Over a Cuppa: Twenty Seven (River Walks)

Hi, Hey, Hello!

Thank you for joining me this weekend! How the heck are you?

What can I get started for you? I’m brewing up some black tea with milk and honey (of course) but also have coffee, any herbal tea your heart could desire, and some sun tea brewing on the bridge if you’d like something cool.

It’s going to be a bit warm again today (94*F forecasted) and it’s a bit smokey outside from nearby fires, so let’s have a seat at the dining table while we catch up, shall we?

This week offered a bit of respite from our busy summer so far as our daughter had a week off from camp. She goes back next week for the final four weeks before we have August off together.

We enjoyed a significant amount of down time and I did zero reading (but my TBR grew exponentially), but also took a couple of adventures to observe the land around us.

River Beds & Perspectives

New Mexico seems as though it is never not in a drought and this is largely true. That being said, many seasons of not enough moisture have all added up to the extremes we are seeing now. The wind drives the dust and zaps the crops of their (drip irrigated) hydration, the fires swirl and smoke settles, Go Bags are inventoried and re-stocked (just in case) and my head smarts from all the junk in the air.

And yet, we walk forward, still. Ever hopeful, ever humbled, by Nature and her resilience.

Last weekend, in talks with one of our elder neighbors who has lived here his whole life, he mentioned this is only the third time in his life he’s seen our river as dry as it is.

Our river, from which we all pull water for our acequias to irrigate our orchards and larger crops. Our river, that offers up her banks for resting and fishing, walking and observing.

So, my daughter and I took a couple of trips to different spots along the portion of the larger river that runs through our little valley to see what we would see.

Our closest dam…

~Eight miles up river…

Signs of life 🙂

The views offered up good follow up conversations about caring for our resources and being mindful of our neighbors. Things we know, living in the high desert in a tiny agricultural community, but good reminders none-the-less. Especially when the visuals are so striking.

We remain hopeful for monsoons to soothe the weary beds.

And it looks like el Nino might be shaping up to be a doozie this Winter which might bode well for the future snow pack on the mountains that will feed this river valley next year.

We remain hopeful while remembering that life is good, so very good, even when it’s hard.

How are things looking where you live? Are you experiencing the wickedly wild high (or abnormal) temps? Drought? Too much moisture?

Kitty Cuddles

In other news, the week has also offered up quiet chats, good food, and lots of kitty cuddles that I thought worthy of sharing in honor of it being Caturday and all 😉

Cer and Nala are two of our three indoor cats. They are cousins, born just a few weeks apart, and became a bonded pair almost immediately upon meeting. Their love decided for us which two kittens we would keep from their mama’s (only) litters as few summers ago.

Before them, I had never experienced a true bonded pair. It’s quite beautiful to see them with each other and makes my heart wildly happy.

Are you a Cat Person? Have you ever experienced a bonded pair?

Just for Fun

To round out this post, I thought I’d share this silly meme I found on Bluesky recently.

My band name would be Apricot Flare Up 🙂

What would your name be?

That’s All Folx!

Thanks for sharing a cuppa with me! I hope we can do it again soon!

As always, thanks to Natalie for continuing to host us for the #weekendcoffeeshare. She’s asking us to link up in the comments now, so please read, scroll, and pop around to see what others have been up to!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and week ahead!

Please be safe out there with the Independence Day celebrations! We won’t be having fireworks here but the critters, land, and me are OK with that 🙂

Onward,

Melissa