Flowers from the archive

These flowers were growing down the street from our Cambridge house last August, some in beds and others out of cracks in the cement. I though they were pretty remarkable looking but hadn’t put them on the blog yet.

Gonzales Canyon hike

On Friday, Erin and I walked down “Gonzalez Canyon” just north of Camino de Encantado on Barranca Mesa. We wanted to check out an apparent road bed that we had seen from across the canyon.

There are lots of “character trees” around Los Alamos, but this one really caught my eye. It is two independent trunks emerging from the ground, apparently merging, and then splitting again.

Trail on the north side of Gonzales Canyon.

Forts are awesome. I had a great time playing in forts in the woods when I was a kid. I’ve heard rumor that some folks want to prevent kids from building forts in the woods, to keep them pristine. That seems like a terrible idea to me — IMO a great way to build a love of the outdoors in children is to let them do childish things outside.

We weren’t exactly sure what to make of the “road bed”. It seemed too steep to be a road, yet too wide and too enthusiastically cut from the hillside to be just for a pipeline. (I don’t know if there’s anything in this particular trench, but lower down there was a manhole cover with running water inside.)

Looking toward the Sangres from just south of Los Pueblos.

Keep in mind this is the middle of town, folks. I still can’t get over that.

My granny is awesome

Last weekend, I was in Seattle for a conference and had time to visit my granny, who is awesome.

Clockwise from top left: my aunt Zina, uncle Dave, cousin Darby, me, and Granny Lou.

The “beach house”, where I spent lots of happy time during my childhood. When Granny and Papa bought it, it was a tiny cottage, and Papa built it up into a cool house with all kinds of bizarre nooks and crannies.

Puget Sound has very big tides. I spent a lot of time playing in the mud in this inlet (in front of the beach house); a favorite activity was to start building a dam as soon as the tide passed the dam site on the way out, with the hopes of making it large enough to hold back the water when the tide came back in.

Also, after returning from a wedding, I apparently walked straight through the house and began playing in the mud, without taking off my tiny suit.

Another blog, OMG! And this one needs your help

I’m launching (or really re-launching — I took over earlier this month) another blog. This one is called Los Alamos Daily Photo and it’s a collaborative photo diary of Los Alamos related places, people, things, events, and whatever else you can think of. Please send me your photos! (Instructions over at LADP.)

Los Alamos weather forecast confusion

Today's weather forecast. Note particularly "chance of precipitation" for today and tomorrow versus the "Regional Forecast". There is also a Winter Weather Advisory that I have not shown.

This dissonance happens all the time.

Hell’s Hole chicken adventure

One of the most fun things to do during my high school years was to order some pizza, wrap it in a towel, and take it down Hell’s Hole (a rubble heap / lava tube cave in White Rock Canyon) to eat. Ben, I, and several of his friends set out yesterday to do this.

One complication: The pizza joint in White Rock did not open until an hour after the designated meeting time. So, Ben got a rotisserie chicken instead, which he presents proudly in the photo above.  

Hell’s Hole is filled with remarkably sophisticated and classy graffiti. The colored tape is a technique I’m not familiar with.

One of our band emerging into the big room with a chicken.

Laying out the chicken and other lunch items. It was a pretty good lunch, but not quite as good as cave pizza.

Camino Encantado loop

 Yesterday, Erin and I walked a loop off Barranca Mesa and along Bayo Canyon, circumnavigating Camino Encantado. Much of this is along old roads, which is kind of cool. I checked a book on the topic out of the library and am looking forward to reading it.

In the homestead era, this road along a bench in Bayo Canyon was one of the principal routes up to the Pajarito Plateau. I suspect it looked much as it does now. There is a rather impressive drop a few feet to the right.

This is where one of the town’s sewer lines dives off the mesa.

Ashley Pond renovations?

Photo by 77krc@Flickr / CC-BY-NC-ND

Los Alamos has a little lake in the center of town, Ashley Pond. Its namesake is a fellow named Ashley Pond. Pun intended.

At the moment and for much as long as I can remember, Ashley Pond is a pretty lame pond. It’s basically a large concrete bathtub with ducks — no natural shoreline, water plants (aside from algae slime), or beaches of any kind. Depressing 1950’s suburbia to the max.

Anyway, there is a county project in the works to do some rebuilding. I hope this goes forward and the pond becomes more like a pond and less like a bathtub. As always, they’re taking comments; send yours to anne.laurent@lacnm.us. Be sure to mention robots.