cheerfulmonk.com

The U.S. is experiencing a number of extreme and varied weather events at once, from the prolonged heat wave scorching the Northeast to the deadly wildfires blazing in New Mexico to the tropical storm drenching Texas’ Gulf Coast.
….
As the eastern part of the country was sweating through record high temperatures, a snowy system sent temperatures plunging in the northern Rockies.

Parts of Montana and Idaho were under a winter storm warning earlier this week, and nearly one million residents of the West were either under a winter weather or frost advisory on Monday morning.
—-Heat and snowfall, rain and wildfires. It’s a week of extreme weather in the U.S.

We’ve been lucky so far. We were under a flash flood watch last night but just had a pleasant rain.

Fingers crossed for us all!

June 21, 2024

I spent a lot of time yesterday reading about ANSI standards for safety sunglasses for Andy. In 2015, after he bumped his head on a fallen tree while hiking, we started buying him pith helmets to replace his floppy sun hat.

It didn’t always work. About seven years ago he took it off because it was cloudy and he bumped his head on a fallen tree while watching his feet as he walked. See Bless Email and the Garmin for more details. Danger lurks in all directions up there.

Anyway, after this latest incident I facetiously suggested we buy him a catcher’s mask, but we decided to look into the safety sunglasses instead. I’ve ordered one pair that gives a 7-day free trial so at least we’re getting started. I will let you know how that goes.

June 20, 2024

Even though Andy managed to cross the bridge fine both ways, he had a fall after the second crossing. The trail was rough and as he was walking he was looking ahead to see where to go next. He tripped and fell face forward on a downhill slope. He got banged up a bit, especially on the face, but he’s already healing fine. One of the wounds was just under his right eye (the good one, he says) and it’s scary to think what might have happened if the eye itself had been damaged.

Lesson learned? No, he says relearned. He says he already knew if he’s going to look at anything but where to put his feet on a walk, he needs to stop. No multitasking!

We’re just so glad that no permanent damage was done.

June 19, 2024

Beate, Tim and Andy took a nice walk in the Valle yesterday morning.

Andy did a lot better than I would have crossing that stream.

There are a lot more pictures in this Flickr album.

June 18, 2024

Beate took these pictures of the New Mexico locusts as she was trying to rid her property of them.

They are impressive plants with beautiful flowers, but they are miserable to walk through. One of Kaitlin’s and my first memories of the land was walking up to look at it before we bought it. We joked that no matter which way we went we had to walk through those dratted pricker bushes.

When Andy drove down to the orchard yesterday he had to stop to clear some of them off the road.

They were even blocking the gate.

As I’ve said, they do love it up there.

June 17, 2024

Robinia neomexicana/ New Mexico locust. New Mexico Magazine, Photograph by George Miller

Picture taken on Sandia Crest above Albuquerque.

So why do some plants look so green in yesterday’s post? A lot of them are New Mexico locusts, and they like the climate up there. They also were some of the first plants to come up after the 2022 fire. They pretty much took over.

Why did the plum tree die? Probably because we bought it too early and it didn’t survive a cold spell. We tried to buy another one from our usual sources for fruit trees but they were all sold out. (That’s why we bought it early.) Anyway, I kept searching on the web, and Etsy, of all places, had some.

Instead of a bare root tree a few feet tall, it came in this 9-10-inch-long box, bent in two with soil around the roots.

Andy planted it, and so far so good. He took this picture yesterday.

Here it is zoomed so you can see the new leaves.

Fingers crossed.

June 16, 2024

Do you remember when Andy planted the new plum tree:

And that when he fell backwards these bushes broke his fall?

Well this is what those bushes looked like on May 29:

They are clearly thriving. In fact, most of the plants up there are thriving too.

The one exception was the plum tree. It died.

I’ll write tomorrow about what we did next.

June 15, 2024

How should you measure your days? It’s easy to measure your days in dollars earned or tasks completed, but there are other units of measurement to consider:

What would you do today if you wanted to maximize laughter?
What would you do today if you wanted to maximize time outside?
What would you do today if you wanted to maximize peace of mind?

What unit of measurement serves you best right now?
—James Clear

Hmm. I read the above yesterday morning, and it seemed worth pondering. The term “maximize” sounds too intense and energetic. This time of year I mainly focus on keeping my spirits up in spite of the heat. The high was 93° yesterday and it was still about 80° at 10 last night. I managed to take it easy, keep engaged, and find something to laugh about.

gocomics.com/wizardofid

It was a good day. What about you?

June 14, 2024

an archery class I once took.

gocomics.com/wizardofid

Let’s just say I’m grateful that my life never had to depend on my athletic skills.

June 13, 2024

Tom told me about this artist.

Fallen leaves become the material for intricate carvings in the art of Lito. The self-taught Japanese artist picked up this art form in 2020 as a way to help manage his ADHD. He found that the act of transforming delicate fallen leaves into unexpected designs helped hone his concentration.
—Tom the BackroadsTraveler

lito_leafart

lito_leafart

lito_leafart

lito_leafart

lito_leafart

How awesome is that?

June 12, 2024