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 …
This morning’s wildfire smoke started me thinking about our last big snow. It was December 2006 and it was a big one for the upper Middle Rio Grande valley. A record-setting 11.3 inches landed on the airport in Albuquerque. We got close to a couple of feet up here in Placitas. That is my late …
Fire season is obviously here when you can’t see Cabezon in the morning. It is 60 miles west of me, across the Rio Grande. Usually it is a clear landmark, the most visible among the Rio Puerco volcanic necks. I am staying inside instead of taking my usual early walk with Cowboy. There’s even a …
It’s become part of the morning routine: Checking the smoke map. As I clear my head and loosen old joints, the daily drill is this: Fill the birds’ water dish, make coffee, feed Cowboy and check the smoke reports. I’ve already seen from bed that the smoke has blown in again. I can’t see the …
I turned 71 last month and decided it was time to grow up. My Dream Ranch blog suddenly seemed immature. Weighted down by COVID-19, wildfire smoke and political gloom — and some wild criticism to boot — I stopped blogging on June 30. I’ve been searching for other ways to channel my morning words and …
Sunset and Cabezon through wildfire smoke from Arizona, New Mexico and Navajo Nation. Photographed across the Rio Grande from Placitas, June 30, 2020. Had to use my little Canon Powershot SX740 HS. I seldom use anything but my iPhone, except for birds, but the iPhone couldn’t seem to handle all the smoke.
The sky is so gray with smoke sunrise doesn’t wake me. Western wildfires in June are predictable, but with climate change they seem more frequent — and larger. The smoke this Thursday morning, June 18, 2020, obscured the Sandia Mountains to the south and Indian Country mesas to the west. I could barely make out …
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