Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Report

Starting with mineral--the snow at the Santa Fe Ski Area is just about gone. When I drive down Cerrillos in the morning I can see the mountains which are snow-capped from some time in the fall (late October or so) to some time in the spring. There is just a tad still there--must be on the shady side of the mountain....

A bear was sighted on the college campus a couple of weeks ago--apparently forced to forage further down in the valley due to a long winter and late spring. Caused quite a stir!

Prairie dogs are available for viewing all over the college campus. NYC-based playwright Israel Horovitz, who comes to us each June to direct an early staged reading of a new play, has described them as "rats with cuter outfits." Lots of groups in Santa Fe protesting inhumane prairie dog treatment. There are women who feed them, and any contractor who builds in a prairie-dog-inhabited area has to plan for "relocation". A prairie dog even has a feature role in the new Indiana Jones movie! Try to imagine this happening in other cities with other varieties of rodents!

Wonderful local meat, cheese, and vegetables available at the Santa Fe Farmers' Market yesterday. Bought some grain-fed beef and pork sausage from Casa Verde Graziers, goat cheese with raspberry from South Maintain Dairy in Edgewood ("it's all about the girls") which the producer told me was "best eaten right out of the dish with a spoon--when you've 'had a day'", mixed salad greens and baby spinach, and some Taos tomatoes. Click here and here to read my previous posts on the Farmer's Market--it really is an out-of-body experience!

Planted some salvia in my garden earlier this week and it hasn't died yet. Happy summer!!