While Margaret was attending a conference in Albuquerque, I took a morning walk through the bosque beside the river, then through the botanical gardens and on to the zoo. Photos of my excursion through the Albuquerque Biopark were made with several of my old cameras, including the Kodak Retina IIa, the Pentax Spotmatic, and the Olympus 35 RC. Albuquerque has done a great job of preserving the cottonwood forest beside the river, and the botanical gardens and the zoo are fine places to spend a weekend.

After an August-and-a-half of rain we are starting to dry out. Our property is carpeted with yellow cowpen daisies, much as it was when we first moved here.

Several weeks of heavy rain brought flash floods and created a swamp on the flats below our house. A thousand toad chorus was soon followed by a million tadpoles. Late-blooming wildflowers sprang to life everywhere, most in white or yellow.