Hope is the thing with flowers...

May 12.  With apologies to Emily Dickenson. As previously mentioned, we are lucky to live close to a couple hundred acres of Open Space, managed by the City of Albuquerque for the benefit of her residents, both human and other animal. Most people don't know that we have the iconic naturalist Aldo Leopold to thank for the concept of within-city open space. Leopold, who is revered for the gorgeous and prescient writings from his Wisconsin farm (Sand County Almanac, and others), is also credited for creating the first wilderness area in the United States (the Gila, here in New Mexico). But lesser-known is that he also lived in Albuquerque for a time, where he sat on the City Council, seeding and cultivating the idea that city residents need the outdoors too. We now have some 29,000 acres of open space in and around the city to enjoy https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/open-space.

Knowing about the source or not, Albuquerque residents have fully integrated Leopold's concept into their daily lives. In our nearby acres, any season, any day, and nearly any time, one can find birders, dog walkers, gardeners, joggers, lovers, and families partaking of the opportunity to commune with nature. Hawks, songbirds, and waterfowl find summer nesting and winter sustenance throughout the area. Coyotes roam and howl at night. Toads sing for a mate in spring.  In late fall and winter, the fields are deliciously filled with the sandhill cranes so loved by Leopold (and me!).  But throughout the year, one creature can always be found.

She never moves, never changes her steadfast gaze from the precise spot where the sun, or the full moon, will rise over the Sandia Mountains. Her stance is proud and self-contained. She is, of course not a living being, but a wonderful metal sculpture that some insightful human placed at the corner where nearly everyone passes. I feel compelled, as I'm sure others do, to simply stop and watch the mountains with her for a while, often with my hand on her back.  I sometimes find a bit of alfalfa, in her slightly open mouth - an offering from another passerby.  And, she is seasonally decorated with ribbons or flowers woven into her mane and tail -- daisies in spring, red white and blue in July, sunflowers in fall, holly in winter.  But the sight of her current regalia went straight to my heart.