It is an astonishingly beautiful day today in northern New Mexico,especially right here in Llano Quemado, on the south side of Taos.

Fall has arrived: the cottonwoods are starting to turn yellow, and the chamisa is blooming. There’s a stiff wind out of the east, creating strong updrafts along the edge of the mesa, where flocks of ravens and magpies wheel around and around, drifting up and down the ridgeline. It’s like they’re competing to show who can glide better, though I have to say the ravens do a better job, playing follow-the-leader between the tops of the tallest trees. The magpies are distracted by pine nuts and juniper berries, frequently dropping out of the air to have another bite. Later there will be aromatic bird poop on the hood of my truck…

The stuff is everywhere

That’s chamisa, above, also known as “rabbit brush.” The flowers rise chest-high from tough bushes in amongst the sagebrush, heavy with nectar and pollen. The other day I saw a honeybee struggling to lift off, legs loaded with yellow dust. It slowly rose straight up and out of sight. I could see the pollen it was carrying from 15 feet away. I can also feel it in my sinuses, but this will pass.

Outrageous beauty all around. Golden yellow swaths of turning aspens decorate the mountain slopes. Jesus, I HAVE to get up off my ass and hike before the snow closes off the high country trails. None has fallen yet, but it’s just a matter of time. I can look out my window and see Mt. Wheeler (13,151 feet), rocky and bare in the sunshine. In another couple of weeks, it could be white up there, but for now we’re enjoying temperatures about 10 degrees above normal.

I feel ready for work, but first, my 12-string or the bouzouki. It’s just that kind of Saturday.