Category: Santa Fe and New Mexico

Monday, October 24, 2005

We’re getting some bright crisp days now – perfect autumnal cold mornings with brilliant blue skies.

First is the street the office is on, and below is a view of the cathedral (just across the road from the office too).

Saturday, October 01, 2005

As you might imagine, it’s been busy like mad round here, so I’m a little behind on the blogging. Today’s special is two for the price of one.

Firstly, we were in Clovis, out there in eastern New Mexico, so close to the Texas line that half the local TV stations are from Amarillo over the border, and half from Roswell and Albuquerque in NM. One piece of added excitement is caused by the fact that Clovis is on Mountain Time, while 8 miles away it’s Central. Which either means you could cunningly manipulate time and TV schedules to do more each day and watch Arrested Development twice every Monday, or you’d always be an hour late for everything.

Clovis is a cow town, and reeks like pooh. Someone had told me that it was just from the cattle cars on the trains, which was unfortunate becuase most of the hotels are lined up along the railroad, but I can confirm that as far up as the IHOP on the north edge of town, you get the fresh smell of the country in your nostrils.

But the town’s got a bit of a main street, a grand old railroad hotel that Buendia was there to look at, and some very affordable property. Fancy a 2-bed house for $35,000?

It’s named for a French king, which is pretty grand, and Clovisians must count themselves lucky they don’t live up the road at Texico (on the TX/NM border, see?), or in the evocatively-named settlement of Bovina.

After a long empty drive, we stayed overnight with young Finn, and all went well, but I won’t be rushing back.

Finally, cooler

Man, it’s been hot this summer. Since May I’ve only been wearing one layer, was often in shorts, and too often struggling to keep cool. When we were up and down to Albuquerque in June, you kind of expect it – Santa Feans always tell you that the Duke City is 10 degrees (F) warmer, so we like to complain about how hot it is down there.

But this year, it’s been roasting up here too. Low 90s sometimes, and high 80s a great deal. All the way to the end of September, which was unheard of.

So we were delighted last week when we had 24 hours of rain (soft day, thank god), and then the thermostat somehow reset itself to the cooler crisp but sunny days of autumn. It still warms up nicely in the afternoon – to the mid-70s, so it’s pleasant to sit outside – but it’s chilly in the mornings and there’s a dusting of snow on top of the peaks.

The aspens are also on the turn up towards the ski basin, so if I can grab a minute I’ll post some pics.