LAS CRUCES - By the
time you read this, you could suspect that spring is over and it might, for all
intents and purposes, be summer. Or there could be frost, or even snow, on the
horizon.
Spring in New Mexico is always an adventure, especially if
you’re traveling to another part of the state. Even natives, I’ve found, tend
to forget just how big our state is. We’re number five in land area, after
Alaska, Texas, California and Montana. And since we rank 36th in population,
that wilderness can seem even vaster when you get outside our four most populated
cities, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe.
Throw in our interesting and varied topography, and within
an easy day trip’s drive, you could be experiencing your favorite season
several times.
My first years here, when I lived in northern New Mexico, I
particularly enjoyed autumn aspen encores. I started out in Santa Fe and
discovered I could experience second waves of golden aspens a few weeks later
in Taos.
It almost made up for the snow. My first trips to Santa Fe
were in late summer and early autumn, and I must admit, I didn’t do much
research before I moved one torrid July. Mother nature eased me into my new
home with an unusually mild winter that year, and flabbergasted me the next
when it snowed from October to May.
Decades before climate change became a generally accepted
reality, I realized that life in the Wild West in general, and the Land of
Enchantment in particular, meant that there would be some interesting weather
opportunities, from monsoon seasons in the desert to weather forecasts we just
never heard in the Midwest, like “mostly dusty.”
I’ve come to appreciate the whimsical serendipity of it all,
especially this time of year, when my northern New Mexico aspen encore tours
have been replaced by Southern New Mexico déjà vu spring flings.
Without consciously planning it, I find that I’m lured to
the border, somewhere around Columbus, to see the first fields of orange
poppies and wildflowers. If I can manage another getaway, I can usually find
those pretty little poppies hitting their prime a few weeks later around Silver
City . After spring has sprung in the west, I can head north and east and enjoy
another spring a little later, in easy day trips to Ruidoso, Mayfair and
Cloudcroft.
I also look forward to cactus bloom tours, waiting for
bevies of red, yellow and purple cactus blooms that seem to start in Mesilla (I
suspect all those heat-absorbing, thick adobe walls give them a jump start) and
stretch on up to the East Mesa. Then we progress into the now familiar, but
still spectacular and amazing ocotillo standing ovations, when all those unpromising,
dead-looking gray stalks suddenly sprout bright red flags.
Probably, there are sages in groups like the Native Plant
Society of New Mexico who know exactly when to expect each manifestation of
spring. Some years, even experienced botanists have told me that climate change
and rainfall fluctuations can make it tough to pinpoint just what will come up
where and when.
For me, a lot of the joy of spring is that
uncertainly—finding a bold bloom out of time and space, weeks or even months
early or late.
I think of it more as a symphony than a science. Or maybe it
a theory of spring relativity. When my favorite willows develop tender green
shoots, I know that spring has started and soon my neighborhood streets will be lined with trees
billowing with pink, lavender and white blossoms and it will be prime time for wildflower
tours from Palomas to Santa Fe.
It always works. A few years ago, on a very warm May day, I
was wistful for spring gardens in the City Different. I headed out with Las
Cruces temperatures nearing 80, only to run into snowflakes around Socorro.
There were snowdrifts by the time I pulled into a familiar Santa Fe parking
lot. I walked over to a sheltered spot by an adobe staircase and there they
were: old friends, pansies, poppies, daffodils, columbines and a few very early
cosmos, bulbs and seeds who’d kept the faith and generated brilliant blooms,
crowing (correct) through the snow with justifiable pride.
“Good show, guys. I heard you all the way from Las Cruces,”
I told them.
If you have a favorite spring bloom show, chances are it’s
appearing now or soon within a day trip or two. Don’t miss it.
S. Derrickson Moore may be
reached at 575-5450, dmoore@lcsun-news.com or @derricksonmoore on Twitter.
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