I spent the morning working on a biology exam but needed a break after noon. Mid afternoon was time for me to get out of the house, with the dogs, and drive down to Palominas. I wanted to photograph the wildflowers that grow so thickly near the Palominas church. I had to drive Kevin's truck because I couldn't find the keys to my own.
Try driving a pick-up with three large dogs in the cab!
There were no wildflowers except isolated batches of poppies, so I walked around the old Trading Post restaurant, closed for almost a year and barely standing. The inside looked like an abandoned storage shed. The windows were dirty and the front sign barely visible from the road. One strike of lightning and that building would go up in flames.
The dogs were antsy to get out so I drove another mile to the river where we did a quick half-mile loop along the riverbed. I hadn't been to the river at all this year and wanted the dogs to have some fun.
The river (Easterners would call this a "Creek") wasn't nearly as high as I had expected. In fact, it looked pretty low. Only the first two feet from the water were still muddy. Cottonwoods were already leaved out and other shrubs were budding. The noxious tent caterpillars were also already spinning their webs high in the trees.
I spotted a Vermilion flycatcher and a sheen green beetle. A falcon flew overhead. Plastic bottles littered the riverbed in spots, left over from illegals crossing over from Mexico.
Sara ran into the water several times. Sadie and then Sammy ventured in. They sniffed the grass, dug around in the muddy sand, and Sara rolled around in some scented weeds. On the drive home Sara sat in the back because she was still too wet for the carpeted interior of Kevin's cigarette-stinking truck.
The sun was bright out today, gone is the storm from Thursday. It hit 76F with little wind.
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