My first sighting of cranes this fall — Sandhills, I’m told — flying south over Placitas, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. They were way above me, looking straight up from the backyard at just over 6,000 feet. I think they were climbing in elevation to make it over the Sandias, just over 10,000 feet at the …
The setting sun was starting to redden the mountain. I wasn’t doing much. In fact, I had dozed off on the living room couch, working a crossword puzzle and experiencing the predictable effects of pasta for lunch. I see the sort-of-wild horses of Placitas often but this one happened to drift by just as I …
Here is another smoke-tinged sunset, seen from Placitas, New Mexico, on Sunday, July 11, 2021. Massive plumes of wildfire smoke across western states are common these days — one of the consequences of climate change, I am convinced. This smoke in New Mexico tonight apparently is from fires in northern California, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. …
June is the cruelest month in New Mexico. It’s supposed to hit 100 degrees today at 6,500 feet in the Sandia foothills. Humidity is soaring at 7 percent. Wildfires are burning in the Gila, the Pecos and father north, near El Rito, obscuring my visions of cool, clear streams running fast in the mountains. Arizona …
Soon after I got carried away tweeting about water this morning, a fellow tweeter in Santa Fe spotted smoke rising from the Pecos Wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. I was still savoring coffee in Placitas, watching birds and enjoying the first morning in nearly a week free of wildfire smoke from southern Arizona …
dream ranch 