Musings

I made yesterday’s post on the fly, which is theoretically “just fine.” Looking back, I didn’t draw from our full set of images-of-the-day, and blah blah.

As we sped east across OK, then AR, we saw far more spring vegetation than we remembered from westbound. This image shows more green than I remember from most of the hills and valleys, but, hey, pretty!

We saw towers that I hypothesized were for fracking, but this is an old-fashioned oil derrick. Plenty of them!

We found truck loads often unidentifiable (because: covered/closed), but this was all onions, all the way.

And this was what I think of as transformers, but maybe I have that wrong.

And, at home today, this flower was a tight bud with ants walking on it when we left. No longer!

The storm last night left traffic lights as mere flashing lights (folks, they become four-way stops—so STOP and WAIT on cross traffic for your turn), but things were fine at our house, judging from the microwave and coffee-machine clocks (nevertheless, Chummbeee was confused…).

Posted at 9:35 PM | 1 Comment »

Darn. You can’t tell it’s snowing in the picture, even if you squint. But it was. Lazy drifting flakes. No accumulation. 😎

I nosed around outside after I finished my packing—first of suitcases and similar, and then of the car. I wanted to get pictures of the place, memory pictures we call them. I also found clear evidence that the plants have progressed into spring in this not-quite-a-week that we’ve been here. Poplar?

Our first stop was at Cerrillos, a boom town for a bit, and now a grid of unpaved streets. We walked from the visitor center a couple of blocks to this combination rock shop and natural history/history museum. The former was free and the latter $2. We just looked at the rocks.

Outside, we checked out the petting zoo, and this aggressive mama-to-be got plenty of happy pats from Nephew #2.

Returning to the car I found this just-opening lilac bush and happily shoved my nose into the bee-free blossoms.

Next stop was the Saturday packed-and-busy former ghost town of Madrid. Perhaps the best thing about the town was this bumper sticker. And that the main road was paved.

Our final sight-seeing stop was for us a return visit to Sandia Crest. Still ice on a few of the trees, but the wind wasn’t so stiff and the temp was much higher. We shared our watermelon (of course!) snack with other folk in the parking lot, then rebounded to descend to the city.

I think the nephews enjoyed the view. Down in ABQ, we said our goodbyes and they headed to the airport while we headed for first-class down time. Sigh. Such good times, with many laughs and a great week of getting reacquainted. Great weather, some fine food…. Lucky us.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Comments Off on Snow; yes, snow

From our rural rancho, we headed north, in general up the Río Grande Valley. Then we turned west, and descended to the river. This is looking up the valley before we crossed the river and began our ascent of the eroded flank of a extinct volcano.

As we climbed, we eventually reached elevations where we saw the tall pines I suspect are Ponderosas.

We stopped in Los Alamos. We recommend the Bradbury Museum. It’s not named after Ray. The displays are eye-catching and up-to-date. This is from the section on current research.

The nephews tried the thick-gloves and found it not-so-easy to pick up light plastic shapes and put them in large-ish test tubes.

After lunch, we headed over to Bandolier National Monument. Because the winds were kicking up, we headed off on the main train, near the visitor center, which goes to, through, and by kivas, room-block ruins, and cliff dwellings.

This is the room-block ruins of Tyuonyi (Qu-weh-nee) village today—I’m left in black.

For comparison: 1923 US government photo of Tyuonyi, before stabilization of walls.

Stabilized walls of Tyuonyi at eye level.

Here’s a section of wall that has rows of holes that held beams that were roof/floors (low in this shot).

Here’s a close-up of petroglyphs on the wall (a crop of the photo above).

Here’s another section of wall. The roof/floor beam holes are even more obvious…. At the base of the canyon wall are the ruins of rooms. Some of these rooms would have been for storing food, rather than for living in.

Farther up the valley is a high-elevation cliff dwelling; it’s in that ovate. Starting from the left in the lowest blob of tree shadow you may be able to pick out a gleam from a handrail. That’s already one ladder up from the valley floor. Visitors continue to the right to three more ladders, eventually reaching that large cave to the upper right. It’s large enough to have a kiva (closed) with ruins along the margins of the space (I’m told).

We also really enjoyed walking in the Frijoles Valley. The wind was kicking up, and we were glad we set off walking just after our arrival in the valley. It’s now several hours after we left Bandolier, and the winds are fierce—as they were last night. This is mildly concerning because the fire warning levels are “extremely high” and we are out in the bush (as it were), and the electricity has already flickered twice. But, it’s on now, so I’m going to get this up! Or at least try to.

Posted at 9:33 PM | Comments Off on Los Alamos and Bandolier

Apologies for yesterday’s Taxus (genus) shot. With today’s raindrops, I’ve upgraded the image. MUCH more interesting now.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Comments Off on Just add water

Yeah, the flowers are stunning right now…

…but the new vegetation is interesting….

…too.

Posted at 6:45 PM | Comments Off on Not just flowers

I had several hot ideas for this space, but I forgot them within minutes after I had them. In the end, I can merely report that I made (mostly vegetarian) chili, and we eased into Friday-Fest dining on it. 😎

Posted at 9:02 PM | 1 Comment »

We took the Foot and Droney to a monadnock south of the big monadnock, that is, Stone Mountain. We picnicked just over the crest in this view, in the shade of a pine tree. Just lovely.

Here I am taking the Foot to the summit. We could see the tops of a few of the tallest downtown buildings, and several closer watertowers over the treetops from the high point.

This is Diamorpha smallii.

Everything had a thin dusting of yellow pollen, and we could see a distinct pollen line above the current water levels in the puddles.

We have heard Dr. King talking about a mountain repeatedly over the last few days, so maybe that was part of the motivation. The particular destination was because of glowing reports from neighbors C and D, who visited separately during the last week…and the fact that Diamorpha is blooming.

Now we can say: we have been to the mountain.

Posted at 8:25 PM | 1 Comment »

Not photo of Diamorpha smallii.

Today I researched where the public can visit at Los Alamos National Laboratory (not much, but you guessed that), and the physiology of the stonecrop/orpine* Diamorpha smallii.

* Yes, I looked these details up; you couldn’t tell, right? 😀

Posted at 7:37 PM | Comments Off on It’s all anthropology

I felt so special as I walked this petal-strewn sidewalk. Just for me, I thought laughing. Apple blossoms…pretty sure.

And I looped down a block I wasn’t planning to traverse to get pictures of a stunning pink dogwood. Many are kinda thin, but this one was glorious.

Posted at 10:47 PM | Comments Off on Agreed?

In our micro-world, this afternoon’s spring flowers yielded to…

…serious new-season porch-socializing. At the cocktail hour. Requirements include wine and an appetizer…today, sharp white cheddar and crackers.

The apex of the requirements, however, are stories, laughing, and, most important, the people…that is: Friends, Neighbors, Not-Romans, Definitely Countrymen.

But maybe I’m not making sense. In that case, I had a great time this evening.

Posted at 9:58 PM | Comments Off on The sacred