoping to enjoy a long spring and summer of relaxing under the stars and watching our solar system as we travel through it, you never know what you'll see.

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I don't know that I have ever seen the ISS and don't know that I would even recognize it if I did see it. How do you know it is the ISS?

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Originally Posted by happystuff

I don't know that I have ever seen the ISS and don't know that I would even recognize it if I did see it. How do you know it is the ISS?

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It's a bit brighter than a star and travels faster than a plane, moving from horizon to horizon in just a matter of minutes. NASA also provides a schedule of possible sighting times here: ISS sightings over your city | Spot The Station | NASA

Thanks for the link, Alan! Definitely worth looking into.

This is not really a Rave, just a little story:


In January and February 2021, I spent a lot of time looking at paintings for sale on eBay and on Etsy. I got hooked on paintings offered by Russian and Eastern European dealers. I guess maybe it was the snow scenes? The Ruskies know how to do snow—bleak but beautiful winter. Several of the ones I really liked were too expensive for me, but one was reasonable, a portrait of a Russian soldier.

This guy would be about my age since it was painted around 1970. There is something about him that captivated me, and I dont even like portraits very much. I kept going back to look at the painting, and finally, about a year later, I ordered it. It came from the Ukraine because it is by a now dead Ukrainian artist. As it turns out, he would’ve been a Ukrainian soldier in the Russian army.


It arrived about four weeks before Russia invaded the Ukraine.

so, now I have a Ukrainian solider here, a quiet but clear presence in my home.

the painting is by a reasonably well known (in the Ukraine) artist: Mordovets Andrey Nikitovich

God I love May, the month of May! Today is a perfect May day with bright sunshine, a light wind, a little bit cool.

I fit into a pair of pants this morning that were too small a couple of months ago.