The Solstice of the Year

A Nearly Wordless Special Edition

Now is the Solstice of the Year!

Winter is the glad song that you hear.


Seven maids move in seven time,
have the lads up ready in a line.

Join together 'neath the mistletoe!

By the Holy Oak where-on it grows.

Seven druids dance in seven time.

Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming.

Praise be to the distant sister sun!

Joyful as the silver planets run.

Seven maids move in seven time.

Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming:

Ring out those bells!

Ring out, ring, Solstice bells!

Ring Solstice bells!

May the increasing light bring us light in the darkness of winter.

The poem is song lyrics, Ring Out, Solstice Bells by Jethro Tull. A You-Tube Version is embedded above.

Pictures Credit: All taken by Elisheva Levin, on a Sony Cybershot.

#1: Snow on the windowpane at dusk. December 21, 2007

#2: Snowing by the Aspen. December 21, 2007.

#3: The Solstice Elf's Handiwork Mysteriously Appeared. December 22, 2007.

#4: Snowy Scrub Oak and Pinyon Glade. December 22, 2007.

#5: Solstice Sunrise on Los Pecos Loop Ridge. December 22, 2007

#6: Solstice Sunset Over Cedro. December 20, 2007.

Ahhh! Mother's Day

It was a very busy weekend. Saturday we had a Bat Mitzvah to attend, and breaking our usual pattern, we also went to the evening party. It was a family friend and we couldn't say no.


Yesterday I woke up tired and somewhat grumpy.
My mood improved when MLC took me to get my toes done--Ahhh!

And while we were away in town, Bruce put together my Mother's Day present. My mood improved considerably, when I saw him putting THIS out on the patio!






Of course, I had to try it out.

It was a beautiful evening to just sit on the patio and rock while watching the clouds come over the mountains.

I think I even closed my eyes for a few minutes.

The chair is very comfortable. (Today Bruce is putting primer on it and on the one that he bought himself for me to give him for father's day. Clever man. Tomorrow he will paint them both hunter green).

And I could sit and enjoy the evening because...


Bruce, N. and MLC did the cooking. (N. is behind the camera). Hmmm. At least, I think MLC was helping...

On Saturday evening--late--Bruce and N. left the Bat Mitzvah Party and drove past our home into Edgewood. They said the'd be late because they were taking A. home. Actually, A.'s mom met them at Smith's Grocery and Bruce and N. bought some steaks. They were planning the first outdoor BBQ of the year for Mother's Day.

Looking at the picture above, I do not think I actually NEED steak and potatoes--but, as they say, never, absolutely never, look a gift horse in the mouth!





MLC did do something, though, because this beautiful table was set up on the patio.

I guess I really rate--she put on a tablecloth, the good silverware and crystal.

When MLC's boyfriend arrived, we all sat down to a lovely Mother's Day dinner al fresco.

It was a beautiful evening for it, too! Warm, with clouds moving across the Sandias, and no wind! So we ate steak and potatoes and a choice of Pinot Gregio or Merlot. Apple pie for dessert. I am so glad that it is against my religion to diet...

If I started out the day grumpy, I ended it feeling pretty mellow.

Deja Vu All Over Again! The Friday the 13th Snowstorm

On Friday afternoon, we came home to see N. walking up the hill to the house in the snow.
Yes, really! It is pretty unusual for central New Mexico to get snow this late in April, even in the mountains. He told us that he had build a wickiup in the forest and had studied the insulating properties of snow. Next winter, we'll have to teach him the use of a psychrometer. This time he just used a thermometer.

Bruce and I were at the synagogue Thursday night, and I stayed in town on Friday morning because I had a review session for our last exam in Neurobiology (coming on Monday afternoon) and then class after that. I kept in touch with N. and MLC., who were at home. Apparently, it snowed all day. When I talked to MLC at 4 PM, she was concerned that I would not be able to get Henry, the big red truck, up the hills to our development. Poor Henry! He doesn't have 4WD so slippery hills are tricky!

I talked to my husband (he was at work at Sandia) and we decided to park Henry at the grocery store--we needed a few things--and drive home together in his Focus, which has front wheel drive. So we secured Henry and started off. (I was remember February 13th when I did not heed N.'s warnings about the snow and ended up sliding Henry down the hill backwards to Alta Vista). It was raining miserably in ABQ. Just east of Carnuel, it was snowing. By Tijeras Village it was sticking. Snow was Packed on the sides of the road at Zuzax, where we exit the freeway. Old Route 66 was snow packed when we were half-way up Sedillo Hill. But the snow was so wet, that I think I could have got Henry all the way up Via Sedillo and home. But better safe than sorry!

By the time we arrived home, there was 4 inches of very wet snow in the snow guage! Amazing weather. I mean we expect frost until around Mother's Day--but our last snow is usually on April Fool's day, if we get any in late March and April at all! But this year, we had snow last weekend and this weekend!

BUT...we need to be grateful. Every bit of precipitation is a blessing after the last ten years of drought!

This morning, the snow was heavy on the eaves of the house and there were icicles hanging down, as well. I put the towel for boots and another for the dogs by the front door. The pellet stove was fired up. If not for the spring solar angle, it would have seemed like January all over again!

But this was definitely a spring snowstorm. The snow was very heavy and wet, and the trees

were weighed down to an extraordinary degree. The light was spring light, and by afternoon, it was 58 degrees outside and felt like spring. Water was cascading off the roof and the icicles were gone.

Our morning walk was definitely a wintry feeling walk, and we got a good picture of a snow-bent tree over on Shultz Road.

But this afternoon, when MLC and I had our toes done in Albuquerque, we wore short sleeves and sandles. Go figure.

The Forest Trail

A Happy and Blessed Easter to all of our Christian friends!

This may look a little bit like a winter greeting, but note the green buds amidst the snow. It is spring. Sort of.

N. has been working on Kemana--his wilderness studies--even amid the chaos that overtakes me during the myriad preparations for Pesach.

This weekend, finally, despite looming tests, papers and projects, I have taken some time off to walk the forest trail with N. Bruce has come along, too!

Our house is in a development inside the Cibola National Forest, Sandia District. Certain sections have been sold to developers with very strict guidelines about the type of development--residential rural--in order to provide roads and access at the edge of forest lands. So we are fortunate to have the National Forest a few hundred feet from our door.

This is where N. has been doing the Wilderness Trail part of his Kamana-Nature Awareness work. He goes out almost every day and practices various aspects of nature awareness that are assigned in the course and then he comes home and uses books, the internet, journaling and mapping to research and describe the ecology of the place we live.

To get to his secret spot and to practice his awareness skills, N. uses the "forest trail," an unmapped trail that heads across a mountain meadow south of our house and then into the forest and up the ridge.

Entering the forest trail, is an experience in contrasts. One moment, you are in the meadow and it is light and open. The wind blows strongly down the meadow and across the trail. With a few steps, past an outlying juniper surrounded by grass--which is now really, really green!--you enter the forest, where the trail is bounded by the dense growth of the pinon-juniper woodland ecosystem. It is cooler, darker and more protected from the wind. Here you can hear the alarm calls of western jays--the self-appointed alarm system of the Cibola N.F.--as you move through the woods.

The trail takes you across the southern exposure of the ridge, and into the small canyon made by Sedillo Creek (it is really a wash since it does not have year-round water above ground). As you climb, you enter the ecotone between the pinyon-juniper woodland the Ponderosa Pine forest. The ridge between Sedillo and Juan Tomas is not quite high enough to become full Ponderosa Pine forest, but from the top, you can look across to higher mountain tops that do.

As we walked quietly on the forest trail, we saw trees that had fallen under the weight of winter snow, providing cover for coyote and rabbits. We saw quite a lot of coyote scat and some scat that may have belonged to a bear.

I could feel my hearbeat slow to a steady beat and my body relax. There is something that feels existentially right about walking with the soft earth beneath my feet and the sky above; with the wind blowing softly across my face, bringing the rich scents of the forest and the soft feel of humidity to my skin.

This spring, the forest is so green, and the ground is damp with recent snows and rains, making the smells richer and the air softer.

N. showed us the tracks of a bobcat that had used the trail briefly, before returning to the dense growth of the forest. They are very shy here, where there are so many people so close. It is very rare to actually see the cat.

We circled around a stand of Ponderosa and started back. As we crossed the mountain meadow, we saw a golden eagle take flight from the top of a juniper stand below. He has been hunting the meadow behind our house as well, but I have not had a camera available when he has been close enough to get a picture. I did not get this one either, but now that I know where he hangs out sometimes, I plan to come back, settle down in the shade and get the picture. This picture is from of the New Mexico Department of Tourism.

Now that the snows are off, I can walk the forest trail easily. Oh, I envy N. with his Kamana curriculum. What I am studying right now keeps me indoors--reading, memorizing and writing papers. It is very interesting and I like it, but I have to really work in the time to get outside. N. is outside in the forest almost every day!