Like a Butterfly Tasting Nectar...

Sometimes a walk is like that. Ostensibly, my goal this afternoon was the bank -- and I did make it there. But on the way, I couldn't help stopping to grab a picture of this and of that distraction.

My one disappointment: the loud to-do among the acorn woodpeckers. Some five to seven in one pine tree, shouting loudly about Something of Great Importance to acorn woodpeckers. I'll never get a good picture of birds such as these until I graduate to a grown-up camera and expensive lenses!


In compensation, I was introduced to Linus. He is the Central American parrot sitting on neighbor Bill's shoulder. I also enjoyed a brief tour of his backyard garden (below).



Further along my route, free books, on a bench in front of the Dinner Bell. Somehow the preprinted plastic bag, although maybe a good idea during the monsoon, takes away from the spontaneity of the gesture. The books? A Lewis Gizzard and a John Grisham.


The seeds and the leaves of this tree along Granite Creek literally shout, "MAPLE!!!" Indeed, the boxelder is "neither a boxwood nor an elder, but a maple," says my Shrubs and Trees of the Southwest Uplands guidebook. One un-maple-like disappointment: no brilliant red leaves in the autumn.


Still further on my walk, after a session at the bank, where I foolishly left my walking staff, I spotted this brickwork at the Underground, a religious operation in the basement at the corner of Gurley and Montezuma.


Next pretty thing catching my eye -- parasols in a shop window across from the Courthouse. I've already bemoaned the passing of the parasol from our sunny state.


And, finally, ceiling fans at The Raven, a new bistro over on Cortez, where I stopped, hoping to learn more about Coyote Radio which currently resides there. Nobody was home so I had a huge (really huge), yummy club sandwich instead. By the way, it took more than a little PhotoShopping to make those fans visible...

There you are: a partial look of my picture-taking afternoon. Be warned by my experience: the more you shoot those nearly cost-free images on a digital camera, the more you see to take pictures of. Already I've got over 2,000 stored on my computer, awaiting the right time and place!