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 …

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Maybe it’s because sandhill cranes are starting to return north from our Middle Rio Grande Valley that I keep thinking of this Assiniboine story about the creation of seasons. I came across the story in an essay called Long Time Ago by the late James Welch. I liked his line, “It is remarkable how logical …

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I started thinking about the weather when sister Hope sent me photos of life in Montana. We started sensing what was coming here in Placitas on Friday. The wind picked up from the west and it was time to brave the construction-clogged traffic in Bernalillo and stock up on food and allergy medicine: Climate change …

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