Sidetracked Charley

I have blogged numerous times about the artificial quality of marking time. The end of one years is but the beginning of the next and where we set that day is capricious at best. But civilization seems to want to do it. And there are many proofs of that from Stonehenge to Mayan Calendars to hash marks on prison walls. At one time in my time clock days I was a cost and scheduling engineer. And we had elaborate computer programs which laid out complex industrial building projects over the span of years to be printed out in charts and put on the conference room wall so everyone could debate if we were ahead or behind schedule. Life and living takes what it takes. In my retirement from the scheduled world of construction only last frost and first frost seems to matter. But I have purchased a new propagation system and find myself trying to walk back, with help of the garden journal, when I should start my broccoli and Brussels Sprouts to be put out in the garden the first of May...

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...

Smoke from Arizona Fires Last Monday, as my frequent readers know, it was on the eighth day or more of damp and sometimes rainy weather with heavy clouds. Here in the mountain southwest we all go a bit crazy if we don't see the sun every day. However, the rainy weather did a lot to give us a burst of green this week. Spring greens The air was so clear and so fresh it almost sparkled. And the Aspens did their best to add that wonderful spring green as they leafed out overnight it seemed. Eclipse behind clouds Clouds partly obscured the eclipse last night but the sky was so blue. Then this morning the air smelled like smoke. And what I thought might at first be fog did not clear when the sun came up. Smokey Mountains I have the New Mexico Wildfires site book marked on my browser so when the haze did not go away I looked at the fires currently burning in New Mexico. None were up wind from us. But the three in Arizona are. If you have been close to the fro...

Shadows on the barn door by J. Binford-Bell Tomorrow is May 1st. We used to do May baskets when I was a kid. We worked for days doing them for all the neighbors and then took off early May Day morning to deposit one on each stoop or porch or door knob. Per Wiki : May Day is  related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November q, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various Northern European pagan traditions. The end of April seems to be officially the end of the doldrums of winter and the Mud and Flood season of the highlands here. Many of the locals escape if they can and I end up with a lot of pet sitting and property watching jobs. May the locals begin to return from extended vacations. And those that own second homes here come back from Mexico or Phoenix to get their homes cleaned up and prepared for the Memorial Day weekend and the summer rental season.  May i...