writing life

Life in Ranchos

Ranchos de Taos scene

Pavement covered by dried mud & gravel washed down by storm two days ago

They fixed the blinking red light in Ranchos. Good call. Yesterday traffic was backed up to the light at the top of the hill. It’s funny how people don’t seem to know what to do when that happens. I’ve noticed that turning right on red has fallen by the wayside, too. Lost knowledge from the [...]

Terrible and Fine

dead vole in sagebrush

You wouldn’t believe how many photos I took

A JHF classic! Originally published 12/8/2003. Maybe I should have been afraid, but I just wasn’t. The fact is, most mornings when I walk out to the road to get the paper, I do a special thing. Taking in the 80-mile view is one way to go to church, I guess, and the little ritual [...]

Almost Spring

March Taos Mountain photo

Barely cranked telephoto image from Pentax K-x DSLR

This is the view from my desk. If you hunt for Taos Mountain on this site via Search or Tags, you’ll find a zillion similar shots, but I don’t care. There’s an acequia (traditional seasonal irrigation ditch from Moorish Spain that looks just like a stream) at the bottom of the hill. That huge aspen [...]

Kill the Holidays

old adobe scene in Taos

Live the dream, they said. We’ll take up Christmas at another time!

I don’t remember exactly when my mother announced she wasn’t “doing” Christmas or Thanksgiving any more. Probably around the time I went off to my first year of college up in Dallas after we’d all moved to Houston. I do recall her saying that nobody cared. That wasn’t true, because we loved to eat, and [...]

Burning Juan

Burning Juan post image

There’s too much going on and moving much too fast. I’ve written this post at least six times. Each version was completely different and obsolete by dawn.

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