To experience spring in Taos is like living in the Giant Wind Tunnel of God. If you’re lucky, it won’t be too dusty.
Today was one of those days, about 75-80 degrees F (tops) with flag-shredding wind and 10 percent humidity under a virtually clear sky — wet clothes dry on the way to the clothesline, etc. At first I wanted to get out of the wind, then I started digging the warmth of the air and the sun, and finally I just fell back, entranced. There’s a depth and power to the overall beauty that escapes you if you’re running from one thing or the other, but when you slow down, BAM, it hits you — you have to imagine the wind blowing hard from left to right below, and read on for a description of the sounds. Add a few magpies and ravens flying across the scene, too.
We’re living in the middle of a cacaphony of birds, wind, and bawling cows… About 150 yards away is a corral full of the biggest, meanest-looking, horned burger on the hoof I’ve seen in quite a long time. On the way home from Walmart [see below], as we were rounding the last curve heading to our house, an absolutely huge dark blue Ford crew cab truck went flying across the dirt road, made a spectacular U-turn in the sagebrush, and out from the passenger side jumped what must have been a 300-lb. fellow, charging (as we now could see) three errant cows back where they belonged. Those cattle aren’t happy, and they’ve been letting everyone know ever since. Birds, cows, wind, barking dogs, dead rattlesnake in the road, water in the acequia, and the occasional Harley in the distance. Magpies, ravens, orioles, western tanagers, finches, flycatchers, hummingbirds, grosbeaks, and woodpeckers. Whew!
Yes, I think spring has come to Llano Quemado. Good.
UPDATE: Ended Tuesday afternoon (previous to this post) with a visit to the Rio Grande at Pilar to dump ashes of Hobbes the Wonder Cat in the mighty river (maybe six feet higher than when this picture was taken). Saw two Canada geese walking on the road 15 feet in front of the car and also a great blue heron close-up. Almost like old times in Maryland, except for the towering cliffs and low humidity.
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Wind! I remember those New Mexico spring winds as a kid. It’s sunny, warm and windy — the perfect time to fly a kite, right? No matter how many times our mom told us it was TOO windy, we’d give it a try anyway. You simply cannot put enough tail on a kite to make it fly steady in a wind like that. Even if we could hold on to it, the kite would rip a hundred feet of string off the stick, shoot straight up in the sky, stall out, pull a quick U-turn and then crash back to the ground. And how about those dust devils? Thanks, John, for making me smile with your beautiful and witty stories about the land that I love.
Dust devils!!! I think I have to write a post about that…