Quail-Gargoyle?

Walking up to a home today I noticed a bird on the roof.  Not too strange until I realized it was a Gambel Quail.

Are You Looking at Me???

Might as well get my good side....

Labyrinth de La Luz

The elementary school in La Luz has this fantastic labyrinth.

It is filled with rocks that have been painted by the children and the staff.

Something about this blue mans expression caught my fancy.

I think that is a great activity to build one, to paint the rocks and then to enjoy!

I am of course biased since I built one in my back yard a few years ago.

The Spiral Sun is one of my favorite symbols...

I now leave you for a few moments of meditative peace.

Plum Crazy

This ditch water

Gives us THIS!- Apples

Plums!

I came across this old tree in a mostly- gone orchard.

Not too noticeable until you get close then you get these great spots of plum. Our climate is very hospitible to many kinds fruit trees. It is August, so if you are from here, you know what is next....GREEN CHILE! Just a few more weeks and we should start seeing the crops come in.

Peaches and Irrigation

Irrigation! It actually came in the daylight. It makes it lush and the fruit is out of this world! I had the best peach I have ever had in my life-white and so juicy it poured out as I took each bite. It is a fight with the beetles to get to the fruit first...

You can see the fig trees off to the left behind the peach tree. They will be ripe in a month. I LOVE summer!!!

Thanks to my sister for the great yard and fruit!!

Nuestra Senora de La Luz

In 1719 the Franciscan Missionaries from Spain built a chapel here called Neuestra Senora de la Luz- Our Lady of the Light. The village of La Luz is the oldest in the Tularosa Basin.

We are back down the mountain in La Luz at the little Catholic church. A charming and well attended fixture in the area. The statue of the Madonna up high, holding the Christ child was carved by a local blind sculptor named Mark Shoesmith many years ago. She used to be out front where you see the other statue in the middle photo. The Christ child was stolen about 25 years ago and they replaced it, then eventually moved her up and replaced her out front and added a nicho with a cover to protect the new statue.

El Presidio Parque

Presidio Park sign-Founded in 1865 in La Luz, NM
Saint Francis-The patron saint of animals.

Presidio Park Pavillion

Iris going crazy in ditch water!

La Luz is a small village about 7 miles from Alamogordo. I went out this morning and took some photos of the Presidio Park. The presidio has been a stopping place for cowboys and travelers since Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett days. It is rumored that many locally famous people from those days stopped and stayed in the old hotel which is now apartments.