Moody Blues.  Sugarland, TX.

 50+ years and still going strong.  This is the 50th anniversary tour of the classic Days of Future Past album and played in its entirety during the concert.  My number one band to see on mushrooms - next time.

See them before they are gone because before all we have left is formulated, computer-generated dung that passes for music now.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet wintering over in Angleton.

Doobie the ninja cat in the background.

Jethro Tull at Red Rocks Amphitheater, Colorado

40 total hours of driving to see the venue:  Jethro Tull at Red Rocks Amphitheater outside Denver.  It needed to live up to the legend and by all accounts succeeded and surpassed expectations.  

 The near capacity crowd of 9500+ tended towards middle age, all growing up with the music of Tull for nearly 50 years.  Masterful would best describe the show, a hybridization of rock and classical backed up with the Colorado Symphony.  At nearly 70 years old, Ian Anderson’s mastery of the flute has no equal.  His current band featured a phenomenal guitarist, Florian Opahle, who wailed on a 5 minute solo of Bach's Taccata and Fugue.

 I wanted Josh to see another icon of rock and he appreciated the raw talent but impatient with the 55 degree temperature and gusty winds. In 15 years he’ll realize what he saw tonight when the last of the great rockers are gone and all that is left is what dominates the airwaves today; automated, cookie-cutter performer’s compensated by auto-tuned, computer generated productions. 

The perfect closer - Locomotive Breath.

Bat House

There’s a street light at the end of my driveway which attracts moths and other flying insects that are hunted by bats.  Recently I discovered some of the bats were roosting under the wooden trim of a house next door.  I didn’t think they would pose a noticeable problem but could be exterminated if my neighbor found out therefore; I built a bat house to lure the critters to a safe haven.  It is installed 15 feet from the roosting area, on a 15 foot poll and stabilized with support rods.  At dawn I waited for the bats to return, hoping they would enter their new house.  They didn’t and I realized my expectation may have to wait a while for success.  More than likely they are Mexican Free-tailed Bats  (Tadarida brasiliensis).

 ( http://www.batcon.org/

Conspricy Theory

Does a malevolent, powerful evil genius take delight in assembling slack-jaw zombies to stand in front of me at the grocery store and post office? Does he make people:

1. Haggle with coupons at the counter.

2. Ask the clerk to walk across the store for cigarettes.

3. Wait until the clerk says the price for groceries to dig out the checkbook.

4. Act like they are writing a novel on the check.

5. Forget for the 10,000^th time to dig out their driver’s license to verify check identity.

6. Repeatedly dig out change after told they do not have enough money to pay for their items.

7. Have 25 items at the 15 item counter.

INDEED!

I spent two days in the Durango area visiting Rob and Sue Graham -  friends from my college days.

There was only time for a short 4-hour, 6-miler in the mountains.  The trail head started off Dry Fork Road; meandering on trails overgrown with Gambles' Oak until reaching a plateau.  This oak is diminutive by oak standards.  Heights average 15 feet with a circumference of 15 inches.  A wildfire had burned off the above ground portion of the trees, resulting in regrowth of dense thickets from the base.  From there we walked to a view point of the La Plata mountains; still snow capped.

Had I stayed a week or two my lungs would adapt instead, I gasped for breath hiking to 9000 ft. in elevation.

Mule's Ear (Wyethia amplexicaulis)

A break from bushwhacking thickets of Gambel's Oak (Quercus gambelii)

 

                                        Rocky Mountain Clematis (Clematis pseudoalpina)

Greater Short-Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi)

"I bow to no mountain"

Rocky Mountain Iris (Iris missouriensis)

Skepticle