A Quick Report

Things have been busy in Querencia- ville. As I promised, we have been going out; hiking, hunting, and gathering, and will be for a while. In between I have been preparing and hustling for a book on eagles and a collection of travel essays-- neither sold yet, but hopeful signs on both-- and revising a novel parts of which have sold (one, "A Friend of the Devil", was out a few months ago in Gray's Sporting Journal). And I am still looking for a Goshawk. Tuuli is flying with Bodie in Albuquerque because of a dearth of accesible hares here-- still only an unreliable vehicle, and the nearest good population this year is north of White Sands Missile Range almost 50 miles away.

Two field trips await photos. Last week Peculiar and Mrs. Peculiar celebrated their first and our tenth anniversary by hiking into the unique ecosystem that dominates the east side of the Manzano Wilderness in the Manzano Mountains east of the Rio Grande Rift, also about fifty miles away. An odd combination of geology and climate has made the forest there resemble that of the eastern US-- lush, cool, and deciduous, dominated by oaks and especially maples. Climbing up through the mist, I felt as though I were walking through a Massachusetts woods in winter-- where were the ruffed grouse?! At the crest, the mist cleared briefly to offer us a magnificent view of the grassy plain to the west. On that side of the rift, the mountains fall off in vertiginous vertical cliffs, home to Peregrines and golden eagles, while the forested slopes behind slide gently down to the prairie. On the way back we drove into the heart of a thunderstorm, backlit by the sunset; descending the steep western slope was like flying into it in a plane. We drove through and looked back to see what we all agreed was the most perfect rainbow we had ever seen, a complete arc backed by the nearly- black thunderhead but rooted in the golden plain.

Here is Libby further on that day:"Yesterday they [ P & Mrs.] took us and two of the tazis up to the Manzanos to hike through the deciduous forest there -- it was gorgeous. We were hiking in the woods in the mist all the way up to a ridge -- when we got there the clouds parted and we were looking down on Belen and the Rio Grande valley. It was raining on the way up there, but somehow we had a window for our hike without it. As we were coming back down the hill from Mountainair we drove right into the middle of a gigantic thundercloud that was slamming into the mountains -- all the way through it we could see this very bright light to the west. We emerged from the cloud, looked back and saw the brightest double rainbow any of us have even seen. Spectacular! Then we came back and had twice- baked potatoes, braised leeks, and buffalo London broil for the anniversary dinner, washed down with lots of vodka and wine."

I hope Mr P. sends photos soon. Meanwhile you'll have to be content with these from the same storm system, taken the day before from Casa Q.






This weekend we hosted thirteen saluki- tazi people from all over the world-- three from England, one from Norway, and from many states as well. I took virtually no photos because I was ranging ahead with the hounds-- if you don't work actively with them they will just hunt where they will-- but I am promised photos from everywhere.
Meanwhile here are a few of the puppies.














A good time was had by all.