The fire appears to have spared the town of Los Alamos, but it continues to spread, and has officially become the largest forest fire in New Mexico history. It’s still only 5% contained and is now decimating the sacred lands of the Santa Clara pueblo. My classmate Joe became something of a local celebrity for his efforts to keep people informed via Facebook. He was on the local news at least twice, once playing his electric guitar. 


Social media are changing the way we experience events like this. It has been fascinating to sit in on these exchanges and participate in the conversation. More than 3,700 people have joined the Friends of the LA Fire Facebook page (I don’t think any of us are feeling friendly towards the fire, but that was the name chosen), where the sense of community is palpable. Requests for donations, updates on the fire situation, posts by experts and reports from community meetings — and the occasional joke like this one, a reply to a post entitled “In Los Alamos…”


You know you’re from Los Alamos when you bring a friend home from college and when he asks how the microwave works, he gets a lecture from your dad about how microwaves work rather than instructions on how to operate it.


In Los Alamos, kids don’t need night lights. They ARE night lights.


The post has 224 replies so far! No lack of fuel for this particular fire.




In the meantime…


My garden has gone into production! 


Something ate all the lettuce and spinach pretty much the moment they poked their little leaves out of the soil. I suspect snails, but I haven’t caught any in the act. At least they’re getting their vegetables. 


Everything else is thriving. The arugula went from seedling to seed in about five minutes, and by the time I thought to pluck some for my salad it was way too bitter. It’s really easy and rewarding to yank the plants out of the ground, though. Très therapeutic. 


I’m pinching back the exuberant tomatoes before they get totally out of control like they did last year. I’m thinning out the carrots. It goes against all my instincts to pull out something that’s potentially edible, but I hardened myself and did it anyway. Now the lucky chosen ones can breathe. A lot of innocent baby carrots were sacrificed for that to happen. I hope they appreciate it.


So far, everything I’ve harvested has been green:

El diablo

The Schnozz

The happy farmer

Mr. Miserable

I would have taken more pictures, but sugar snap peas are one of my favorite foods (after jelly bellies) and I started eating them, thus drastically reducing the artistic possibilities. I’m looking forward to an enhanced color palette once the carrots, tomatoes, red peppers and eggplant ripen. 


A note on fireworks for this Fourth of July: why not just skip them? They scare animals, blind and dismember overenthusiastic pyromaniacs, and cause forest fires. The night sky is a pretty awesome show in itself, and it doesn’t hurt your ears.