Sidetracked Charley

Thicke, prince of cats   I always considered my family from Kansas City. A town I was not born in (St Joseph hospital was closer) and only partly raised. My father was born in Iowa but Mother in Missouri somewhere. Her family was from Mexico, Missouri where as far as I have been able to ascertain her grandfather was the town drunk. From the second grade on we were military gypsies which saved us from dying of starvation on the plot of land now under the Kansas City Airport runways. In the era after WWII there was a return to the land movement and a belief with a couple acres of land and enough side businesses you could survive without working for The Man. Mom and Dad were obviously their generation's version of hippies. We had a truck farm on an acre, chickens to produce eggs we sold, and kennels where Dad raised hunting dogs. He also showed and trained them.  The Korean Conflict and my father being a pilot saved us from all of that. And in the second grade I was in Roswell, N...

It is not raining here I knew it had been a while since I posted a Dark Times Journal entry. But my last post was May 24th! My only excuse is things just got too dark on too many fronts. And my favorite time to join with my muse and wax poetic is in the mornings over coffee. Sadly it is when I cry most. There is a test Skinner did with cats where there were two boxes. He would shock the cat in the box it sat in and it would jump to the other. If he shocked it there the first time the cat would jump back to the original box. But soon it would not jump at all. It would just huddle down in the box and shiver regardless of the shocks. I think I am that cat. I have been that cat since I mailed in my primary ballot. And realized it didn't matter. Everyone was corrupt. Both parties were beyond saving. And just possibly our best hope was for all the old white men in government to die of Covid-19. Then I finally got my stimulus check. I wasn't that desperate for the money. For ...

I have lived in Colorado. In fact Vail and Aspen. I know snow. I will never forget my last winter in Denver. They had a mayor who believed plowing the roads encouraged the storms. Besides it would melt come spring.  It began snowing on the week before Halloween and continued to snow through Memorial Day. We seriously never saw the curbs on our street. In June when the snow finally melted there were chuck holes big enough to bury a Volkswagen in. I know because our neighbor did. The doors would not open so we all devised a plan to get him out through a window. Colorado has winter. New Mexico pretends to have winter. Sometimes we are better at pretending than others. Like the last ten days. But I am informed that our total snowfall in that period of time was less than 40 inches. In part that was because it was a spring snow and some of the flakes melted upon landing.  Still it was nothing close to the 86 inches in Boston. Now that is winter. I only had my driveway plowed...

Replenished Wood Shed I think it was around the 17th or 18th of February when everyone started talking about snow . You will note in the photo above there is lots of uncovered grass. The January thaw which began in December right after a minimalist white Christmas continued all through January and half of February. Oh, not that there wasn't talk of snow. The weather channels and sites always seemed to threaten snow. And there was a small, slight chance here and there that issued an inch or less which because of temps instantly melted. Snow became something which happened in Boston or Maine, and all but the ski areas here seemed rather grateful. So when the talk of a major storm heading our way first started we all rolled our eyes and said, Oh, yeah, sure in unison. I was nursing the last of two cords of wood (October and November called for more fires). I was looking at the garden beds and planning for spring but there was just something about the wind or lack there of. Or...

Never have been overly fond of the end of the year. Or for that matter the beginning of the new one. There seem to be so many unmet expectations from the "Joy of the Season" to all those new resolutions to be a better self. To which is added looming taxes, the flu season, awful weather, and removal of all coping mechanisms like our favorite shows so they can rerun Charlie Brown's Christmas, schedule all the bowl games, and make space for poorly scripted award shows. Feeling weepy yesterday I threw the camera in the truck and went in search of ice to photograph. There was none. I had unconsciously noticed it just did not seem to be as cold this December to January, but that was a judgement made on what winter coats are hanging on the entry hooks. The Coretex coat for the Arctic which I wore constantly last winter is still in the upstairs closet. And any hopes, that while my yard was not covered with snow, certainly the mountains were getting it was dashed by this pho...

Washing rugs Spring snows catch you unawares in the midst of activities undertaken to get a jump on summer. They come when you think winter was over, and you had packed away the snow boots and moved the winter coats to the upstairs closet. Stored the all weather Carharts. Gotten out the wheel barrow in preparation for some gardening. I confess this was not put away for winter The come gently unlike the storms of winter. They are silent with no howling winds. Wet so they melt quickly into the soil but before they go they balance flake upon flake upon every possible surface and create artistry. Lamp with Easter Bonnet Most winters we are tired of snows by April but this was not most winters. We had some snow early December but January, February and much of March were barren. We started dreading the tinder box of dry forests that surround us. So the wet Spring Snows have been welcome even with the puddles of mud to follow. Snow laden trees You can almost hear the...

Map of Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument Took another photographic outing to the lower end of our newest national monument. There are other accesses to the beauty this monument holds but from where I live the lower end is the easiest to access. Many of the highway travelers to Taos are familiar with the scene below taken after the horseshoe turn. Turning north off of Hwy 68 on to 570 at Pillar gets you into the beautiful camping and day access areas of the monument. Rio Grande Gorge in the Taos Volcanic Plateau The Rio Grande River is very low because of the drought but my photographic partner and I were thrill to find the river a bit higher than our last trip due to recent rains.  The gorge and canyon walls that enclose the Rio Grande in the monument area are primarily basalt. The Taos Volcanic plateau was formed by seven different lava flows. The remnant cones of the volcanos are throughout the park area. But between flows the run off created layers of...

Bristle Cone Pine with open cone The drought has sort of killed spring. Greening up of grass and the blooming of wild flowers is WAY behind schedule. But yesterday in the Val Vidal I saw signs of hope. Or a desperate attempt to reproduce before the plant expires to the drought. Standing Brave While the flowers were a sign of hope they were also sad because of their reduced numbers and what if there is no rain will be a failed attempt to reproduce. There were flowers but also an alarming absence of bees and butterflies. Nor were the flower sin lush green meadows but surrounded by dry and brittle grass that crunched when you walked on it. There is a trout pond behind these flowers but the water is so low that when I got down to photograph the flowers the water did not show. I got this one photo with just a hint of water by going up a hill and then lying in a depression, like my friend Jessica below. So both photographers and flowers are going to extreme leng...

Hope of Rain by J. Binford-Bell Yesterday was another trip to Raton. Another two hours each direction to search the barren landscape for buffalo or antelope or signs of rain. Another opportunity to Zen Out as I like to call it. I have always been a chop wood, carry water sort of mediator, and trapping me in a car with the cell phone off is almost like taking a retreat weekend on the fly. And yet I so resist this repeat journey. I have the road signs memorized even. And the effect of the drought on the land has been painful to see. And yet drought comes and goes especially in the high desert. It is difficult to remember that with the extremes in weather we are now seeing. There is more and more proof of climate change. This drought might not end. And yet the trees think so. Their roots deep in the aquifer they have leafed out yet again. Their fresh and hopeful green a stark contrast to the dried grasses and barren soil. Toward the mountains on the north side of the highway there ...

Awaiting the rain by J. Binford-Bell To call forth the rain you must first create  the clouds. J. Binford-Bell Nothing may be quite as boring to a photographer as a clear blue sky. A clear sky shows no promise of a great dawn or spectacular sunset or flashes of lightning. So this week when we finally had clouds I left my house early with my camera and a mission to record them before the sun made them vanish. Or it rained. I was hoping for the rain. We are all hoping for the rain. But to have rain you must first have clouds. The humidity level needs to get out of the single digits so any rain that falls from the clouds reaches the parched earth. Rain in the distance by J. Binford-Bell There is an expectancy about clouds and rain in the distance. And a sense of unreleased tension which is almost electric. Just rain. Really rain you want to scream. Give me lightning and thunder and the pounding of rain on the metal roof so I can sleep. It was that sort...

Winter Diamonds The week begun with the same frigid temperatures we have been having since Christmas. The whole community is sick and tired of it. And looking for the bright side has gotten harder even for those of us with cameras that can be lured out of our homes to record ice crystals on last summers dried grasses. Sun or no sun there is something depressing about dressing in multiple layers to the point you look like the characters on South Park. Or waiting until the day heats up to at least 10 F above before walking the dogs or starting your aging car so it does not wear out the starter or battery. But when we didn't get to that mark until noon I just wanted to go back to bed like a hibernating bear. But the Arctic cold finally broke on Wednesday and my valley got above freezing for the first time in weeks. And I think it was Thursday the night did not fall below zero. It was the day I finally bought an installed a replacement heater in my living room. The heater I had n...