Musings - winter in the desert

John and I recently returned from a trip to my mother's house in the mountains of southern New Mexico and I realized along the drive that I still love my desert the best.  My mom's place is nice as it lies among the pinyon pine/juniper ecological zone with better summer temperatures and minimal snowfall.  But it is quiet.  I mean REALLY quiet.  Where we live in the rural Sonoran Desert, there is just a little sound of humanity, planes, distant trains, and the occasional barking dog or passing vehicle.  But there is bird song, lots and lots of bird songs.  It is not really quite here.  But my mom's place has no sound but the occasional sonic boom from nearby Holloman AFB and a rare vehicle or chainsaw.  It is eerie, hardly ever any animal sounds.  I have thought about moving to her general vicinity, but the cons still outweigh the pros.  Among them are jobs, though I haven't found one in my field of landscape architecture yet, and the fact I own property here that I love.  Part of the draw to stay is the proximity to a medium sized metropolitan area (Tucson), John's ample family, and the fact the desert stays green in the winter time.

Back to my trip home from mom's.  We start in the mountains; go uphill to see the aspens and firs before heading back down to Alamogordo.  This is the nearest town of decent size to my mom's and while I enjoy its small town charms and historic district, it is barren.  There are hardly any trees and many shades of brown.  So onwards we go, through the White Sands of NM to Las Cruces.  This town is closer to the size of Tucson with more trees and the Rio Grande 'flowing' through it.  But it is still many shades of brown.  Further down the road is a repetitive scene of creosote and yucca Chihuahua Desert.  I happen to love these scenes; I am one of those who enjoy geology, ecology, and I still love to look out of the windows in airplanes – but when we finally enter the Tucson area where the Chihuahua Desert transitions to the Sonoran, I light up.  I love the similar geography as found in southern New Mexico (basin and range) but there are trees; trees that stay green in the winter time.  And there is one of the greatest diversity of plants and animals found in the world.  When we arrive at our place, we are greeted with birdsong and running rabbits.  In the winter here, palo verde trees stay green due to their photosynthesizing trunks and colors range from pale greens to reds in the vast variety of plants from various chollas, shrubs like creosote and triangle leaf bursage, columnar cacti like the famous saguaro and the less famous barrel cactus, and six species of trees.  There are dozens of bird species that stay here, as well as cottontails, jack rabbits, antelope squirrel, pack rats and kangaroo rats, many lizards and a few snakes, the occasional coyotes, bobcats, and rarely a deer.  This place feels ALIVE and I am home.

                                         Mom's place

                                         Aspens at Karr Canyon

                                         Historic downtown of Alamogordo

                                         Overlooking White Sands, NM

                                         Home looking west