Sandia Mountains in the afternoon
Each of the three mornings that we spent in Albuquerque dawned with the clear sky that people strongly associate with the Southwest, but each afternoon saw a buildup of impressive cumulus clouds over the Sandia Mountains to the east of the city. Especially after yesterday’s post about sand sagebrush you might think the name of those mountains has something to do with sand or sandy, but that’s not the case: sandía is the Spanish word for watermelon.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
🙂
josiecoccinelle
October 15, 2014 at 5:43 AM
Bienvenue.
Steve Schwartzman
October 15, 2014 at 6:16 AM
Watermelon mountains?! Fascinating! 😀
beyondlisbon
October 15, 2014 at 5:45 AM
The Wikipedia article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandia_Mountains
gives this explanation: “Sandía means watermelon in Spanish, and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset.”
Steve Schwartzman
October 15, 2014 at 6:19 AM
Look at those clouds… like cottons 🙂
CJ BANE & PEARL
October 15, 2014 at 5:48 AM
I’m glad to see we’re keeping things botanical: mountains like watermelon, clouds like cotton.
Steve Schwartzman
October 15, 2014 at 6:24 AM
there were several things that i kept noticing during my trip to the usa, and the different cloud formations usually topped the daily list. jet trails were a big ‘distraction – i had forgotten about them!’
i love the word, sandia!
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
October 15, 2014 at 6:17 AM
There’s nothing that lets you see familiar surroundings as well as having been away for a good while, is there? You’ve reminded me of how I used to watch clouds in Honduras.
Airplane contrails sometimes get in my way when I’m taking pictures because I don’t want a narrow streak of bright white distracting from an otherwise blue sky, but if there are enough contrails and the wind is right, then as they dissipate the sky fills with wispy clouds that make for an appealing backdrop.
Steve Schwartzman
October 15, 2014 at 6:33 AM
Watermelon mountains…sounds like a song title, doesn’t it?
melissabluefineart
October 15, 2014 at 8:26 AM
Like a missing line from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
Steve Schwartzman
October 15, 2014 at 9:35 AM
Yes, exactly!
melissabluefineart
October 15, 2014 at 10:29 PM
Such beautiful color. The deep blue-green of the shadows really does make the mountains look as old as they are. And that bit of turbulence in the clouds, the dark wavelets just left of center? They look like peaks of whipped cream. I’ll bet something was getting whipped up in the midst of those cumulus.
shoreacres
October 15, 2014 at 7:03 PM
Whatever was getting whipped up in those cumulus clouds, it wasn’t rain, because none fell in my time in Albuquerque (as opposed to the trip from Lubbock to there, with its intermittent downpours).
Our eyes can see many more shades of brightness than the camera can record, so this is a reduced (but not unappealing) view of reality.
Steve Schwartzman
October 15, 2014 at 9:04 PM
Fantastic clouds and they stand out so well with that deep blue.
Steve Gingold
October 15, 2014 at 8:06 PM
Fantastic and yet real, drawing me in with their spell.
Steve Schwartzman
October 15, 2014 at 9:58 PM