spring

Little disappointed that it froze after my birthday; I'd never seen that. Not sure if it killed my pepper plants. Of course, I'm not sure peppers or anything will grow up here, but I do know that some people have greenhouses and that seems to work ok, at least for starting them out. I may be looking into greenhouse science very shortly.

And, there is still a little snow in places. You see it when you're driving around, and, up against mountains that shield things from the sun, there isn't enough sun to melt it, apparently. If you're up against that ridge, forget it, you don't get a whole lot of sun in winter. Which brings up an issue: it's entirely possible for two different houses, on the same road, to have completely different climates, one with lots more sun than the other, and therefore, much warmer. Not sure where we fall in this spectrum; we get some sun, sometimes. We're high on a ridge, so we can at least see the sun a lot.

We're coming up to a year here in Cloudcroft. I still feel like I know next to nothing. I know a lot of people, though. I'm sure I'll find out soon enough!

OK, it's been a while since I've posted. We have been here a while, now, and have a different view. We still love the place. It's cool, clouds come over us regularly, and it snows unpredictably and often. We like all that. Like small-towners, we delight in the possibility of a new restaurant (in this case, Dusty Boots Cafe), and hope it maintains good food and great service, which is a hard thing to do. We try to limit our trips down the hill and stay up here as much as possible. We are big fans of every evening's sunset over the white sands, and every morning's sunrise. In general we're happy.

We're leery of the water - we already know too much. We're also protective of the rain, knowing that down the hill, with their phenomenal growth, they need every drop. We're curious about the steady stream of store-owners buying in, or leaving, our little downtown. We're curious about how the town runs and how to become a more integral part of it. For the moment I'm working down the hill at Alamo High School. But I've got my eyes on finding ways of staying up here.

More soon. Pictures coming!