I’ve been in Albuquerque this week, running errands and soaking up some sun. My favorite Weeping Atlas Cedar is sending its blue-green tentacles everywhere, and the Copper Rose is in perfect bloom.

Dulcinea hasn’t been to New Mexico since she was a little puppy, and she’s enjoying the trails in the high desert. We need to have her in the shade by noon because she still hasn’t shed her heavy winter coat, but she loves it here.

Our visit to Albuquerque has mainly involved consulting commitments and family visits, but we also bought some paintings, including this dreamy pastel by Paul Murray. Aspens, of course, because we love them.

I’ve been on the road a lot lately. Last week I made a quick trip to Minneapolis, where I visited a friend undergoing surgery. It was one of those trips where you just try to make yourself useful as much as possible, but I did eat my share of Vietnamese comfort food, and there may have been some pastries involved, simply because you should never underestimate the healing power of a good doughnut.

While I was in Minneapolis, I finished knitting the last baby hat of the season, a cabled Ysolda pattern called Gretel. I used some of the alpaca I bought last month in Bisbee, which is handspun and fabulously soft. I’m hoping the recipient will love it, but I strongly suspect he won’t care. I had fun knitting the cables, and the baby’s ears will stay warm, and that’s what really matters.

Speaking of warm clothes, this is an update to say that the sky turned black shortly after I wrote the above, and it rained for three days straight in Albuquerque. There were epic hailstorms and lashings of wind. We’re talking about Old Testament conditions. And now it’s raining here in Colorado. We’re faced with dreary skies and baltic cold, like in a scene from a Scottish melodrama.

Longs Peak before the storm

The rain has utterly flattened the rhubarb in my raised garden beds. My nose is sniffly. We’re stuck indoors. Meanwhile, Mithril is guarding his precious copy of Darkened Blade, the final volume in my friend Kelly McCullough’s Fallen Blade series. I read the beta draft of this novel and I can tell you it’s a great conclusion to an epic fantasy series. Have you seen Chronicles of Riddick? It’s like that: assassins, betrayals, undead armies, god-kings. A good choice for a rainy day.

I’ll close with the best news of the week: Snowy is busy pretending to be a Cheshire cat, thrilled with the results of her recent biopsies, which tell us she’s in perfectly fine health. Carry on, Snowy dear.