I was going to print Spunk's negatives yesterday and have his photos up today, but, alas, digging out ditches the gophers filled with dirt, cooking a large skillet of Wild Boar and Zucchini Macaroni, and then snaking out a clogged drain preempted the darkroom. I did manage to get photos of some of the daffodils blooming in the garden.

Here is my recipe for Wild Boar and Zucchini Macaroni.

Ingredients

1 pound wild boar (ground)

2 large yellow onions chopped

3 medium sized zucchini cut into 1/2" cubes

2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatoes

1 6 oz can tomato paste

3 cups chicken or beef soup stock

1 teaspoon coarse group pepper

1 or 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped) or 1 tablespoon garlic powder (more if you like)

2 tablespoons (or more) Italian style seasoning (thyme, marjoram, rosemary, oregano, basil, savory and sage).

1 pound elbow macaroni (I use whole wheat macaroni)

These proportions make a large batch that we put in containers to take to work and school for lunches. 

In a large skillet (I use a 16" cast-iron skillet), brown the onions and remove to a bowl.

Brown the wild boar and remove to a separate bowl.

Brown the cubed zucchini, reduce the heat to simmer, then add the wild boar and onion back into the skillet with the browned zucchini

Add the coarse ground pepper, garlic and Italian seasoning, mix together and simmer until the mixture is hot.

Add the petite diced tomatoes, tomato paste and soup stock, stir well and heat until bubbly.

Reduce heat if necessary and allow the mixture to simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.

Prepare the macaroni (best to be on the very firm side of al dente), drain and stir into the wild boar, zucchini and tomato mixture.

Remove from heat and serve.

Browned wild boar, zucchini and onions.

The wild boar, zucchini and onion mixture with the petite diced tomatoes, before the tomato paste and soup stock are added in.

All the ingredients simmering before the macaroni is added.

Wild boar and Zucchini Macaroni ready to serve.

I developed the roll of film with the photos Spunk and Najar took during their photo session on March 23rd, and the extra photos we took to finish the roll of film on March 26th.

Spunk was so excited after the negatives were dry, cut and sleeved, that he carried them from the darkroom to the counter.

I found an old slide viewer in the shed, and Spunk helped assemble it.

After we got the slide viewer together and I repositioned it, the negatives were behind the viewer. Spunk picked them up to put them on the viewer.

Spunk trying to pick up the negatives after his first attempt at putting them on the viewer failed.

Spunk was very determined to get the negatives on the viewer. I explained that we needed to take them out of the sleeve and place them on the viewer.

I removed the negatives from the sleeve and placed them on the viewer and turned off the overhead lights so Spunk could review them.

Spunk found the results of his photo session fascinating and scrutinized the images on the negatives closely one by one.

Scrutinizing the middle image of Diné.

Checking out the first photo he took of Najar. Spunk wants to see the three negatives on the bottom printed, so I'm going to print them as soon as I get a chance.

One of our piles of mulch smoking in the crisp morning air. I set a personal almost record every day climbing stairs this week.

My personal best for climbing 16 floors on Friday was 9 seconds faster than Tuesday's record.

Jay holds that current record of 2:08.46 as he pushes toward the 2 minute mark.

Spunk is wanting to see the results of the photo shoot he and Najar did on March 23rd. I explained that 1) we had to finish the roll of film in the camera so he could develop it, and 2) he needed to learn how to develop film. Since there were only a few frames left on the roll, spunk set up a still life with some cans of cat food and Najar's kitty toy to finish out the roll. Then I tried giving him a lesson on how to roll film onto a reel so he could develop the roll of film. We soon came to the conclusion that since cats don't have opposable thumbs, rolling film onto a reel is rather impossible for a cat to do. Therefore, I agreed to develop his roll of film when I develop a couple of other rolls of film this weekend.

I set a new personal record of 02:48.20 on the 48th climb to the 16th floor of the New Mexico Bank & Trust building. Najar jumped for joy when I told her about it.

Yesterday when I watered these white tulips with purple edges the were clean and crisp. Today they were curling up.

Spunk and Najar thought it would be fun to take up photography. They wanted to use a film camera, so I set up a Bronica GS-1 6X7 for them to start with. Laurie was at her book group when I took this series of photos, and her response was "You trusted Spunk with a Bronica?"

These are all shots of the kitties actually posing for each other.  Although Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not in this series because they flat refused to cooperate — all the photos with Rosencrantz were rejects, and Guildenstern didn't give me a chance to get a shot of him on the table.

A full rainbow from the south end of Corrales in the late afternoon. This is a panorama from 7 vertical frames that was particularly difficult to put together.

The neighbor's horses feeling frisky on the first day of Spring!

Even for as rambunctious and destructive as Spunk is, he also has snuggle attacks where he insists that I hold him and snuggle him for a long time. He's just the sweetest kitty when he's snuggle attacking me, and I can hardly imagine he would ever play rough with me and the other kitties; or that he would tear things up or break things. He also likes to lie on the board I have the computer on when I'm on the treadmill, and he sometimes gets snuggly while I'm typing.

This church in Algodones reminds me of Eleanor Rigby — it stands lonely in the middle of an otherwise vacant dirt lot, completely fenced off from the word. The entrance faces the railroad tracks and there are no visible signs that identify it. It stands alone.

Views of the Sandias from north of Corrales at Algodones and Placitas.