Silver City, New Mexico

Spring is here and people are beginning to flock in with some sunny reward. I felt sorry for the folks who came last week, looking at the snowy scene in the huge windows of the Visitor Center and lamenting that this is what they were trying to get away from.

Well, it is true. We have had some very wintry weather around here this past week. People who come from the neck of the U.S. I came from, though, used to have gray skies quite literally nine months of the year. If they want to experience the unusual, they should move here. At least for a while, they will have changeable weather; sometimes it is not so changeable. When that happens, it is usually called sunny.

Day after day of sun!

What a bore.

Silver City, NM

Silver City is experiencing all kinds of weather today. I am sitting in the Visitor Center listening to a conversation between the person on duty today and a visitor - and learning more about the fun stuff that can be seen around the area - ghost towns, among them. A mining area is bound to have a bunch of those.

Even our Boston Open is a warren of open mine pits that make a hiker want to stay on the trail. It is a visually fascinating place. I still see occasional groups of people scrounging around on the ground for ... something. The only specific mineral I have heard folks looking for is a low-quality amethyst.

But then, New Mexico is a rock hound’s heaven.

Silver City, NM

A wonderful outdoor clothing etc. store had a great 30% off sale today. This is high quality stuff for sale. We may not have an all-purpose shoe store roof great brands, but then most residents of Silver City are more for hiking than ballroom dancing, I believe.

Then again, I missed the Territorial Ball. It slipped by me before I even had a chance to lurk by the door and see what costumes people were wearing, including the shoes in which they planned to dance the night away.

The owner, who was proudly announcing he had been in business for 31 years, told me about a new favorite sports brand which everybody loves called Altra. Many people who are coming into the store from the continental divide trail are wearing them, he reports. My oldish sports shoes are beginning to wear out, so I decided to plan ahead.

I may not need them yet, but before too long I will. 

Long live the inner Girl Scout!

Silver City, NM

The weather is doing strange stuff in the U.S. these days. Today is a little warmer here in the forties, while Madison, Indiana where I used to live is enjoying temperatures in the seventies! A sunny February in Indiana!

Well, that is okay. It is sunny here today, too.

When the sun comes out the birds exhibit their feelings about what season it is. There is much more birdsong in the air than there was last month, but I believe they have had a rough time this February.

Very few visitors to the Museum this morning. Come on, folks! The exhibits are waiting to be seen!

Silver City, NM

Well, the big early-morning snowstorm was a bust, but there is still hope for this afternoon. I wonder if perverse weather - especially with relation to the forecast - makes people more perverse.

I had an oboe teacher who said if a reed you are trying to make splits or turns out badly, blame it on the weather. What a lovely idea! I am going to blame my bombing Wordless and Quordle today on the weather - not because it is “bad” but because it is so unexpectedly not bad. I was in a perverse mood which I absolutely blame on the weather.

Of course, that was earlier this morning. Now it is raining, which will be bad when it freezes, but that will happen later. Maybe.

Silver City, NM

More inclement weather on the way to Silver City tomorrow, so here I sit in the Visitor Center doing laundry a day ahead for the second week in a row. Luckily the Visitor Center is right across the parking lot from Laundryland.

Parking for the Visitor Center is also free parking for your car while you walk to th Art Guild gallery (about one block), art galleries galore, and the Silver City Museum which is really a regional one and is about a quarter mile away.

Best of all possible small town worlds!

Just thinking about the nearby restaurants makes me hungry. 

Silver City, NM

So glad I am inside to do the WiFi thing! I could have gotten online from the outside, but I do not exactly call 55 degrees Fahrenheit basking weather. When I walked outside this morning after an overnight rain it actually felt like Spring.

It is spring for Diane’s Bakery, which has reopened. I have heard that her son is taking over her successful and popular business. So happy for that! I have missed the yummy smell of baked goods I used to get passing by. Far from being a frustration, the scent is a pleasure. I have yet to check it out, but they are closed Sundays and Mondays, so today is a no-go, even if it were not a national holiday.

Beware, though. Another thing in the back of the building is the site of their trash cans, so the walk-by that is usually heavenly is sometimes... less so.

Silver City, New Mexico

I finally got to the Geisler Gallery yesterday. Currently the gallery, which is on Kelly Street off Bullard, is displaying art that has been donated to benefit the local radio station.  There is a variety of work available, but Paula, the owner, also has art on display that is work of her own. Currently she is etching some of those heavy glass blocks that transmit light while ensuring privacy. She has some paintings on display also, which I liked quite a bit but did not price. On my new draconian budget I cannot spend much of anything.

Silver City, NM

After a cloudy morning the sun is out again. Thank goodness! February was beginning to feel like February in the Midwest, which has lately enjoyed weather strongly suspicious of the month of May. Walking into the Visitors Center today I looked for a Territorial Ball poster, only to be told that the event happened last Saturday, the same day as the Chocolate Fantasia! Dang! Why does everything happen at the same time?

Not that it matters much anyway. I am trying mightily to return to the spending habits of my extreme youth, during which fund-raising events and art objects were not in the budget. Since I have tried to spend less I have discovered that yes, I can. But the month of February is not making it much fun, Valentines Day notwithstanding.

I have heard that pickleball is available to seniors in town, so after my usual gym workout I searched out its location in the same building. People were enjoying it, I guess, but not enough to make me envious.

Silver City has it, though! What else could anyone want on a wintry day?

Well, sure, skiing and ice skating, but the climate here just does not support those winter sports.

Thank heaven! Ice skating on a lake is the most fun, but having ice all around is tricky for a person with aging bones. There used to be some country ice-skating near Las Vegas, New Mexico, but if that is still available I do not know.

Silver City, NM

Hi, folks! I wanted to write yesterday but a snowstorm hit and my homes away from home, the library and the visitors center, were closed. That is kind of comical to me because where I come from in Northern Indiana yesterday would have just been kind of your average winter day.

At any rate, the southwestern sun has been doing its thing and drying up snow on ice and sunny pavement. A friend of mine was laughing about southwesterners whom she said were saying they had never had to deal with such weather before. She was calling them wild west wusses.

I heartily agreed until it occurred to me I could have stood outside one of my WiFi access buildings and written in the twenty-some degree weather and did I?

No. I guess I will have to be counted among the Wild West wusses!

Silver City, New Mexico

I am not feeling deprived, depressed, or dumpy anyway, but I have to say one of the best gifts of the day has been the sun!

Unexpected brightness - unexpected sun. What glory. I decided the best way to spend my Valentines Day was to do laundry. After all, this very cold morning I swept snow off the steps and put a little salt on the ice. Tomorrow morning, my usual laundry time, it is supposed to be cold again, and it is supposed to snow all night.

Today the sun dried up steps and pavement and brought the temperature up a little, so it was the perfect time to do the week’s wash.

Tomorrow I will luxuriously rise and loll around like a sated lover. Heehee.

Happy Valentines Day!    Hearts and flowers to you.

Silver City, New Mexico

Yesterday the Chocolate celebration was held a block away from where I live. I had intended to go, but it turned out that to fully participate you had to buy a ticket and they ere sold out five days before the event. WhenI dropped in to see the sights in the middle of the afternoon there was quite a bit of chocolate left, so maybe they could safely have sold more tickets.

Of the costume contest I saw not a sign: I do not know if it was scheduled for early or late. I did walk by the offerings and they looked yummy. It looked as if a ticket buyer could make quite a haul if he had family at home - better than Halloween!

Of course, I was clueless as to the rules of the deal.

I stopped by the Artists Guild and they were giving away chances to win a piece of art at no charge, so my story may not be over yet! That had lots of tickets from those looking for a freebie, though, so I am going to forget about that.

I went home and had some high-quality chocolate I had on hand. No truffles, but I’m not complaining. It was excellent.

Silver City, New Mexico

In the past two days I have seen three new sculptures made out of metal within 10 minutes walk of my home. One was a beautiful winged horse that seems like a wind sculpture.

Another is an attraction-getter for a gallery.

The third looks just like an ornamental sculpture of some kind, maybe meant to be observed from the second floor of the building it is mounted on. I see two bird-like feet, but cannot make head nor tail of the rest of it - yet. Another mystery.

Silver City, New Mexico

Rumors abound in Silver City. The latest I have heard is that a local ice cream shop will sell you Eastern Indian food if you ask for it. I have not tested the truth of this rumor yet, but I would not be surprised. That is just the kind of random creativity that happens here, and I cannot get enough of it.

Silver City, New Mexico

This morning snow on the ground startled me. It was not much and most of it was gone by noon except on the north side of buildings. I had to do laundry early this morning, somI swept off the wooden stairs which still had a stippling of ice after I swept them. Second surprise of the day: that ice was spiky and not slick at all! It was more like the kind of rough surface someone would put down to provide safer traction.

I was a little worried about residents who might encounter more slippery melting ice later, but by the time I returned two hours later the steps were dry and I did not encounter evidence of casualties.

The temperatures have been down into the twenties these nights but I saw a couple of box elder bugs hanging around quite early this morning. I heard no songbirds rehearsing or romancing, though. Maybe later today.

Silver City, New Mexico 

This afternoon we had a little dry snow, and maybe we will get a little more, but I will be watering my three plants tomorrow. Maybe they will survive the winter.

I just read today that if the government considers the pandemic to be over the vaccines will no longer be free, among other loss of Medicaid for situations it is now covering.

The poverty level for single U.S. citizens is $13,590 per year, I read today. How people are supposed to be living on that I am not sure. I am sure, though, that it is more possible here than in most of the rest of the country.

Viva Silver City!

Silver City, New Mexico

The Silver City, New Mexico, library either has upgraded its WiFi service or relaxed what we need to do to get online now. It was not all that before, but now I feel much more welcome here. Crazy, but there you are.

The weekend was just glorious - the best weather for months. Not only did I see the random dandelion over the winter, but today I saw a whole hedge of Spanish broom blooming its bright yellow.

The WNMU gym has brand new equipment to start the new year and at least one new modest-sized mural, the third I have seen on the same wall of concrete since I moved to Silver City. What is the deal there, I wonder? Maybe they are murals without sanctions and/or sponsorship. It is a good one, though, with a wonderful Martin Luther King message I had not heard before.

Silver City, New Mexico

Virus Theater (local) is presenting Romeo and Juliet today at two o’clock this afternoon and someone just offered me tickets. What to do? I have seen it so many times....

Yes! Silver City has a local amateur theater group!

Silver City, New Mexico 

Today I took a hike on the Boston Open. It is sunny and supposed to go up into the sixties today.

Spring is here, and the birds know it! I am told the scrub jays have babies already, and I have noticed that the thrashers have started their multitudinal matitudinal songs. Other songbirds are singing with a new passion and tenderness.

Lovely!

Silver City, New Mexico 

The Silver City Museum is open for visitors! Come one, come all! (Smile) Although it is called a city museum it is really a regional one.

Among its other attractions it has a cupola on top which offers views of the town in all directions, although the Boston Hill Open behind the Courthouse is pretty much what you see to the west.

The Boston Hill Open is a big wildish area pocked by mines that houses all manner of wildlife which you most probably will not see unless you are there early in the morning.

Enjoy the Open and the Museum both! There is time for both.

Silver City, New Mexico

I am quite excited today because I finally got to see the third floor of the Conway house, the historic house I live in, which was built in 1881. It is awesome. It has three small bedrooms but the main room is large, high-ceilinged, and spacious. The kitchen and the bathroom are  especially enviable for someone living in a studio apartment. The rental also boasts a deck on the same level as the apartment.

It has great views because the house is on a hill to begin with, and it is the top floor of three high-ceilinged floors, and unlike any other apartment in the house, has windows in three directions.

If you suffer from claustrophobia consider affordable housing in an old building. Height does make a difference.