Seasons Last Pomegranate

             Last Scarlet beauty of the season.  My mother used to make a relish at Thanksgiving time that had these pomegranate seeds, honey and chopped walnuts.  I LOVE it.  They are so good for you!

Alamogordo Public Library

     We have been trying desperately for YEARS to raise funds for a new library.  Alas, to no avail.  No one seems to want to support it.  I guess reading is not popular.  It is so sad.  I LOVE the library.  I remember getting to go on Saturdays and check out 6 books each week.  I still love to read and I still frequent the library.  This wall is tiles that a third grade class made back in the 1960's depecting favorite scenes from books they had read.  Many of the small artists are still local and are now, well, not third graders any longer.

I adore this wall and wonder how many of current grade school children would know these stories?

        

Labyrinth

     I have to confess...I have a thing for labyrinths!  I have one I built in the yard and this one is at the Alamogordo Hospice and home care building on Indian Wells.  It is public and you are free to enjoy it walking or sitting. 

Besides the beauty and history, the meditative time while walking a labyrinth is quite relaxing.  They are actually a great thing here, no maintenence, and we have lots of flat ground!

There are several around here, I will get photos.  There is also a cool website that you might want to check out:   http://labyrinthlocator.com/home   You can find labyrinths in your local area that are both public and private as well as ones where you might be visiting.

Alamogordo Autumn

I had to include some more photos of autumnal color!

The Cottonwoods are living up to their glory!

We are so blessed to live where we can enjoy the seasons!

Rollarena

                     The main entertainment of several generations here....the roller rink....!  It has looked pretty much the same for many decades.  There used to be pastel colored blocks behind each letter, pink green etc.   They repainted and added the red white and blue, but other than that, not much changes.  I remember going and every night was the same agenda.  Limbo, Snowball and the Last Skate of the night...Always to the same song.  "It's the last song I'll ever write for you, the last time that I'll tell you how much I really care.."  I think it might have been Englebert Humperdink, but I can't prove it..  I went in the 70's when roller disco was HUGE!  I haven't been inside forever, but I would not be suprised if the disco ball is still there.  I picked up my niece in the 90's one time when she was there and yep, the same song for the last skate.  I've often wondered if that record ever wore plumb out.

Rock Building

The parking lot has encroached upon this tiny structure.  The streets have been widened over the years, swallowing up the front yard.  It is alone in its memory of what it used to house...  I imagine it was a business of some sort, maybe a store.  The lots in this old part of town are only 25 feet wide.  Some are being torn down and added to another lot to build one new home.  Not the gargantuan homes that you see on postage stamp lots by the beaches.  But reasonable homes.  I feel sorry that the cozy cottages by the shores are leveled for monster homes that dominate and bully the landscape. 

Water Tower II

I started my blog off with a photo of this tower, which I consider the quintennsential landmark for us.

This was last night with our glorious sunset.  It has been overcast and quite warm still these past few days.

        I took this a couple of days ago because I liked the looks of the streamy clouds behind it and the light made this rainbow on the left side of the picture.

Orogrande National Forest

     Orogrande New Mexico.  Where might that be you might wonder, well it is on the way to El Paso from Alamogordo.  It used to be a mining town at the turn of the last century and boasted over 2,000 residents in it's heyday.  It still is scattered with old mines and rumors of turquoise nuggets... There used to be a bar, a post office and other attractions.  Now all gone.  I remember stopping at a gas station there as a kid and they had this iguana that would sun itself in the large front window.  To my memory that thing was HUGE, three feet or so.  There also used to be a "National Forest" there as proven by its picture on this aging bumper sticker.  I have a photo of it somewhere... A lonely tree that has since disappeared...It wasnt particularly large, but it was the only one around.

Desalination

            Water being a premium here....Desalination is a HUGE topic.  We have been on water restrictions for years as far as outside watering goes.  All new homes have zero-scaping and other measures.  This is our new facility regarding the research on how to turn the underground water potable.  

International Space Hall of Fame

As steeped as we are in space history, I guess it is about time I included the Space Hall.  It was a huge deal when it was built in the 1970's.  I remember the opening and the dedication.  They ran free buses for the town people to take them up and free admission so we could see it.  I have been waiting to try and get a photo at sunset when the copper windows blaze golden. 

This one includes the Imax theater and we are quite lucky to have an Imax in a small town like this.

They have a great website that is worth checking out. 

/http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/index.php

They have some static rocket and space displays outside the museum, and for those of you who can remember Ham, he is buried up here.

This is the view from the parking lot over-looking the town.  I know I have mentioned the summer concert series they hold here.  You couldn't ask for a more beautiful setting.

Cottonwood Color

     Fall has arrived for us.  The leaves here are more subdued than showy, but for a day or two we get brilliant yellows and a few reds.  I still can detect aromas of outdoor cooking in the evenings, and we fired up the chimenea Saturday for the first time this year.  It is getting into the forties at night, and the high seventies during the day. 

Autumn doesn't last long here, it is almost fleeting as spring....In the desert, we appreciate anything that gives us a break from 100 degree plus weather!

I took this one passing White Sands this morning. It is more indicitave of what we see, a few random trees, and acres of blue sky.

                                                

Adobe Memories

This small adobe shed/house is slated for demolition.  I did this photo in sepia because it seemed to call for it.  The structure is from the past and you can almost feel the ghosts around it.  It is hard for me to keep up with all of the changes in the town even since I started this blog.  There is much of the past that disappears daily.  The old rock wall around the Catholic Cemetery was torn down a couple of months ago and this past week the old town Christmas tree on Tenth street was cut down. 

This is a close up of the old adobe bricks which have more than stood the test of time blistered by the sun!

Update -11-9-09-  I drove by yesterday and the lot had been cleared.  I got these in the nick of time.

Dried Flower

          I dont know exactly what these were, but I thought they looked good even after they have died...  One of my trees dumped it's leaves last night although the days have been glorious and in the high 70's.  I love this time of year!

Railroad Crossing

                                               Railroad crossing watch out for the cars....
                                                            A sign of times past.
                        

Moonrise over Alamogordo

First, let me apologise for the poor picture quality.  My camera is not one set up to take night time photos.  I also have been having lots of issues with it as of late.  I feel it is time for a new one.  This one that I take all of these with is just a little pocket Kodak camera that has done fine, but I think it is time to get one that is a bit better...That being said, this was a gorgeous full moon two nights ago.  After the freak storm last week, the weather has warmed back up to normal and is in the 70's during the day.  It was still warm as I stood there watching the moon come up.  I wished I could document it better, the glow that lights up the town and makes the mountains stand out in relief like they are cut from black construction paper.

I turned around to the west to see the sun setting at the same time. 

Surplus City

     The last sign.  Surplus City was a WWII surplus store that was here for MANY years.  We loved that store.  When we were kids I remember going in there and seeing things like parachutes, flight jackets, ammo boxes and all manner of cool stuff!  It is long gone, but this one lonely sign remains.

Tiger Pride

Another band festival this weekend!  This one was in Las Cruces at Aggie Stadium.  Alamogordo looked good, but did not make the finals.  They had a good turn out, from small schools with maybe 20 members to large schools with maybe 200 members.

We enjoyed watching the kids and it was a beautiful day. 

             This was at the end of the day and you can see the full moon to the right of one of the lights and the Organ mountains in the background.