Democracy for New Mexico

Sunday Rosey Bird Blogging

The climbing roses in our backyard (above) are blooming bountifully this year. They're almost at the peak of their Spring bloom. When they're done, they'll rest until Summer or Early Fall and then send out another pack of flowers. Variations of this type of rose are seen all over our Northeast Heights neighborhood, which was built starting in the early 1950s. The plants are often quite large, very mature and chock full of roses when the time is right.

Bosco the peach-faced lovebird (above) loves to be out in the yard at this time of year, as he was this morning. He loves to be walked around the yard to see what's what and show off in front of the local sparrows, house finches, white-winged doves and black-chinned hummingbirds that visit our backyard feeders.

Bosco also likes to hang out on his cage on the patio and smell the roses (above), as long as we're nearby and paying him attention every now and then. This morning he shared the patio as we sipped our Sunday morning coffee, puttered in the garden and browsed the Seeds of Change catalogue we recently received. (Click photos for larger images.)

If you're unfamiliar with this organic and heirloom gardening research and sale organization, located just north of Santa Fe, go visit their site. They describe the mission of their farm:

In 1989, we at Seeds of Change started with a simple mission: to help preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable, organic agriculture. We sought to do this by cultivating and disseminating an extensive range of open-pollinated, organically grown, heirloom and traditional vegetable, flower and herb seeds. This is still our mission.

We seek out traditional varieties from the Americas and treasured heirlooms from abroad, many of which are in danger of being lost due to the rapid consolidation within the seed industry and the decline of indigenous agriculture and seed-saving knowledge.

The Perch Is Yours: Tuesday Open Thread

Our sun conure parrot Sunny looks pissed, doesn't he? I know how he feels. The corporate media repeatedly play Bush's clown act at the White House Correspondents' Dinner while ignoring or criticizing the on-target edginess of Stephen Colbert. Bush and his buddies keep getting away with torture, lies, terrifying plans for an Iran war, leaks of dangerous information, environmental insanity and general all-around hypocrisy and incompentence. Meanwhile, the Republican Congress wants to further cut health care benefits, and anything that benefits human beings outside the ranks of defense contractors, oil companies and big pharma.

As you can see, Sunny likes to hang upside to clear his head of these irritating and worrisome issues. Why?  Because he can't type! But you can. So go ahead and click below on the Comments link and let us all know what you're thinking today, or what candidates you're supporting in the June primary. No hanging, just opining....

Sunday Chocolate Bunny Blogging

No birds today. Just bunnies, chocolate or otherwise. Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring, Happy Pagan Egg and Chick Worshipping or whatever else you might call the celebration of a warm and sunny Sunday in April!

Sunday Sunshine Bird Blogging

It's a very warm and Spring-like Sunday in Albuquerque. No colorful blooms in our backyard yet, but we do have some store-bought live ones in our den (above), giving the place some dazzle on a lazy Sunday morning.

We took Sunny the sun conure out back for some sunshine this morning (above). You can see he likes to stare up at the sun and sky, this being his first Spring and all.

Sunny loves to sit on Mary Ellen's shoulder (above), whether he's inside or out. That way he can reach her hair for preening and pick on her glasses with ease. We're slowly getting him used to the outdoors so he can travel along with us when we head out for our first camping trip of the season, coming soon. You may recall that Bosco the peach-faced lovebird is a trooper in the camping department. Now we hope our new parrot arrival will be a worthy avian traveling companion for Bosco this year. Birds on the road! (Click on photos for larger images.)

Sunday Bye Bye Bird Blogging

We're leaving the blog and politics behind and heading out into New Mexico's windy Spring beauty for a Sunday day-trip drive. See us waving goodbye above? What with Democrats hanging Sen. Feingold out to dry, we felt we needed a refreshing and cleansing pilgrimage into Mama Nature's big open:

We're leaving our bird friends at home this time, and I'm not sure exactly where we're heading. I do know it will be far away from the crowds, the news and the frustrations of Democratic politics. The photos above are from a recent trip to the Quarai ruins, Mountainair (top) and back via US 60 (bottom). As most of you know, you can head out in almost any direction from Albuquerque and get immersed in wide skies and long distance vistas in no time. We'll be choosing our direction on the fly. Adios for now ...

Spring Sunday Bird Blogging

Sunny the sun conure parrot is experiencing his first bout of Spring fever these days. As you can see above, Spring brings out his Tarzan qualities. He swings! And if he could swing on a star, he would. I wonder if his prodigious appetitite for parrot chile (yes there is such a thing, with red chiles and beans) revs him up even more.

He also likes to charge the camera, rumbling up with that pirate look in his eyes that says, Aye Matey! He's a little unbalanced right now, too, since he's lost most of his tail feathers and is waiting for the new ones to grow in. You might say he toddles, as in "toddlin' town."

But when all is said and done, all he's really stealing is your heart ... awww ... (Click on photos for larger versions.)

Sunday (Snow) Bird Blogging

My my, hey hey! Albuquerque finally got a few inches of snow this morning, after months of virtually nothing in the way of precipitation. The snow put Bosco the peach-faced lovebird in a contemplative mood (above).

His pal, the Roswell green alien, was moved to give the peace sign since this week will, unfortunately, mark the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

Sunday Trickster Bird Blogging

Our birds are feeling rowdy today. Must be the early Spring weather here, or our recent victory with the paper ballot bill. Maybe a little of both. Here you have Sunny the sun conure swinging on a star, er, swinging upside down from his ceiling. You can hear me prompting him with praise. Such a good bird! He's a ham alright. Just think about what kinds of videos I can get once I understand how to use my digital camera properly. I got this video by mistake. Though of course Mr. Freud would say there are no mistakes....

Click for QT video clip of Sunny

Bosco the peach-faced lovebird is also feeling tricky today. Here he is strutting his stuff to show he's revved about grassroots activism:

Sunday Birds and Bees Blogging

From the looks of this erotic, pollen-packed bloom on our Christmas cactus, we are in immediate need of bees. I find it rather strange that a Christmas cactus is still blooming as Albuquerque heads into a very early Spring, but with the polar icepacks melting and no moisture falling here for countless moons, I guess I shouldn't be surprised at anything these days.

We may be in need of bees, but we have the birds, including Sunny Bunny the sun conure, above. This morning he took a bath in his water dish with Spring-like abandon. Afterwards he spent more than an hour preening and trying to break the quills that will release his new Spring feathers. He likes to rub against the rag-tag toy behind him to help in this project. Out damn quills! Baby Sunny is starting to look very dapper these days, don't you think? He's the bees' knees!

Sunday Boid Blogging

Papa's got a brand new bag....er, I mean Sunny the sun conure's got a brand new cage. A biggie. You can get a peek of it behind his present cage. For now, we're keeping the cage he's used to near the new one. When curiosity gets the best of him, he can explore freely but still have the home he knows and loves available for an easy retreat.

Sunny's adult feathers continue to replace his baby ones. Above you can see how yellow feathers are growing on his back where only green ones were before. Now, to go along with his growing maturity, he'll have a much bigger place to hang out in and on. It took Mary Ellen most of the morning to put together the new cage. We'll see how long it takes Sunny to adopt it as his new home.

Soon, we'll be moving out to live in our back yard as the house becomes filled with birds and birdie things. Oh, I'm kidding, but our home is definitely starting to look like bird aficionados reside there. And they do! (Click photos for larger images.)