Concrete

I haven't had the inspiration to write much here lately. (Not to mention that it is a nightmare to upload photos lately.)

I could post infinite political articles and videos but, so tired of 1) all of it and 2) preaching to the choir and 3) to what end?

Other than the daily horror show, things on the local level are not that interesting.

We left town in our tiny camper for a week in mid September. Social distancing and staying safe precluded browsing in quaint shops or eating in restaurants except for take-out.

Road trips, hiking, lounging around the campground was the extent of our activity. We walked around Antonito, Pagosa Springs, and Durango Colorado and Chama, New Mexico.

My sweet hubby, Leon...I am indeed a lucky guy

Attitude!

Snow in them there hills

Cano's Castle Antonito, CO

Enlarge to read about the Penitentes - San Isidro Catholic Church

Remnants of the Church

Have a beer

We had friends over yesterday for dinner...(A nice salad, green peppers stuffed with ground turkey, eggplant, and other tasty ingredients, homemade Italian bread, wine, crepes with sweetened ricotta and strawberries and peaches).

Having guests and cooking something special for them...something I've missed doing during the pandemic...we have had guests infrequently, mostly visiting outdoors on the deck. All of our friends have been very diligent, very careful almost to extremes. So we have felt both safe and, I think we have an enhanced sense of camaraderie and "family".

Back at the ranch, there has been a project I've been wanting to do and have been putting off for four or five years. Patching/resurfacing the concrete driveway which is/was cracked and crumbling. Spalling concrete is the technical term, but I think ours was a bit beyond that.

Not one to pay a company several thousand of dollars to do the job professionally, I rely on my proclivity to do it myself at a fraction of the cost or "Why spend good money to have something done right when you can do a half-assed job yourself for the price of a couple of dinners at a lousy restaurant?"

So, this afternoon, Leon and I got to work on the driveway. So far we've used five 40lb bags of Quikrete vinyl concrete mix to fix one section of the driveway. We are not quite done yet...maybe we'll try to finish up tomorrow.

I seem to take to concrete the same way I take to bread or pasta dough. Maybe it's in my blood. My maternal grandpa was a stone mason, my paternal grandpa could lay a walkway, one of my cousins is a mason.

I am an amateur do-it-myself-er. Leon assists with no complaints.

Before

Before

After

After

Desert Contrasts - Gardens, Flowers, Sand, Stone and Water.

Desert Contrasts - Gardens, Flowers, Sand, Stone and Water: A photo montage. 

Click photos to enlarge.

Albuquerque has a beautiful Botanical Garden as part of its BioPark which includes a zoo and aquarium. I especially like the Japanese Garden which has a very New England feel, with trees, pond, and shrubbery that is found more often in Connecticut than in most of New Mexico.

#1 Spring display with pansies and poppies.

#2 Peonies 

#3 Koi Pond

#4 Pink Peony

#5 Sitting Duck

#6 Quack

#7 Koi in Foreground

#8 Walk Bridge

#9 Ornamental Garden

#10 Poppies

#11 Pretty (but I don't know what they are).

#12 Some Kind of Blue

#13 Alligator Juniper

#14 Columbine

#15 Pansies and Poppies

Leaving the environment of cultivated and irrigated flora brings us into the natural environment of the high desert where wild flowers were/are abundant this year. Here are some pretty ones:

#16 tetraneuris scaposa - Four-Nerve Daisy
Cochiti Lake, NM

#17 sphaeralcea ambigua - Desert Globemallow
Cochiti Lake, NM

#18 tetraneuris scaposa - Four-Nerve Daisy
Cochiti Lake, NM

#19 Loco Weed? Cochiti Lake, NM

#20 Un-identified Purple Flowers
Santa Fe, NM

#21 Cholla, Las Cruces, NM

#22 Cholla, Las Cruces, NM

#23 Opuntia - Prickly Pear
Las Cruces, NM

#24 Purple Cholla, Las Cruces, NM

#25 Ocotillo and Apache Plume
Organ Mt, NM

#26 Ocotillo, Blue Sky and the Outcropping
Organ Mountains, NM

On our current trip to southern New Mexico one of our stops was at White Sands National Monument. We'd been there eons ago, before we were likely to frequent Cape Cod. As we were driving in I couldn't help but be reminded of the dunes in Provincetown...and I immediately got into a funk.

So like Provincetown I half expected to see the ocean at Race Point beyond the highest dune, but, instead of an ocean (there was one here a million years ago) all there was was more white sand. So we saw white sand and more white sand and the more sand we was, the more depressed I got.

Besides it was hot. I don't seem to be able to tolerate heat (or cold) like I used to. Not to mention that hiking seems to take a lot more effort, even though I walk quite a bit every day. The heat just saps the energy out of me.

Enough of white sand, we headed up to Cloudcroft.

#27 Reminds me of the Dunes at the Cape

#28 Leon of Arabia and the Dog, Benni

#29 Blue Sky, Sand and Yucca

#30 Blue and White

In such stark contrast to the endless sand was the mountain country near Cloudcroft where evergreen trees - pine and fir - dominate the landscape. And where Benni was able to have a good, off-leash run, sniff new smells and chase sticks. 

We went from 90 degree+ baking heat at White Sands to wet, rainy and 50 degree cold in Cloudcroft. I had to buy a sweatshirt; I was shivering. Small town that survives on skiing and people from the hot regions going there to cool off. 

Flashback to Vermont. The cold rain ended and the sun came through to warm us up a bit.

#31 Leon and Benni in Cloudcroft

#32 Grassy Meadow with Aspen

#33 The Cool Green of the Aspen Trees

Went back to camp and heat in Las Cruces.

We were amazed at the agriculture in Las Cruces. Miles of pecan trees in neat rows were delightful to see. Many of the orchards were flooded - purposely - to irrigate the trees. Other crops were also being grown and the system of acequias or canals is vital to the farmers here and throughout New Mexico. Imported palm trees are common in landscaped yards.

#34 Rows of Pecans, Orchard in Las Cruces

From Las Cruces, we headed to Carlsbad. Later that day at camp, a pretty bad hail storm hit. New Mexico: heat, wind, lightening, hail. But it beats a large part of the US that is under water.

 Went to Carlsbad Caverns. We could have sworn we were here years ago but nothing we saw seemed to correspond to a memory. And Leon has a memory, whereas I have a forgettory. It was a long hike down into the cave where we saw all kinds of interesting stalactites and stalagmites and lots of rock. Almost as fascinating as the rock formations was the engineering feat that paved the walkway, built stone barriers and fashioned steel railings that followed a serpentine pathway. We emerged three hours later through the wonder of the speedy elevator.

Photos of the cavern are not spectacular as everything is monochromatic and theatrically lit.

#35 In the Cavern

Later that day we decided to drive out to Sitting Bull Falls. It is about a 36 mile drive off the main road through scrub desert terrain. The thirty-six miles seemed more like ninety-six. (Getting nervous as we had not filled the thirsty diesel truck). The only thing to see besides dirt and rocks and weeds was the occasional herd of cattle, some of the creatures actually crossing the road at their leisure. Out there somewhere is the promise of an oasis, a natural spring fed waterfall. We kept driving...

#36 Scrub Desert As Far as the Eye Can See
Near Carlsbad, NM

Yes, there, after the Lincoln National Forest sign (day use pay area - National Parks Senior Pass accepted) one comes to a very neatly kept parking lot, a number of picnic shelters surrounded by grassy lawns, a comfort station and info kiosk. Just beyond the picnic area are the falls. This is not a very crowded spot. There were maybe six other people there during our visit.

Interestingly, the falls, while surrounded by desert and desert flora had a very different micro climate and eco system. Willows, grape vines, ferns and mosses flourish there. In some ways I found this oasis to be more fascinating than the caverns of Carlsbad.

#37 Sitting Bull Falls

#38 Grape Vines

#38 Maidenhair Fern

#39 A Cool Pool

#40 Frank, Benni and Leon

A few more pics from a little restaurant in Mesilla (Josefina's Old Gate Cafe) where we had a late breakfast one morning this past week.

# 41 Leon, Benni Lounging

#42 Interesting Wooden Portal

#43 Old Gate at Josefina's

Spent the day tooling around Carlsbad. Impressions: Oil, gas, drilling, fracking, industrial, trucks, lots of very clean, fairly new, WHITE pick-up trucks (seems like some kind of status symbol), nice river front park, nice homes along and near the Pecos river, not so nice away from town, white and Mexican, lots of Texans, some wealth, some poverty, lots of machinery being lugged around, macho, family, religion, no ice cream shops we could find. Bought a tub of Butter Pecan and a tub of strawberry frozen yogurt at the market.

Heading home tomorrow - Sunday, May 19.