The Las Cruces Report for August, Part 1: Misery

Flies in the early morning light

Click on the photo to enlarge it. If you concentrate really hard and look at the air about halfway up the trunks of these pecan trees surrounding our house, you will see what I was trying to capture--millions of flies, swarming around in the early morning. Millions more of their brothers were perched on the side of our house and flying around my eyes and into my ears on that same day; the day I was outside sweating and swatting and trying to do a little gardening at dawn.

You probably can't see them, but take my word for it: August has been a month of bazillions of flies and of heat and stickiness. Oh, and mosquitoes, too. Pretty miserable for us here in the Pecan House with few window screens, no air conditioning, and a swamp cooler that promises nothing during monsoon season. Poor us! However, I keep thinking about all the people in the world who do quite nicely without any a/c, not to mention all the people who lived here in the Mesilla Valley before there was electricity and before the city obligingly sent out trucks to spray against mosquitoes and the dangers they carry.

Human misery aside, the feeling of living in a rich and fertile oasis in the midst of the desert has never been so strong. That hot sunlight and all of our afternoon rains have worked their magic on the local field crops and the cotton plants down the road seem to grow a foot a day. My poor struggling roses, looking so pathetic in their first year, have sprung to life with new leaves and a second blooming. The vitex (Texas lilac) has grown over two feet in height since it was planted in early July and is blooming again, too. The hollyhock seeds that a friend gave me are coming up all through the garden, promising lots of flowers for next year. The Farmers Market is overflowing with bounty: Corn, grapes, honey, sweet melons of all kinds, and peaches--juicy, wonderful, ripened-on-the-tree peaches.

There is one more crop being harvested, but its importance is so great that it deserves a report all its own. Tomorrow, Green Gold.*

*****

*Thanks, Pat!