And the Sun Did Shine

A few hours before I took this shot, we headed south to Pilar to look for ducks along the Rio Grande. As soon as we had a clear view out to the west, I saw a wall of rain and snow marching across the vastness. In the way it often does around here, one half of the sky looked like gimme shelter and the other half like Picnic City. This was obviously the leading edge of a cold front, which reached Pilar about the same time we did. There was precipitation of almost every kind (corn snow, large wet flakes, sleet, drizzle, pounding rain) very different for the bottom of the canyon in my own experience, and beyond Pilar, the road was virtually nearly deserted. No wonder, under the conditions. In this dramatic setting, we saw a few mallards and a mess of common goldeneyes. In a short time the temperature dropped about fifteen degrees.

By the time we got home, it was snowing hard. I built a fire and we groused about the winter, which we’d dared to hope was over. (Isn’t that quaint?) Half an hour later, the sky looked like it does here! See the magpie? Look again.