Silent Sunday: December in Mora County, NM

Tomatoes, Flowers, Apples and a Recipe

Yesterday I took a mosey around to see how stuff was growing. This summer had a pretty good monsoon season and the plants have been extremely grateful. I am grateful for the former lady of the house who, although only here on vacations, thoughtfully planned out the garden so that there is always something blooming during the growing season.

But I don't know what all these plants are, so if you can identify anything, please leave me a comment, okay?

Here's a closeup of one of the flowers:

Because we have no beef cattle around this summer, they didn't eat this vine and I discovered that it actually blooms!

Let me know if you know what this one is.

I admired the apples. I never had an apple tree before, so this is a treat.

I checked out the bee hives. Bears are out and about and the white fence is electrified. Yogi and Boo-Boo do not get this honey!

Inside the Growing Dome I said hello to Manny, Moe and Jack, the resident Wal-Mart goldfish who live in the large water tank.

This is The Tomato Thicket. It's a wall of tomatoes and I have to hunt around to find all the ripe ones.

The Roma tomatoes are sneaky and hide deep within the thicket. But I found them because I am a relentless seeker of errant tomatoes.

And I made this excellent tomato sauce from Smitten Kitchen.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/08/naked-tomato-sauce/

Then I went to Thread Bear, the local Las Vegas, NM quilt store, to buy fabric for a class I am taking in Albuquerque this weekend taught by Jacquie Gering, one of my quilt heroes.

Stonehenge in Northern New Mexico

The Sangre de Cristo Livestock Group had its annual picnic meeting at a beautiful ranch near a village not even labeled on Google maps.

To get there we traveled around this mountain range. The clouds built up, but it didn't rain.

 

We ate ranch picnic food: brisket, potato salad, green salad and pies, cakes, brownies, fruit, and cookies. Kids bounced on the trampoline and played chase, little dogs visited among the guests, while big dogs barked from their kennels.

Adults listened to a visitor from El Paso sing beautiful ballads in Spanish. And a little black cockapoo sang along.

Rocks are plentiful in this part of the country, and the ranch's owner truly knows how to utilize their artistic potential. He's made a mini Stonehenge in his back yard:

The acequia, or water ditch, has been beautified:

I like the rock bridge in the background, as well as the steps down to the water. Below, the water continues, through a waterfall, a pond, and, eventually, to the fields and pastures for irrigation.

Driving back down the old dirt road back to the highway, I looked at the old adobes in the village.

I wondered how many picnics they had seen, food shared by old and new friends, traveling balladeers with little dogs singing along, and children chasing each other through the mountain air, their small voices carrying up into the pines.

Midsummer Yard Update-Fruity and Flowery

Finally, after two years of drought conditions, it's a true monsoon season: late morning cloud buildup and then afternoon and evening thunder showers. It's like God's bowling alley up there in the clouds when the storms hit, and I sit on the sidelines and watch it all unfold. When the thunder and lightning get started, I can't help but remember the Disneyland train ride through the Grand Canyon, the coyotes howling with lightning and thunder surrounding us all.

Along with the rain, for the first time in two years we have apples. The apples have previously been victims of late frost and cold temps, but this year the weather was kind to the blossoms and there is fruit. So now I need to figure out what to do with them. Heck, I don't even know what kind of apples I have on the three trees. All I know is each tree has a different variety of apple.

The grapes are back, too. I've tasted these grapes, which are sweet, like a concord. Lots of seeds, so I am thinking grape jelly might be a good idea for these guys.

I am amazed at the lavender and how well it grows, no matter what. I will always want lavender in my yard.

I tried to get a shot of the bees who love this lavender, but they decided not to show up.

Speaking of bees, ours are still getting used to their new queens at my kind neighbor's home. Why is she so kind? She's sharing her bees with me! It was time to divide some of her hives, so we did just that. Transporting them the 5 miles here will be interesting, to say the least.

Summertime is for having fun and relaxing. Hope you find yourself a patch of grass and have a good old roll in it.