Here it is.  The final Monday in March 2020.  And what an incredible month it has been.  Numbers of cases and unfortunately deaths from the corona virus keep rising in the United States and the world, but we rarely have seen a more breakneck pace at which innovation is happening.  Incredible energy is being put into finding both therapeutics and a vaccine for the COVID-19.  BBC reported yesterday that engineers at University College London and Mercedes Formula 1 racing team have developed a device to deliver oxygen to the lungs of a patient without a ventilator.   American automakers are building ventilators in their car factories. Not to mention the hospital workers who are innovating on the run and creating faces masks from whatever materials they have on hand.   

Compared to what so many are doing, the changes I have made are miniscule. Like everyone else, I am more involved than ever in the task of cleaning - hand washing, sanitizing hard surfaces, cleaning groceries and deliveries.  I am a pretty clean and organized person, but I am also the first to admit that it seems to take an inordinate amount of time, perhaps time that I would like to devote to photography.  But it absolutely must be done to get through this.  Given that, I spent an equally inordinate amount of time this week photographing a setup that is representative of these things. Meet my new friends in the time of corona.  (As an aside, we have found a very practical alternative to latex gloves in the form of corn tortilla bags.  We have a whole stack of the Mi Rancho sacks that are recloseable and stay on your hands better.)

COVID-19 supplies 1

COVID-19 supplies 3

As all of us continue to develop a "new normal", nature goes on as it always does, and there are more signs of spring every day.  The beautiful cedar wax wings have arrived at the feeders of friends south of Santa Fe, mountain bluebirds are working on their nests, and assorted sparrows along with other ground birds are singing those unmistakeable territorial songs.  Red shafted flickers are drilling into anything they can with their beaks, including ant hills. As I write this, it has started to precipitate - rain, snow, graupel - a real March mashup. 

The sky presented quite the mashup this week, with clouds we had not seen before.  Something must have been going on in the troposphere, for the cloud scallops to be mixed with the cumulus clouds.

March cloud mashup 3

March cloud mashup 1

March cloud mashup 2

Thanks this week to Wayne, TTT, Steve, Terry T., Catherine, Larry and Carol M., Marilyn, Jean and Sam, Christina, Barbara, and Lena and Sam for your feedback. And what can I say to the grocery store employees, postal employees, delivery people, drivers, EMTs, nurses, doctors, and all medical personnel, home health care workers, janitors and sanitation workers, scientists and researchers, firefighters, police, National Guard members, and other military personnel here and abroad, pilots, flight attendants, ticket agents, maintenance workers, and journalists, reporters, and videographers? Then there are the educators and parents who now found themselves in the role of full time educators?   Everyone out in the world, doing their absolute best to make these strange and scary times better for all of us.  Thank you hardly even seems appropriate, but it will have to do for now. In the mean time, we'll be thinking about creative ways to express our appreciation when all of this is over.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@