miles to go

We awaken this morning to our neighbors' four horses on our land. Three are well known to us as they are often here and spent the winter. But today there was a new guy.

He's leaning against one of Ron's sculptures (and who knows what else he's doing). He is slightly smaller than the others and his colors of grey, brown, and black look like they were randomly painted on by some artist god with a sense of play. For awhile this morning he was relentlessly chased back and forth across four acres by the other horses. I ran outside in my PJs with my camera (it was 39 degrees). Horses are beautiful in motion  - and so big and scary. But up on my deck with an adobe wall and a flimsy fence between us (they don't seem to notice that they could break through with one good push) I feel safe and privileged to be so near to them - to be able to observe from my kitchen table over tea! After madly running around for several minutes, with loud galloping noises, they suddenly all stopped dead at the same moment and started quietly grazing together. What I know about horses is minimal, but I guess this is all about teaching the new kid in the pasture who the bosses are. Horses do make a landscape more beautiful, as Alice Walker so famously said. I'm glad they're back. They add tranquility to the scene (when they're not galloping wildly).

lusty or dusty?
The words to the song from Camelot, it's May, it's May, the lusty month of May have been circulating through my mind for the last couple of days. So today it's finally May and anything but lusty.

Snow threatens and our surroundings are still pretty much monochromatic - except for greening fields. The wild plum blossoms at the edge of Pueblo land, which usually make a magical fuzzy white display with intoxicating fruity scents, were zapped by the last bout of freezing rain and snow and are now a dark shade of brown - the operative color for frozen blossoms in the mountains in April and May. Our apricot tree hasn't bloomed yet so we still have hope (but no expectations). Possibly it will dodge the freezing bullet this year.


I'm off to a friend's book signing soon and thinking about the family back east who are getting together at my brother's house to introduce him and his wife to the new baby and his father. Lots of text messages flew back and forth and I'm looking forward to cellphone pictures later today. Wish I were there. But I made my plane reservations at midnight last night, so can relax until the time comes again when I can be with them.

plum blossoms turned brown
float by on the spring rivers
       out of sight again