Foxy Blues get Desert Exposure

This is what I saw at 6 am one morning last week when I took Nutmeg out the back door. This gray fox was standing on a wall right on the edge of our patio. This one, followed by a second fox, slipped along the wall and then down over the edge of the hillside. What a treat! One I didn’t think would be repeated. But later that morning, I was in the kitchen looking at the same wall from the windows. And there was this fox again

I had noticed that Nutmeg was spending a lot of time along that edge of the hill and along the wall sniffing every sorry brown blade of grass. Now I thought I understood why. But, boy, I didn’t know the whole of it yet.

Since there were two, I thought perhaps they were a pair and that they might be denning somewhere nearby, explaining their brazen daytime crossings. The next morning, Nutmeg and I rounded down onto the road for her morning walk and I looked over at the rocky hill that supports our house. There was a perfect doorway in the rocks and I’m sure I saw movement. I hustled down to my neighbor who shares with me a love of birds and critters. She pulled on shoes and came back up the street to sit with me and Nutmeg on the edge of the road watching for more signs of life around the doorway. Either I was imagining things or an adult had just slipped inside and nothing more for the moment. Carlene and I set a date for 6:30 the next morning thinking the family would be active early, just as the adults alone tend to be.

That evening, I went down around 8. This time, there were 4 kits playing around the doorway and on the surrounding rocks. Chasing. Jumping. Climbing. Exploring. I watched until it was too dark to watch. Later I spent an hour dusting off my tripod, and getting out my old, film-based SLR camera and mounting the longest lenses. Next morning at 6:20 am I trooped out weighted down with tripod-mounted camera over one shoulder, digital camera over the other shoulder, binocs hanging around my neck and a cup of hot coffee in my hand. Got out there on the edge of the road and set up the tripod, focused the camera and settled down to wait for my neighbor and for babies. Carlene showed up, but no babies. We sat and whispered for almost ½ hour until I had to go to work. We agreed to meet again that night at dusk, about 7:30 pm.

Later that morning, I took a break from the desk to go to the kitchen, glanced out the window and RIGHT THERE in the juniper trees were those 4 babies racing and chasing up and down the branches and around the clumps of bear grass below. Mama was standing on the edge watching. And keeping an eye on the road over yonder and on the walkway around the house. I grabbed my camera and starting shooting. Those windows are a poor excuse for any visibility, clouded as they are between the panes of glass, but who cares! I got what I could, as you’ll see on flikr. The kits were mostly in the shade so they looked more like silhouettes, but still.

When we met that evening, no babies. Next morning at 6:30, no babies. Mid-day, again, there was mama and 2 kits in the same junipers by the kitchen. Don’t know where the other 2 were. And then they were gone. Just gone! I’m going to bet that since they were moving so readily beyond the confines of the den and doorway, they were ready to really explore the world and start their practicum on hunting and watching out for dogs, coyotes and cars. So mama took ‘em to the school of life.

Silver City’s 2011 Memorial Day Blues Festival

The Blues Festival was wonderful again this year. Went to the opening dance at the Buffalo Dance Hall with a group calling themselves the Coolers from Tucson – a 9 piece band with 4countem4 saxaphones! And 2 of those are women who also do vocals. They specialize in old school blues, r&b, and funk. A great evening and great way to kick off the festival. The musicians over the rest of the weekend didn’t disappoint and we spent more time on Saturday and Sunday than in previous years.

I volunteered on Saturday morning helping vendors get registered, and then volunteered again on Sunday afternoon on a trash-tour. Meaning, I walked around the park picking up trash. There were 2 or 3 volunteers at a time on 2 hour tours doing this throughout the weekend. That prevented a lot of loose garbage on Monday to be chased down by the Town sanitation guys. And one of the vendors, a purveyor of coffee, iced coffee and iced tea treated me to a big glass of iced tea to ease the heat on Sunday afternoon. Only, now I don’t know what I’ll do with the brown-mustard-colored t-shirt that has VOLUNTEER across the back. A painting shirt?

Desert Exposure

A monthly newspaper-newsmagazine here in Silver City. Progressive and, like NPR, takes time to tell the whole story. Great rag. One of the journalists wrote a story on our new house. Harry knew Nick from covering the Office of Sustainability last year and knew that we are building green. So he asked to do a good cover on the house, the design, Build Green New Mexico and the builder and architect. We were thrilled, more because of the educational opportunity than anything. Here it is. Except that I think the Sustainability Czar tag goes a little far. Harry swore that wasn’t his doing. Must have been the editor that likes clichés. Oh well. Just call me Czresta!