Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (April 18, 2009) Glorious Organ Mountains; Apricots; Quail on the Wall; Sneaky Slick the Min Pin

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

It’s been a frustrating week in the garden as the winds have continued and the temperatures have dipped the last day or so.  I’ve managed to put a couple of veggies and flowers into the patio pots, only to cover them up again to protect them from the weather.

Yesterday I bought a new Belle of Georgia peach to replace the one that is languishing.  I’ll get that in the ground over the weekend.

A big surprise is that I found a little apricot growing.  One seems to be finally showing on the flower I saw…but this one never seemed to have a flower that I ever saw, so imagine my surprise to see a an actual baby apricot!!  Let’s see if anything more shows up!

Last Tuesday I took advantage of the short trip over to my chess teacher’s house and took some wonderful pictures of the Organ Mountains. These views are literally a couple of minutes from my house…I’ll share one with you now:

Organ Mountains 4/14/09 Looking Like a Painting...

New Mexico has wonderful light, which attracts a lot of artists.  The changes in the skies and the light that changes from second to second are things which never cease to amaze me.

Closer to home, the quail are beginning to show up on my wall.  I love these guys and their plaintive calls.

A Curious Quail...

Finally, Slick the Sneak was into all sorts of trouble yesterday.  We left the house for an appointment and when we got back we found garbage all over the floor!  This hasn’t happened in quite awhile.  It really was close to the boys’ dinnertime, so I guess Slick was the leader of the pack in search of some grub.

This picture, which I took a couple of days ago, shows the little flash of the devil in his eyes:

Sneaky Slick

Let’s hope the winds die down next week! I have to put up the new grape trellises, plant a chocolate flower and really have to decide if I should bag the peaches. So far the squirrels haven’t shown up, which is amazing. I see the papa or mama when I look over the wall and they gobble up the lettuce and other veg scraps I toss over right away.  I suppose they’re busy with babies and as they grow, I’m sure they’ll be hunting for a lot more food…including peaches!

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (April 4, 2009) Spring Winds; Squirrel Wars; Bees Invade Feeder; Wounded Butterfly; Sunrise Over the Organs; Slick Lounges Around

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

It’s been a tough week for the garden in some ways.  The spring winds have arrived so I’ve had to put wind barriers up around the raised beds. I’m using the sunshade for this, because it’s bright and I don’t want my plants to dry/fry!!!  The temperatures are still in the 40’s overnight so with the winds coming through, although they weaken overnight, I don’t want too much of a temperature shock.

Still have some of the plants saved for the pots…a couple of peppers, an eggplant, and a couple of tomatoes…but I’m keeping them inside overnight. I bought some annuals…zinnias, petunias, a new geranium and an interesting spirally plant called “Rush.”  But these are all sitting safely under protection for now…

The squirrel wars have started. They’ve been gnawing at the cactus in the far corner of the yard and nibbling at the eggplant and lettuce. I’ve got tons of peaches on the tree in the warm corner and I’ll have to “bag” the fruit soon or else the squirrels will be busy there too as soon as they start smelling something sweet.

The hummingbird is coming all the time now…until today. The feeder was full of swarming bees!  This happens every year and I think these may be Africanized bees. So, the hummer and I will back off until they go.

A few days ago I spotted this butterfly on the ground. I picked it up and placed it in the Texas Ranger.  The poor thing obviously had some problems with its wings. A short while later it had gone…

Wounded butterfly

This past Thursday I had an early morning blood test.  The Healthplex branch of one of the hospitals is near our house and has stunning views of the Organ Mountains.  And being up so early, I knew I could catch the sunrise….

As I write this, I’m just back from a rendezvous with Animal Control. This morning I was walking Slick and Toro in the arroyo and suddenly spotted a golden lab (?) who had obviously recently given birth. I thought I had seen this dog barking from behind a wall on the far side of the arroyo. We left in a hurry and I figured she could easily jump back over the wall and get home.

At 8:30 PM as I as out with Slick and Toro again for their last walk, I thought I saw the dog near the path into the arroyo. It seemed to go back down into the arroyo.  I immediately call Animal Control and I took the officer down to the path and pointed out the house I thought the dog came from. We scanned around with a flashlight but didn’t see anything moving.  The officer was going to stop by the couple of houses where she could have come from to find out more from the owners.  I sure hope this all turns out OK, because if there are puppies involved, I’d hate to have the mother wandering lost for days or sitting in the shelter.  It’s expensive to get dogs back these days and I wouldn’t want her to be left there and the puppies orphaned.

This sort of thing always makes me go and give mine a hug…I’m not bragging, but they have a really good life…because they run mine!!

Slick lounging, safe and sound

Let’s hope next week bring less wind so I can finish planting…and that the lost dog is found.

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (March 14, 2009) (Lost Dog; Budding; Pruned Grapes; A Robin Visits; Clouds Around Town; Biker Chic) Pics!

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Last week a little chihuahua from across the street was roaming and I picked him and returned him a couple of times. Then, he disappeared and it seems that the owner is happy to get rid of him; she prefers the large Rottie she inherited from her son.  This angered me a great deal, to say the least, because if I had known I wouldn’t  have returned him to her.  Last Thursday and Friday neighbors told me that they had probably seen Mario about a block away.  I’ve been walking in that direction with my dogs but haven’t seen him.  I decided to put out some food and water just in case a few days ago.  This morning the water dish was pushed off the big rock were I had put it and the food looked disturbed. I thought it might be the birds.  Then, just a few moments ago when I was taking Slick out for his last short walk before bed, I saw that the food was gone (except for one kibbie) and the water was almost gone and the bowl was lopsided again!

I don’t know who’s visiting, but I’m hoping it’s Mario. I’ve talked to the neighbor across the street who just lost a dog and he said he might consider taking Mario if I find him, depending how he gets along with kids.  These folks already have an old boxer named Sugar who has met Mario with no problem. Mario, used to big dogs,  has just strolled through the gate on one of his jaunts.

So, I’ve moved the bowls to be in the range of the cam. I bought the cam to try to spot another dog (to no avail) so we’ll see what happens this time!

***

I’ve been following the little flowers near the adjacent driveway for the last couple of weeks.  A couple of the original blooms have died, but…Now there are 7!!!  From 3, to 4, to 7 and still going strong!

Now there are 7!!

In the backyard there’s a lot of budding and flowering going on and today I saw the first flower on one of the sage plants!

This week I finally pruned the main grape vine. This vine yielded about 25 bunches of “Flame” grapes last year…

Flame Grape after Pruning

We don’t really have robins that stay for too long up here at about 4500 feet although we have a pair or two that seem stay for part of the winter. They seem to stay down in the valley but up here they pass through in late January on the way north.  I happened to catch this bird up in the tree in the arroyo behind our house a couple of days ago, but I think he/she was just passing through.

A Robin is a big deal here...

Today I was out doing errands and wound up at the Mesilla Valley Mall.  Since I had my new camera handy, I decided to take a few pics.  When I first moved here about 10 years ago, I remember feeling constant awe every time I came out of the grocery story and saw the Organ Mountains looming beyond the parking lot.  I’m still amazed!  And yesterday the clouds were rolling in.  One thing I’ve noticed is that at a mile high, you see the SIDES of clouds, not just the bottoms, like in Jersey. It’s another thing that often amazes me even after all this time…

Here’s a view from the back of the mall looking out toward the west…That’s Picacho Peak, the remnant of an old volcano…

Looking West

A closer look at Picacho Peak…

JC Penney and the Organ Mountains…

As I went home I caught this biker in front of me at a traffic light…she went into my development so she must be a neighbor!  Wonder who she is??  Look at that helmet with the pigtails attached!

Finally, I got home and checked out how the clouds were looking from the backyard…

This weekend I have to get the garden planted and set up the plastic covers again.  The temperatures still go down into the 30’s sometimes although the days are lovely. This is typical and soon the spring winds will really start, so the plants have to be protected so they don’t get battered and dry out…

Even though those clouds look ready to burst, usually they don’t give us any rain…just great excuses to take pictures!

These Gray Days of December

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

It’s nearly winter in southern New Mexico.  For the most part we’ve had sunny days, but lately we’ve had our share of gray.  Earlier in the week we actually had rain and there was snow up in the St. Augustin pass and the peaks.  A couple of weeks ago I took my short trip up to The Other Side of the Mountain…these days, that excursion wouldn’t be so inviting.

First Snow on Organ Peaks 12/08

It’s always shock when the gray sets in this time of year because it feels so PROFOUNDLY gray.  Growing up in New Jersey, going to college in Ithaca, New York, and spending a year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin I accepted the rain, the snow, and the raw weather.  The occasional blizzard, too. By March, however, it was downright depressing. Sure, spring was around the corner and a 40° F day seemed warm. But it was the continuous gray that got to me.  It just hung like a shroud…

A series of gray days or days that start out sunny and turn gray with a low cloud cover is hard to take here in southern New Mexico. Maybe I’m just older. Maybe I’ve just gotten spoiled. But when what I call “Jersey weather” descends, so do my spirits.  A single day of completely gray weather affects my mood to the point where I am praying for the Sun’s return so that I don’t have to feel like I need to curl up into a ball and hide. I often wonder how I managed to tolerate the winters back East and the one in Milwaukee, which was just plain brutal!

The webcam has been showing the back and forth between bright blue skies, wispy clouds, and heavy clouds that look like it will rain any minute. By Christmas, the really “bad” days of winter set in. Sometimes we will have a rip-roaring wind and rain storm or perhaps an inch or so of snow that melts almost immediately.  It will feel like winter back East for about a week, then we get usually pleasant days with very cold nights through January and into February.  As long as the days are dry and sunny, I don’t care much about the nights, except for what the coldest spells might do to my garden under the “greenhouse.”  In that case, I throw a few blankets over the vegetables for a bit more protection.

The dogs know the weather has changed. Tico hates this time of year.  We adopted him on February 1, 2002, the same day that he was dumped in the cage outside the animal shelter after being kept for a month by people who had found him by the side of a road.  We had our name on a list for a small dog to be a companion for Toro, and when the shelter called I rushed right over. Tico was sitting in a box of shredded paper, alternating between shaking like a leaf or growling with bared teeth.  The attendant begged us to take him, as he wasn’t making a very good impression and most likely would wind up being put to sleep within a few days.   Once I held him, that was it.  Since it was a Friday, he couldn’t be picked up until the next Monday after his neutering surgery, so we brought Toro over to play with him and the two seemed to get along.  We took Tico home and since then we’ve seen that winters are hard on him. He curls up as if he’s hibernating and refuses to go out when he senses a change of the weather. He’s as sensitive as a precision barometer.  He is so upset that it’s even hard to keep him on a schedule to go out to the bathroom. He must have some very bad memories from being out on a cold road during the winter as a pup. Toro, on the other hand, is a New Jersey native who grew up playing in the snow and has no problems during the winter.

Slick, of course, was rescued from the streets at the end of 2002  just as the weather turned cold.  Now that he’s older, he doesn’t protest too much when I put on his little “jackie” for his early morning walk or his nighttime pj’s made of a cut-up sweat pants leg.   As a min pin, he really feels the cold to the point of shivering and it’s not unusual for me to wake up in the morning to find him out of his bed and under the covers with me.

This year there’s a real difference in how I’m feeling as winter approaches.  It’s just a few days shy of the two-month anniversary of the death of my ex-pat friend who lived in England.  Sharon and I never met in-person, although we talked on the phone and then via Skype.  We  first “met” while I was doing columns over at Buzzflash (ca. 2001). We started corresponding and kept at it until this October.

I  knew she had been having health problems, but she was very private. She told me she had pneumonia (which turned out not to be true) and that she was getting better. But her emails, which had been an almost a daily ritual, became less and less frequent.

Suddenly, she wrote and told me that she loved me.  A few days later, I received an email that she had died.

The Other Side of the Mountain

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

This past Sunday I decided it was time to go to the other side of the mountain.

Frankly, I was just worn out the entire onslaught of political/media games. Like many others, I’ve been feeling like I’ve been living through a time of lot more hurt and insults than we’ve have had to deal with in a long, long time.

Lately, we’ve had to endure the Hillary as Secretary of State epic.  Well, it’s official as of today (Monday as I write this).  Some bloggers are ecstatic, sure this is a VICTORY for women.  Well, we’ve had Albright and Rice already.  Clinton gives up her elected seat for the honor of serving at the pleasure of the most unqualified, media-assisted, creepy Democratic “president” in my lifetime. Whatever deal floats the Clintons’ and the Democratic poohbahs’ boat, it doesn’t do much but sink things for me. The misogyny continues and will continue (the ugly pictures of Clinton were already up tonight on FOX), and may be melded into a massive Clinton circus/misogyny orgy to help pound into our brains that women in general and Clinton in particular are suspect in the highest offices.  Meanwhile, Bill Richardson wields tremendous power over at Commerce. Real power to screw around with many things with nary a thought from the media…

Then there have been the hopes for the Supreme Court Fart to address Obama’s citizenship issues and boot him out of office before he even gets there.  Sigh.  The law, when it applies to members of “the club,” is conveniently circumvented.  It didn’t start with Gore in 2000, either. It started at a lower level of the courts with Dick Cheney. Remember the flap over whether he could actually be named as VP because of domicile questions (Wyoming vs. Texas)?  Well, how did that turn out?  Judah Benjamin’s scholarly examination of the Obama question over at Texas Darlin’ has come up with the same conclusion I did a long time ago and I’m not a lawyer–The Supreme Fart will let this one slide.  Not Your Sweetie’s recent post on “the club” and the intertwined relationships help explain, in part, why.

So, with all this stuff swirling around in my brain, I decided I had reached the point where it had to stop, at least for a short time.  It was time to go to the other side of the mountain. I hadn’t done it in a very long time. I don’t know why I waited this long, but Sunday was the day. I piled the dogs into the car and took off.

First, let me tell you that every day when I go into the backyard to feed the birds and tend to the vegetable garden I see the mountain.  Actually, the Organ Mountains.  This is what they look like from my backyard…the “Rabbit Ears” are just above the golden tree at the left (in the IA masthead, they are just to the left of the full moon):

A 10-minute drive got me through the St. Augustin pass (just hidden at the left by a roof) and the exhilarating sight of the entire Tularosa Basin spread out before me. Then, I got off the highway and began the trek up into heaven.

“Rabbit Ears” loomed in the distance.

An ancient volcanic core came into in view.

I drove slowly up into the foothills, navigating a series of hairpin turns. As I neared the trailheads, I looked out onto the basin (the thin line of white to the right in the shot below is part of the White Sands gypsum dunes which extends outside the White Sands National Monument area).

The air was crisp and a light wind blew through the silence…the absolute silence.  It was like being in a different time and a different world. Behind me were the “Rabbit Ears” that I see from my yard, but now I saw their other side, in all their craggy glory, at 8000+ feet.

The dogs and I sat for awhile, just being quiet and drinking in the purity of the moment.  Then, I slowly made my way back down to the basin.  Just before we reached the highway I glanced up to see a large hawk, with an amazing wingspan, gliding along with me, perhaps inviting me to return.

Coming back up over the pass, I stopped the car as the plains of the Mesilla Valley opened up below me.  It gave me a sense of freedom as I continued down to where I live, in what was the bed of an ancient sea.

What did I find on the other side of the mountain?  A sense of calm and awe.  A departure from ordinary time and a re-discovery of what’s real in the world…A chance to shed the insults of everyday life and feel new again.

I’ll be going back soon…

***

For a virtual panoramic view of the area, click here.