Sidetracked Charley

The Sangre de Cristos   I drove to the market yesterday for avocados. It was Thursday before the Memorial Day invasion. The tourist season comes on Harley Davidson motorcycles decked out in their leathers. Supposedly they are "celebrating" a war I marched to end. I usually just hide away in my Black Lake home and try to shut my ears as they roar down Hwy 434. The rest of the tourist season will be quieter but also not welcome. This year I feel like a tourist. I have just returned from exile in neighboring Eagle Nest. I have been an evacuee for 12 days. I have been glad to be back in Black Lake on the land I love but it has not yet felt like home. I feel like a cat on a hot tin roof. Thicke, my cat, has settled in better than me. I stand in my studio and pace trying to figure what to do next. I come up with a plan to unpack this or rearrange that. Move a few things then abandon it.  I had planned to go to Taos and stock up with groceries for the invasion, and go by Ace Hardwar...

Calf Canyon/Kermits Peak Breathing   I am home now. That does not mean the fire which chased me away is out. There are times I think I can hear it breathe. I know where it lives. Where it sleeps when the winds are still. I watch the horizons in the morning as the winds begin to pick up. Every white puff in the sky gets queried. Are you a cloud? Or smoke. Forest fires lie down at night but they are alive in the pine needles covering the forest floor. Alive in the huge log emerging from the melting snow. And alive in the roots of the burned spar above the snow. All it takes is wind to bring them out of hiding and wake up the fire. We have had a quiet few days but the Fire Weather begins again today. A forest fire is not like a house fire on your street. It cannot be drowned out with a pumper full of water. It isn't easily surrounded and watched. The perimeter of the Calf Canyon and Kermits Peak Fire is 600 miles. It covers portions of five counties. It has compromised several state r...

From the Top of Spyglass Hill Went looking for signs of winter this morning. Drove past the base of the ski resort and no sign of any snow making activity. It was 28 this morning but do not know when it reached that temp. The NOAA forecast for the next seven days shows no snow. And for the fun of it I clicked on Wunderkind's November projection. None there either. I had a property and pets to check on at the top of Spyglass Hill. From experience I knew there was a nice view of the ridge of the Sangre de Cristos. If you look carefully there are a couple tiny white spots on the tallest peak. This is south facing and the days have been cloudless and in the 50's. Today is forecast for 58 f and tomorrow 61! Seemed a good day for a drive so I headed down the road to the Coyote Creek and Black Lake. Yes, there is a Black Lake. It is what is left of a huge peat bottom lake mostly rich meadow now. The Black Lake The first thing I noticed as a resident of the area is that the cattle are ...

  A wonderful gray day that was hideously cold with a biting wind. Fortunately I have mastered the art of taking photographs out of the window of the car. You can even use the window up and down as a tripod of sorts. So after heading north toward Eagle Nest to procure the fresh farm raised eggs from the new chicks, I turned Spock south to the land of the lonesome Dove. I have a series of four pull off's from Hwy 434 which give me a good view of what movie makers thought looked like Montana for the Lonesome Dove. To me they look like the New Mexico where I grew up. The mountain range is the Sangre de Cristos which lie in the far north of the state between Taos and Angel Fire. Wheeler Peak is the tallest but it depends where you are standing as to which looks the tallest. Old Mike usually is mistaken for Wheeler. Today the clouds kept changing the light. I was surprised to find the cattle in the valley of Black Lake. These must have wintered in. Truck loads of cattle generally arrive...

Definitely on a Rocky Mountain High yesterday off-roading with my sister. Because of the rains the night before the clouds filled the valleys as we traveled up the mountains to stand above the clouds. Then gaze down into the rain-drenched green valleys as the clouds rose into the morning sky revealing the Brigadoons below. And everywhere around us were the wildflowers sparkling with the droplets of rain and dew and a glow with the morning sun. Bluebells in great number Sunflowers drying off in the sun Colorado Columbine shy in the shade As Yet Unidentified flower and many more But the true fun of the adventure were the puddles. Don't you just love it?!!