Christmas Lights

Weather: We’re nearing the solstice, and as happens every year, morning temperatures are getting colder.  They reached 2 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday.  The sun shining in my eyes around 8:30 in the morning is no compensation.

There’s no moisture crossing the state, so the night sky is black.  I’ve been able to pick out Cassiopeia and Orion.  I’ve always been told the term “winter sky” referred to the particular location of constellations this time of the year, but here it has an additional meaning.

Last token snow: 12/12.  Week’s low: 2 degrees F.  Week’s high: 50 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 39 mph in Santa Fé before the storm on Monday.

What’s still green: Needles on pines, piñon, cultivated and native junipers; leaves on cliff rose, yuccas, vinca, winecup mallows, alfilerillo, coral bells, Queen Anne’s lace, blue flax; bases of Mexican hats and needle grass

What’s still gray or gray-green: Leaves of four-winged saltbushes, winterfat, snow in summer

What’s turning purple or red: Leaves on coral beard tongues, purple asters; stems on some roses; twigs on apricot and peaches

What’s turned yellow: Branches on weeping willows

Animal sightings: Small birds were flitting about Monday morning, before the winds and rain/snow.

Tasks: The wood and stones I ordered to finish preventing further erosion by my fences arrived with the blustery rain on Monday.  Since then, it has been too cold to work outdoors.

Weekly update: Styles in outdoor Christmas decorations change with technology and store promotions.  When I was a kid in Michigan, two types of lights were sold.  Those meant for the indoor tree had smooth, 1" bulbs.  Those hardened for use outside had ridged 2.5" bulbs.  Both came in a standard mix of colors.  It was only in the early 1960s people began buying bulbs by color and blue trees appeared.

People then were concerned about fires caused by shorts in wires.  Outdoor bulbs tended to be strung on evergreens.  It took time for people to trust them enough to put them along their roofs.

The biggest change was the smaller, fairy lights.  They could come in colors, but more often were all white.  People strung them around the edges of deciduous trees to create fantastic shapes.  I’m still fascinated by their ability to create something from nothing.

When I first moved here in the 1990s, people were stringing multi-colored lights along their eaves.  Then came the icicle lights, and next the chase lights.  Again they were strung along roof lines.

This year I’ve noticed more people are stringing lights along their perimeter fences.  If one is paranoid about thieves, it is better to not highlight the house.

However, I think the fence lights serve a much more practical purpose.  Drunks are a problem here.  Every week or so, someone has part of a fence destroyed by someone who drives away.  Lights at the roadside are better than red or amber warning lights.

Notes on photographs: Chase lights from a distance, 17 December 2022.