Musings

Now that’s a bright blue Ford. It is a Ford, right? But not a flatbed…and not slowing down…it’s fully stopped.

I call this yellow jasmine, although some call it yellow or Carolina jessamine. Jasmine and jessamine may sound the same—or not—depending on the speaker.

Despite the blooms in the image above, it’s leaves-down season here (many non-deciduous species flourish, however), and a bit overcast today. Love having this piece of woods in the midst of the city.

Posted at 6:07 PM | Comments Off on Winter reckoning

Unseasonably warm today, and I found bees busy on the neighbor’s rosemary. None of the Wise Dudes carried rosemary…too plebeian?

Possible proof that the critters in the manger (probably actually a house) included a Levantine wiener dog?

Outdoor bow…strong backlight…robust color…okay, I went for the EZ snapshot. Especially liked the twist tie.

Posted at 7:57 PM | Comments Off on Refinement search

With a major push of over 740 miles, we “Texas hecho,” that is: we finished with Texas, and are sleeping in Louisiana. ’Bout darned time.

The first photo is of dawn through the Window (formation), Chisos Mountains. The second is intended to illustrate leaving the Chisos Basin.

Ah, yes, toddling down the road in these parts means an interview with Border Inspection personnel. Darned perfunctory quiz this time. He almost forgot to ask if we were US citizens. Don’t think we were stopped for even a minute. A battery of powerful cameras take many photos of vehicle and occupants before you stop—and also of the traffic in the opposite direction. Very creepy. My messy hair and sunglasses are now backed up in databases from Texas to Moscow, I’m hypothesizing.

Pushing north to get out of the park, then turning east…power generation…Texas is an energy state, but it’s not all petroleum-based energy.

Only bison of the trip.

Auto racks in sunset light somewhere near Waco, I think.

Yawn. Over and out.

Posted at 11:47 PM | Comments Off on Texas hecho

As we were leaving the dining room, these wispy clouds came in, I think generated by the sun hitting the air. Cool, cool morning. Frost on the windshield cool.

With a big, hot breakfast on board we headed out down the trail to The Window of last night’s sunset photograph.

Here’s the mountain face to our right, to the north, as we began our descent.

Look at that! A Mexican jay.

You can tell it’s chilly…and windy. I have my coat on over three layers and am glad I can stuff my hands in my pockets. Yes, I have on a windproof neck buff, ear band, and a baseball cap—all of them. That’s the left or southwest wall of the Chisos Basin behind me.

That gap is the Window that we’re descending toward. That’s the desiccating blossom stalk of a Havard agave, if I remember right.

Detail of a boulder we had to go around. It looks different than most of the other rocks around this immediate area.

Lookee over there! Way over there, thankfully…long lens…a trio of bears, perhaps a mom and two cubs. They were way up on the slope to our left and pretty far away and not interested in us. Whew.

Getting closer to the window. Are those clouds coming in? I promised the Guru we had to go early so we wouldn’t be out in the heat of the day…but where’s the heat???? 😉

We trekked carefully past a spring and crossed the water several times to work our way down to finally view through the Window! Vista found! Now, time to ascend. Glad it’s cool finally, but not looking forward to headwind through canyon above Window.

Here’s the spring water, and the trail-builders worked hard to make steps in the bedrock to make hikers safer.

Took a side path for a short distance for another view out the Window. From here you can hardly tell how deep the canyon is.

Upbound.

We got out just fine, took a lunch break, then headed out in the pickup. Here’s the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo from hear a hot springs. I know this cane as carrizo from my time in Oaxaca. Yes, that’s Mexico on the other side, so let’s all call it carrizo, or car-ee-so.

Driving along, making our way back to the turn that will take us back into the Chisos Basin for the night, we found this coyote by the road.

I’ll take this as a goodnight from our patron peak, Casa Grande, right above our modest room. I’m sure all the rooms here are modest. The bling is in the views. And the critter sightings.

Posted at 8:34 PM | 2 Comments »

We stayed in an end-of-the-road town, too small to have chain motels, and I supposed that’s why the one we stayed in, clean and maintained, offered no breakfast. So we went down the street, and enjoyed a hot breakfast at a little café. We learned from observing the men who came in that the proper greeting is, “Buenos días, how are you?” and that it’s possible to wrangle 157 horses before breakfast. I don’t know how big the crew was doing that.

We ventured into the local grocery store for a few supplies. We skipped the many institutional sized cans of food (pozole, anyone) and Mexican brand cookies, and even these Jesus candles. Looks to me like he’s modeling a wedding dress, but I probably don’t understand this imagery.

Then we began moseying downriver, following the Rio Grande toward its mouth far away. We passed a large state park (miles) and some ranches. Found this mostly grown colt and perhaps mom getting their breakfast.

That’s the Rio Grande, or the Río Bravo to people living on the other side, in México. As in: “I can see Mexico from my pickup.”

Took the old road for a stretch, going through surprisingly still active dispersed communities. This church was hanging on, but the second one in this area was decrepit and unused.

Hoodoos overlooking the RG/RB. (From a pano, if it looks a bit distorted.)

Finally, we crossed into Big Bend National Park, and our first stop is this dramatic canyon, named for Santa Elena. Last time we were here, the water was much lower, and we walked into the cleft. Computational photography means detail is visible in the dark canyon faces.

Meet Mules Ears. There’s a trail going over to it, but we were content to look from here.

These olive tinted layers caught my eye.

This spot is called Sotol Overlook. These are sotol plants, pronounced soh-tohl, but the Guru says they are so-tall. 😉

I walked up the hill from our room and heard noise in the brush to my left, looked, and: wow! two deer grazing. I froze and prepared to photograph. They were unconcerned. I got this shot when the second one crossed the street, looking down at the Guru sitting in the porch-shade (difficult to see).

Golden hour on the rocks above the lodge.

Sunset through the formation called The Window.

Posted at 8:36 PM | 1 Comment »

We departed early, heading south through the Galisteo Basin. Cool archaeology is here, but we didn’t stop.

We spotted trains crossing—enough train action here to merit the two levels of tracks….

Strange giant cowboy cut-out face-off or smack-down.

At the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns park, there’s a multifaceted business called White’s City, a commercial undertaking with many buildings that seeks to get money out of your pocket and into theirs. Look at the critter-statues…bison, alien, etc., and a big USA flag flapping above.

Road to the visitor center…hairpin turn that looks like it may hang in space. Turns out it’s on solid ground, however.

We took the sissy elevator entrance. The elevator has a top and a bottom stop, nothing in between. And the distance is measured in feet. We dropped smoothly several hundred feet. The walking tour is of the Big Room. It goes on and on. And on and on.

First view. Shiny handrails are on both sides of the paved path.

Handrails left. This is a big space. Even standing there it is difficult to grasp the size of the open space around you.

More big stalactites, stalagmites and perhaps speleothems.

I was fascinated by this well-decorated passage to…dunno where.

I was also fascinated by the few pools of water we could see. This one had drips falling into it, making the “wrinkles” in the water.

We elevatored back to the surface, had a snack from our abundant food stores in the cab, and headed south-ish below the Guadalupe Mountains. Signs every few miles warned us about the wind. It was always there this afternoon, and for maybe fifty it was straight at us, spoiling our mileage.

We crossed into Texas and had this confirmation that we were approaching the US–Mexico border. We frequently hear about walls, but these things are perhaps far more effective. When airborne.

We had a fancy dinner way out in the relative boonies, very delicious, at Cochineal in Marfa. I had a pricey and yummy steak, and the Guru had schnitzel. With veg for both of us. Recommended.

Yawn.

Posted at 11:59 PM | Comments Off on Scale can be elusive

I found pockets of people/businesses active before 9am this morning, but along this block, it was me and this crow. Since they are often in a group, aka a murder, I am a bit mystified about Mr/Lady Solo.

I hoofed it up Ft Marcy Hill, jacket off despite it being rather chilly…go heart rate!

Cutting back through the plaza and heading for the capitol side street, I found a line of baggied meters…clearly the city-fathers and -mothers opted for encouraging shopping traffic rather than collecting change.

Then we took off southbound to meet up with dear friends. We took the Interstate for a bit, then got off and took the back way (where it survived). In this area, signage makes a big deal about damaged guardrails, although, mysteriously, not in this case. I suspect this practice dates back to the early days of guardrail installation, when, if they were present, some drivers depended on them to nudge their vehicles back onto the road should their steering waver. Hypothesis.

Great view of the Rio Grande valley; we’re shooting off to the left, downstream.

Our secondary route took us through several pueblos, where we saw many hornos, sometimes in doubles and triples. Wonder how hot cottonwoods burn.

We even found a dozen or so sandhill cranes in one field, I guess opting to avoid party central down in Bosque del Apache.

We had a great visit with our friends, trying the whole time not to regret that we live so far apart. Talk, laugh. Repeat.

It gets dark early here, and the low light angle made for stupendous landscape views.

And here’s the basin of Santa Fé, a band of sunlight and city lights combining in this magic moment.

Finally, a birdy bookend, this time pigeons.

Posted at 10:04 PM | Comments Off on Parched pastiche

Nature of course offers harsh edges and lines. Today I kept seeing subtle changes of many sorts. Notice how the variations in juniper dimensions help your eye note the landscape’s folds and creases.

Add some snow-dusted high elevations to a steeper juniper plus pines landscape.

And tall pines! And more snow…blanket more than merely dust.

Even these amazingly tasty Brussels sprouts have layers. And that honey-mustard sauce…otherworldly. We lunched in Taos on not-New Mexican cuisine.

Real verticality. Meadow/pasture at base….

And a gorge! Downward verticality. That’s the Rio Grande.

Meadow-to-peaks verticality again, this time with a line of fence-posts angling across.

We climbed to higher elevations, and thus more snow accumulation. Even lines of animal tracks crossing the white.

Always, since we were driving and the road was plowed, the road wends across the landscape, a scar in the snowiness.

Hoar-frosted trees. Layers here are branches and between-branches.

This town is named Los Ojos, which means eyes, but is also used for springs. If you were an anciano*, wouldn’t water emerging from the ground be pretty darned special?, an addition to the complexity of the Underworld.

Erosional remnant…all about layers. And graduations of color.

And dusk…on a clear night. With a big moon, off to the way left, to be imagined. Full tomorrow night….

* anciano = ancient one in Spanish.

Posted at 9:25 PM | Comments Off on Layers and graduations

Our first big adventure was to drive into—and out of—an extinct volcano.

We followed the Jemez River up. It’s in the previous shot, too. Between the river and the road is a ridge locally called soda dam. Long gone hot springs created the deposit, layer upon layer.

This is approximately the crest of the caldera rim. It’s not edgy and distinct. We were glad it was warm and sunny, and the crud on the road was melting, even in the shadows.

This is the Valle Grande of the caldera. It’s huge. You are looking at no more than a “corner” of the interior. All those ridges across the VG are on the floor of the caldera. Huge.

Descending toward Los Alamos (the willows) on the other outer flank, we could see the mountains on the other side of the Rio Grande Valley. Such landscapes!

Outside the lava territory of the volcano-lands, we saw different kinds of rock and landforms. That is the extent of my geology knowledge on this. 😇

Our second big adventure was to walk downtown for a fancy dinner, just as the sunset was glowing over the rooftops in the neighborhood…very soon to fade.

The plaza trees are festooned with lights. And the moon was up.

Food porn. I had elk tenderloin with mushroom sauce and veggies. Perfection.

Plaza lights as we traced our steps homeward, after full dark.

Highly computational photo. Stunning.

And the super-great adventure? Thirty years since our wedding. 🥂🍾 😃

Posted at 6:32 PM | 2 Comments »

I almost titled this “Sin papas,” which is Spanish for without potatoes, which is how I ordered my breakfast—in English—and actually what the order-taker told the cook. Delightful veggie scramble bowl, I had. Sin papas.

More mundanity: traffic light being fixed. Under solid overcast.

Sky is clearing as we pass below Buchanan Dam, holding back the Colorado. Which today looks blue not colorado, Spanish for reddish, dark rusty brown, I think.

We needed to stretch our legs and stopped in San Angelo. Immediately when we opened the doors, we heard a band playing across the lake, another dammed up section of the Colorado. We walked toward the band shell and found this lady posed with her own shell.

Band was playing piece after piece of band standards, mostly several together in medleys. Is this what bands typically do? The musicians were separated into two groups, each with its own conductor. The upper conductor was leading the whole thing, I’m pretty sure. There were active duty folk in the audience, several dignitaries on stage (one in uni), and I think the event was to honor a group that works with wounded warriors.

We are standing as requested for the final song, “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

On the road again, and the scrub oaks we had seen most of the morning disappeared and we saw wind plants on the horizon.

Continuing westward, the skies became almost clear and we got into irrigated cotton lands. However, they have had some rain, and we saw puddles here and there, and water in the creeks/dry washes. For a time.

Cotton harvest. Round bales and large rectangular stacks. I think the four-digit numbers may designate which farmer is to be paid for the cotton.

Another gorgeous sunset, this one with a line of peaks in the far distance across a valley. We lost another hour and I’m rather discombobulated. And tired. G’night.

Posted at 5:26 PM | Comments Off on Things can change when you keep moving