The Big Freeze

A pretty Farmers Market candle

We’ve all got our hot water faucets dripping so the water lines don’t freeze. It was 1 this morning when I headed to the gym. Tonight’s forecast is 4. Snow turned to ice is everywhere. The freezing transition to 2011 seems appropriate, as all Gov. Richardson’s high-level Democratic appointees clear out of their offices here in the state capitol, and all Gov. Martinez’s Republicans move in. I guess power changeovers are rarely warm and fuzzy.

Likewise on its own cold mission, a northern pygmy owl was spotted near Upper Canyon Road during the Christmas Bird Count, one of 9,000 birds noted in Santa Fe. These woodland owls are arrestingly handsome with their small grayish-brown bodies, white-feathered chests, and piercing yellow-and-black eyes, but they are fierce attackers. Owls are thought to be prophetic: it’s said that the Ojibwa believe owls foretell evil and death, and the Apache fear them beyond all other creatures, but the Pawnee consider them protective and the Oglala Sioux think wearing owl feathers increases vision. Maybe this owl arriving in Santa Fe is a sign of change to come in the new year. Meanwhile, natural rhythms persist—longer days, the Saturday Farmers Market, and snow clotted in tree branches.

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