Lately I’ve been particularly aware of the mornings, just after sunrise. Perhaps its because the days have been so hot and our mornings are always cool, especially when we’ve had rain the night before.

Amazing what this high desert can do with a little water. The grasses are lush, the wild flowers proliferating. And the afternoons are consistently cooled by rumbling storms and rainclouds.

I promised to share photos of the yak today. There was a bull, two cows and two babies in this small herd. There was something incredible about seeing them out in the wild like this.

Jerry and Camilla Lopez raise buffalo and yak here in Truchas. They do this simply for the joy of it and because they look so great on the land. My friend, LaShanda Epp, is part of the Lopez family and she took Kim and me out to visit the animals the other day.

For whatever reason, several of the horses that are usually pastured alongside my road had been taken away, leaving only one gray stallion alone in the field. There had to be good reason for this because my neighbor, Wally, is very kind to his horses.

Of course Bill and Margaret Franke have been back in Truchas for some time now, after a winter away. And their beautiful Hand Artes Gallery is shimmering with new work and energy for this new season.

As most of you know we’ve been getting a lot of rain storms here in the mountains of Northern New Mexico lately. We need the rain so they are always a blessing. Often, I drop whatever I am doing to watch the storms approach.