Springtime in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Everyone around here seems deliriously happy with the end of winter weather, if you don't count folks driving the three mile stretch of highway near Buena Vista, NM, where cars slipped and slid through three inches of hailstones just a few days ago. Clouds of steam billowed up from the road, making it hard to see. I wanted to take a photo, but it was just too dangerous.

What I did see the same day were the purple-mountain-majesty-flower-covered hillsides outside Las Vegas, NM. The hills have been this way for several weeks, the rainfall keeping everything fresh and growing. Everyone's wondering, "Just what are those flowers?"

Las Vegas, NM, is a popular film and television location. The tv show Longmire, set in Wyoming, is filmed here. Of course it doesn't look like Wyoming, but it is pretty, isn't it?

I wanted to identify those flowers, but didn't care to hike out to the hills to look, especially since that sky to the east was looking pretty gnarly. Later we learned thirteen tornadoes touched down out there in Lincoln County. They wreaked havoc and destruction and I am glad I don't live on the prairie.

Luckily, I spotted some flower clusters nearby, so here they are.

After some internet searching, I thought they might be purple prairie verbena. A local professor told a friend that's what the flowers were, so I will concur. Look at those cracks in the earth. The earth's been slurping up every bit of rainfall we've had, and we are very grateful.

Closer to home, the valley along Coyote Creek hasn't looked this green for a while.

When we tell people where we live, they almost always say, "Oh, that's God's Country!" I think they are right.

Blessed Rain

For those of you who have regular rainstorms throughout summer, you are probably thinking the title of this post should be "Blasted Rain," and I hear you.

But around here, where people have been praying for rain for years, the past five days have been a blessing.

Remember this photo from back in July? Yep, that's a dry creek bed, even though we had just received a little rain and hoped for more.

 

We went out exploring and here's that same place yesterday. The footbridge touches the opposite side just to the right of the tree.

 

We haven't been out yet today, so who knows if the bridge is still there? I'll let you know.

 

 

Ms. Pearl's Labrador Retriever half has taken over and she's been body surfing down the creek. At first I was worried, but she knows where to get out.

Pearlie wouldn't hold still for a photo. "C'mon, cut the crap! There's water out there!"

Portrait of a Manic Austrolab.

Guadalupita/Coyote Historic District: Montoya Cemetery

Fall 2011 photo

 Almost a year ago the area where we live was approved as a State Historic District because of its historic, cultural and environmental significance. Here's what the application said:

"The Guadalupita/Coyote Historic District in Mora County is 8,140 acres of mountains and valleys dotted with small ranches, homes, mines and religious sites dating back to 1851. It was one of the last land grants in New Mexico. To this day, descendants of families that first settled there continue to use nearby natural resources and acequias that divert water from Rio Coyote to irrigate crops for their sustenance."

One site included in the district is the Montoya Cemetery, just a short walk across the pastures from our place. The newest grave that I can discern is from the early 1950's, a baby that died the year I was born. Others date back to the 1800's, people from a family who braved high altitudes, poor roads and frigid winters to make a life for themselves in a remote place often cut off from the rest of the state for months on end. The Montoya family is still around, some scattered to other parts of the state and country, but most still here living on ranches in the area on land kept in the family for generation after generation.

Family members take turns keeping the weeds at bay, straightening the markers that can be straightened and ensuring the fence around the site is in good repair since beef cattle live nearby.

The graves are marked with a variety of materials:  weather worn wooden and rusty iron crosses, flat stones, hand chiseled markers and one professionally done granite marker for the baby's resting place.

Fred Montoya

Dennis Montoya

When someone asks where where we live and I tell them, the most common response is, "Oh, that's God's Country!"

Summer 2012 photo

Yes, it is.

The View From The Top

A while ago the guys went for a hike to the top of the rimrock, that cliff-like formation you can see at the top of the blog. Just thought you'd like to see the view from up there.

Below you can see Coyote Creek which runs though the valley. 

        There's our place with the fence around it. In the distance are some old adobe buildings, some of which the owner is slowly restoring.

Below is another view, looking toward the mountains across the road. We have a neighbor up there somewhere. Don't you love that blue sky?

The house is partially hidden behind that tree in the foreground. The Growing Dome sets just outside the fence.

La Llorona

 I first heard about La Llorona (pronounced "LAH yoh ROH nah") back when I was teaching junior high school English in Corona, California. Every Halloween we would read some Edgar Allan Poe, hear a few ghost stories, and share our own stories. The Mexican-American kids would tell of La Llorona, Spanish for The Weeping Woman, looking for her children along the railroad tracks. In the stories I heard, La Llorona would snatch any kid she found, crying, "Oh, my children, oh, my children!" The moans and wailing were audible to many people living in the Railroad barrio in Corona. You didn't mess around with La Llorona.


Here in New Mexico, La Llorona pretty much says the same thing, but in a more natural setting.

Local legend says La Llorona walks along a creek between Mora and Guadalupita. This must be our own Coyote Creek which runs through the Nickel and Dime. 


In the 1930's a man named Patricio Lujan saw a thin woman first walking, and then floating in the air near the creek.


Then she vanished. There were no footprints.






According to many of the locals, the Mora Valley is La Llorona's home and children are still warned to behave so they are not taken away by The Weeping Woman. 

Why this warning? Maybe it's to keep kids from wandering near dangerous places like rivers and railroad tracks.

Or maybe the wailing and moaning of La Llorona reminds them of the danger that lurks just outside the door.