CoME: Episode 7: Landmark Days

One of those things that people say to us when we reveal our plan to move to LCNM to retire is “Won’t you miss having four seasons?” And I guess the answer would be yes EXCEPT that LCNM does have four seasons. People hear desert and they think Death Valley, but high plains desert is very different. Las Cruces sits at an altitude of about 4000 feet. Think Denver, the “Mile High City.”

We visited LCNM in mid-February, the tail end of the winter. The temperature got to the mid to upper 50’s each day. A little ways further into the mountains, Ruidoso, at about 9000 feet, there was still snow around. In LCNM it got cool in the evenings at this time, lower 30’s and Ruidoso got to the lower 20’s each night. But the sun shine was bright each day and the temperature jumped 25 degrees in just a couple of hours. Our friend Clairz, wrote recently extolling the early spring weather, which has arrived now in LCNM.

So, LCNM gets winter, spring and summer, no problem. The issue, could be autumn, but I don’t think so. Fall is my favorite time of the year with the crisp cool air and warm days early in place of the summer heat. I think LCNM will fit that bill. I know people ask about the leaves changing colors and while I will admit that the number of trees may be less so than in a New England forest, there are still colors to be seen. Check out this Google image of some New Mexico color.


New England seasonal change is identified in my mind by “Landmark Days.” By this I mean there is a day in each season that heralds the next coming season. It is not the “date” that spring or autumn start, but rather an event day. Spring arrives here on the first evening in late March or early April when there is a warm, light rain and the “peepers” come out, the little frogs you hear all spring long. Sure, there can be snow after that first night but hearing the peepers means spring is here. Summer arrives on that day when it is warm, sunny and you smell cut grass for the first time usually in May. Winter is announced by the first light snow on a weekend day when you have something cooking in the oven with that wonderful smell. It could be bread or cookies or even a pot roast. You could substitute wood stove for cooking here. Burning wood too is an autumn smell. Autumn in New England comes gradually. You see some color showing up in mid August even if the weather is still hot and muggy. But it is the trip to the orchard with the warm cider and apple dumplings and fresh honey and that cool crisp New England air that seals the deal.

I’m sure that LCNM will have its “Landmark Seasonal Days.’ I look forward to figuring out each and every one of them.