Well you just never know around here...

We were getting light rain off and on yesterday and I was thrilled with that. It's so dry here any moisture is more than welcome and while the horses might not agree with me I firmly believe wet is the best color these days.


Imagine my great pleasure when 'wet' turned into snow! An e-friend in Taiwan who is dealing with ten days of heavy rains and another week expected told me she sent rain as an attachment yesterday morning and this is what her attachment brought me -

The deck herb garden wasn't nearly as thrilled as I was since most of them are Mediterranean and fragile to cold...

...so I had to provide them with some blankies to stay snug and warm.

It's just a drop in the bucket of what we need but I'll take every drop I can get. At least for today, I'm not worrying about forest fires.

Rain...please?

Our best chance for rain in weeks is here but so far it has been moving around us with only a few drops here and there. The chances are supposed to increase tonight through tomorrow so I'm hoping we will get lucky this time and get real rain and not dry lightening strikes. There were dry storms last Monday that set a total of seven fires in the state.

You would think people would get wise to this situation but there were two cigarette caused fires in Albuquerque yesterday and last week a local idiot started a fire by carrying out his woodstove ashes in a plastic bucket on a windy day! I wish I had access to the aerial photos as they clearly showed the flames fanned out across fields and woods from a single starting point. We hear he is facing jail time and fines which might sound harsh for a fire that was quickly controlled with no loss of life or homes. But what if his foolish action had caused a death, or the destruction of his neighbors' homes, or the loss of animal life? We are under severe statewide fire restrictions prohibiting chainsaws, open fires of any kind and smoking outside vehicles. Clearly people are not taking this seriously so I for one feel it is time to set examples.

On a lighter note, I guess I forgot about our cherry trees who were the true last holdouts for spring. They look so pretty floating against the dark pines I couldn't resist a photo this morning. Please understand we have yet to actually taste a cherry from one of these trees...the birds and squirrels seem to know to the minute when they are ripe. I check them everyday and go out early with great expectations, only to find the wildlife has arrived before me.

On the deck, the chives are beginning to produce buds and I learned last year if you snip them off before they open they make the most delicious addition to stir fry. They have this wonderful, nutty, garlicky flavor that is incredible mixed with other sauteed vegetables. It's a miracle a single bud ever manages to open!

I know my entries have been sparse lately and it's because I'm closing in on the departure date for my first event without Mike. I'm still on schedule with finishing inventory but I know too well how things can get skewed at the last moment. I'll be going to Kanab, Utah for the annual Greyhound Gang fund raising event. This year for the first time ever I have added to my pre-event stress level by planning to make costumes for Vannie and Ellie. The whole tiny town of Kanab turns out for a greyhound parade down main street and this year I am determined to have the girls be part of it! I promise to bring the camera and might even give a special blog preview of Vannie and Ellie in their costumes if I get them done in time.

Blue Feathers, Apple Blossoms and New Horses

I was blessed with having Mike home with me for almost five days before his company sent him to Houston for two weeks of school. It was a really, really good visit this time with a little bit less pressure to 'catch things up' and more time to appreciate each other's company.

The place is really lonely today without you though...I hope you truly understand how much your absence diminishes the beauty here. Chores become just chores instead of a chance to spend time with you; and the animals and I watch down the road when you leave until we can no longer see or hear your truck.

Mike and I walked down the new fenceline to check it on our way to the horse trailer to do some necessary repairs. I saw a spot of blue on the ground and picked up a perfect little bluebird feather. An interesting thing about bluebird feathers is the color is not created by pigment but by light refracting through the fibers. If you take them out of a lighted area they become a simple light grey. This makes them just a bit more special to me.

The last holdout apple blossoms finally opened over the weekend too. The apples are always the last to pop open just as the other trees are quickly losing their petals and turning their energy to new leaves and tiny new fruits. I imagine the bees will soon be moving on to better territory until the lavender and roses start blooming on the deck.

I've written about the loss of Mike's amazing horse, Cuervo Humoso, last September and how it broke our hearts. When I lose an animal it is my immediate reaction to fill the space as quickly as I can with another one who needs a home. This has always worked for me to ease the grief and serendipity has always provided well. Mike needs more time to grieve and recover and I have learned to allow him as much space as he needs.


Serendipity has stepped in again though at just the right moment when Mike felt he might be ready to think of having a new horse. A woman in Colorado decided to offer for reassignment a young horse she had adopted from Cuervo's very same herd group. There is nothing wrong with this boy, his first adopter just realized training a horse from the beginning was a bit more than she was ready for. So the first weekend of June Mike's new boy will be arriving at his new home to join our little band of bachelor boys and I am thrilled and anxious to meet him!

A Tale of Two Tails.


Corazon had a nice tail, not overly long or full but still nice and functional. That is until Griton came to live with us... Corazon has always been dignified and reserved, a good leader, kind to his subordinates and not prone to fits of play. That is until Griton came to live with us...

Griton is annoyingly playful. He nags, he picks, he teases until his chosen playmate gives in to his exuberance with mock battles and wild gallops with log jumping and raised dust. Valeroso is eager to play and easy to tempt; but Corazon steadfastly ignored him. That is until Griton discovered the one technique for irritating Corazon just enough to send him into a heartfelt chase if not a playful one. Griton discovered Corazon's tail.

I began to find large swatches of Corazon's tail hair lying on the ground. I tried to imagine the many ways he could have lost it...maybe he was having a sun bath and stepped on it as he stood up. Or maybe the same thing happened during a good roll in the sand. I watched as day after day his tail became shorter and skimpier and then I saw it happen. Griton casually edged up behind Corazon looking as though his only intention was a bit of socializing. He inched closer, looking completely innocent. When everything was quiet, he snatched a mouthful of Corazon's tail and took off at a gallop! This was irritation beyond irritation and of course Corazon took off in pursuit, leaving a large swatch of his diminishing tail on the ground.

There doesn't seem to be enough of Corazon's tail left for Griton to pull out anymore and it appears Corazon has learned to play out of self defense. I am hoping his tail will have a chance to grow out again now that he has surrendered to Griton the fun monster. At least I can comfort myself knowing Corazon is the horse all the others want to be friends with. There will be no shortage of offers for sharing tail swishing this summer when the flies get bad. Corazon will have the use of Griton's very full and long tail and Griton's face will get only the short skimpy remains of his own creation.

I surrender...

When even the cottonwoods are shaking out their greens then spring is really here. It's time to abandon all hopes for a late snow to relieve the dry conditions and turn our prayers towards an early monsoon season. The willows along the creeks and irrigation ditches are beginning to leaf out in that intense pistachio color they will only have for a few weeks.

The ground is so dry it will be a while before grass starts turning green or wildflowers begin to show. Our first summer here was during a very long period of drought and we saw no plant growth until mid-summer when some rain finally came. The fruit trees are in full bloom now in spite of the low moisture level and they are humming with bees and other busy pollinators. I especially appreciate the busy, fat bumblebees that I frequently rescue from the buckets of water I keep on the deck for watering.

For those following the Mora County wildfire saga, it is now 80% contained and all but one community has been allowed back into their homes. It is truly amazing they were able to bring this fire under control as quickly as they did and with only one home lost under such dry and windy conditions.

An artistic indulgence with thanks to Lord Byron...

With flowing tail, and flying mane,

Wide nostrils never stretched by pain,

Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein,

And feet that iron never shod,

And flanks unscarred by spur or rod,

A thousand horses, the wild, the free,

Like waves that follow o'er the sea.

Lord Byron

17,000 acres burned and 20% contained.



This isn't smoke over the mountains today it is actually cloud cover. That doesn't mean we are expecting rain but the weather guys say the clouds will help to calm the winds. We were supposed to get 45-50 mph winds today and so far they have held at around 20 mph. I'm sure this has helped the firefighters to get that 20% containment. Some of the communities, Ocate and Ojo Feliz, have even been allowed to go back to their homes.

After this fiery wake-up call I am having horsey school everyday and working with the guys to be sure I can halter them easily and efficiently when I need to and lead them down the mountain in relative safety. After many months of being on vacation Corazon had a good time playing with me this morning before he calmly put his head into his halter. He ran and played, bucked and reared but never very far away from me. He clearly wanted my admiration and I knew when he was done he would happily go along with my program for a while. He looks so sweet and innocent in his bright blue halter...not at all like the wild horse he was acting like he still is.

Griton is never a problem about haltering. He longs for leaders and the security of knowing someone else is in charge. He did have a great time egging Corazon on though and the two of them did a lot of galloping side by side around me. One thing about wild raised horses is they are very clear about body space, both yours and theirs. Even with them galloping and spinning around me I never worry about getting stepped on or knocked into and none of them have ever threatened us with feet or teeth.

Over 10,000 acres burned so far.

The huge plume of smoke I took photos of yesterday is gone but the fire isn't; it has just moved farther away. What started as a small fire expanded fast and furious in dry timber and grass and by this morning they estimate over 10,000 acres have burned and the fire is zero percent contained. Fortunately this is not a heavily populated area but homes that have been lived in for generations may be lost along with countless animal lives.

I have been listening to the tanker planes and helicopters flying over all morning and the sky is marked by the vapor trails of their coming and going. We hear on the news that ground crews and bulldozers have also been brought in. You would think these things would bring me comfort but they give me flashbacks of inching my way out of the hills of Oakland, bumper to bumper with thousands of other people. The helicopters flew overhead constantly blaring 'Leave immediately. The fire is out of control and headed this way.' The air was hot and thick with fumes and cinders and the only thing missing was the disaster movie soundtrack.

I sent an email out this morning to my fellow Ledoux valley residents offering to create a secure webpage where we can record and access critical information about our animals in case evacuation ever becomes necessary. Mike and I also began working out plans of how we can make it possible for me to move our animals fast if needed. Having 'plans' definitely makes me feel better and talking with Mike always calms me.

Fire in the mountains.

I can't help it. I was in the 1991 Oakland Hills fire in California and now if a fire is within eyesight my adrenal glands start pumping. I was on my way back from Santa Fe when I spotted the plume and went into high anxiety. It wasn't until I was no more than twenty-five miles from home that I could tell it wasn't sitting right on top of our mountain.

I know there is a valley, a ridge of mountains, another valley and a good twenty miles distance between us and this fire in Ojo Feliz but I am still a wreck. For the last hour I have been standing on the deck watching the tanker planes and helicopters fly over and into the smoke to dump water on the fire.


This is the one and only drawback to living here and after a dry winter I will be in a state of high alert until the monsoon rains come...if they come. I am now more committed than ever to have an evacuation plan and three horses who can be easily caught and placed on a trailer, and a trailer that will accommodate them all.

They never listen...

I tried to convince those silly fruit trees to wait just a little bit longer but I think they were seduced by bees.

I know it's only a skunk cabbage but it looks so very soft and pettable...

And who knows what this is tucked away in pine needles other than a very pretty spot of color in the brown winter color scheme.

Such high winds today the yurt has been rattled several times by big microbursts. The wind has been scooping up from the valley pushing big clouds of dust ahead of it up the side of the mountain. This has provided a great excuse for the horses to race up the mountain ahead of it with manes and tails flying. They stand above on the rocks with heads high, snorting loudly as if monsters chased them there. As soon as the dust settles they gallop back down to wait for the next burst to give them an excuse to do it again.

Hard to watch you leave...

It was hard to watch you leave today with so little time spent at home. No real recharging before you went down the road towards long nights of work and not enough sleep. I want to tell you here where anyone might witness it, how much I love you and appreciate what you do to make our lives better. I hope you will stay safe and remember we are here waiting for you to come back and fill the space that is so empty when you are gone.

What's happening inside my head.

We drive down highways and familiar back roads and I look out windows during long stretches of silence. I see huge spines of rocks rising above the tree line like vertebrae and I tell myself a story of ancient dragons buried in the earth.

We pass by leafless garnet colored shrubs growing along the banks of irrigation ditches winding through golden winter fields and I want to set up my frames to paint this tapestry of color onto shimmering panels of stretched silk.

I see silver green sage and imagine an abstract photo of twiggy fingers pointing which way the wind went.

You ask me a question...directions...when I would like to stop to eat...and I pull myself back from this world of light and form and color. It takes me a moment to reorient myself, to remember the words necessary to respond, and I wonder what you must think is happening inside my head.

A very dear friend told me her musician son recently asked her if she also has music that plays constantly through and around her thoughts as he does. Creative people are sometimes thought to be slow. We are often distracted, certainly inattentive because we hear music no one else hears, see flows of color no one else seems to notice. We are called day dreamers, told we have our heads in the clouds. At best we are considered impractical. Be patient with us, the people who have our feet in two worlds. One world where you know everything is real and one where we know everything is possible.

Thunder on the mountain.

There is nothing indecisive about the weather here. You have brilliant sunshine, black thunderstorms, 'breezes' that try to knock you off your feet, and snow...sometimes all in the same hour. We learned our first year here if the clouds rolled in from anywhere but over the ridge above us we could relax, it might rain down in the valley but it wouldn't rain here at the house. I got back from Santa Fe this afternoon just in time to get the groceries in and close things up as I watched black storm clouds roll in over the peak and move down to the valley below us.

This being our first real storm with Ellie I learned thunder gets her very excited. Not afraid, not anxious, very EXCITED! She tore through the house playing with anything she could grab. She was skidding around, tossing toys and squeaking them as fast as she could. Each new thunderclap was an excuse to start it all over again. As soon as the storm passed we all went out to smell the rain, check on the horses and take some photos. That's when Ellie really cut loose...this blur of fur is Ellie running her heart out with exuberance.

The horses are completely unbothered by rain or even by hail. These boys were born and raised in the wild without the comfort of a barn or caring humans to bring them hay several times a day. I'm sure compared to where they have been this place is heaven on earth complete with servants. When the rain and hail come they simply turn their rumps into it, lower their heads and lay their ears back to keep water from running into them. They were wet and happy as the sun came back out and Corazon immediately came over to greet me. I imposed on him to let me take his photo while he was still wet and before he had a chance to roll in the wet sand.

The storm cells seem to have passed for now leaving us with a solid half inch of rain. For this part of the country that is a downpour and the dry ground is soaking it right up. They are warning this front will bring us lowered temperatures and high sustained winds of around 40 mph for the next two days and I will be glad to be sheltered here on the mountain. Fortunately the pups and I have no where we need to go but the studio to work.

Happiness is easy.

Ellie has invented a new game and you will have to use your imagination since I doubt I will ever catch it with the camera. The portion of arroyo that runs through the dog yard is gentle slopes with pine trees, not like the rocky structure above us. Ellie has learned to bound to the top of the slopes and pounce on pine cones with her front paws, sending them tumbling down towards the dry creek at the bottom. She then chases them madly down the slope in great leaps and pounces to keep them rolling. Her long legs splay around, her tail rotates madly with excitement and those ears of hers wind up in the most comical positions. Once she herds her pine cones to the bottom, she races up to do it all again. It will be a bit sad when she has chased all those cones to the bottom of the arroyo. Maybe I'll have to gather them up and restore them to the top for her.

This morning the horses have been having a high time running and playing and stirring up a cloud of dust. These boys seem to never get tired of their morning games and I wish I had a camera with a real telephoto lens so I might have a chance to catch them in the early light, playing tag between pine trees and moving in and out of hanging patches of dust. It's easy to be happy when you are surrounded by animals so willing to abandon themselves to joy. All we had to do was provide them with a safe space and in return they continually show us happiness is there to grab from the simplest of things.

Signs of Spring.

You might not be able to fool a cottonwood, or a mesquite tree, but it sure is easy to fool a fruit tree. It's lovely out, warm and soft with that amazing smell of earth turning and things thinking about growing. I even just carried out Fionna's first lizard kill of the year (I did resist the temptation to photograph the little body). But in spite of the evidence, the last freeze could still be six weeks away and we have had snow measured in feet during April and May in the past.

I want to go down into the orchard and yell at these foolish trees to hang onto those buds and for heavens sake, don't put out any blossoms yet! I know they won't listen and in all likelihood once again the majority of fruit we might have had will die from frost before it is ever born.

One bud I'm very pleased to see is on our memory rose for the black horse, Star. This big hardy deep red rose was the first to bloom last year and it looks like it will be the first to show signs of life again this year. Funny how excited I can get over such a tiny sign of beginnings. I'm eager to move my perennial herbs out of the studio and onto the deck again - the lavender is putting out large quantities of new growth and I'm sure will be blooming soon. I will force myself to be patient though and wait just a bit longer.

The horse boys are also doing spring cleaning and I'm starting to see their summer duds showing under the ragtag of last winters thermals. Besides what I brush off, they are busy grooming each other and I find wads of hair lying on the ground where they hang out to socialize. Soon Corazon will be a brown so rich he makes you think of hot spicy summers, bitter sweet chocolate, Mexican mole sauce and espresso. Griton will shed off his winter whites to turn silver pewter with charcoal dapples. We haven't had a summer with Valeroso yet but I am betting he will be hot cinnamon, burnt sienna and sunset coral with those beautiful ebony black bay points.