Sunday, July 22, 2018

History Is the Past


Weather: We got rain twice on Monday, once in the early morning, and again after dark. By Friday, the afternoon temperatures were reaching 98. The early summer plants like hollyhocks and Mexican hats went out of bloom, as did some of the pansies. I’m not sure the violas survived.

We got some sprinkles on Saturday. Not enough to do any good, but enough to wash away some of the herbicides I’d sprayed that morning on plants growing in the driveway. I know the label says that rain doesn’t have any effect after a few hours, but it also says I should see results within a day. We’ll see what happens by the end of next week.

Last useful rain: 7/16. Week’s low: 58 degrees F. Week’s high: 98 degrees F in the shade.

What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid roses, yellow potentilla, desert willow, trumpet creeper, bird of paradise, fern bush, silver lace vine, red-tipped yuccas, Russian sage, buddleia, rose of Sharon, daylilies, bouncing Bess, datura, sweet pea, annual four o’clocks, cultivated sunflowers, coreopsis, black-eyed Susan.

Apples have become visible.

What’s blooming in my yard: Rugosa and miniature roses, caryopteris, hybrid daylilies, golden spur columbine, large-flowered soapwort, David phlox, catmints, lady bells, sidalcea peaked, winecup mallow, hollyhocks, blue flax, lead plant, tomatillo, pink evening primroses, white-flowered spurge, sea lavender, perennial four o’clock, larkspur from this year’s seed, white and Coronation Gold yarrow, chocolate flowers, blanket flower, Mönch aster, purple cone fowers, bachelor buttons from this year’s seed.

A couple of my corn plants suddenly started growing; the leaves got broader as the stalks got taller.

What’s blooming outside the walls and fences: Apache plume, tamarix, trees of heaven, purple mat flower, stick leaf, velvetweed, bindweed, silver leaf nightshade, greenleaf five eyes, leather leaf globemallow, scurf pea, alfalfa, white sweet clover, Queen Anne’s lace, goat’s head, prostate knotweed, toothed spurge, Hopi tea, fleabane, horseweed, wild lettuce, common and native dandelions, goat’s beard, plain’s paper flower, golden hairy asters, Tahoka daisy.

Goat’s heads and pigweed are beginning to germinate.

Bedding plants: Pansies, sweet alyssum; local petunias

Tasks: Several men cut their hay fields. One market gardener plowed under some of the crops, but left the corn. It was tall near the road and progressively shorter as the plants neared the ditch. Apparently, the water flowed past them toward the road, but didn’t accumulate in their area.

Keeping the water flowing is a constant challenge. I think half the soaker/spray hoses I installed this year have large holes. Most are in places where it’s difficult to replace them, because leaves and stems make it hard to get them to lay flat. I did replace the two that were serving the new crab apples. The trees were suffering, and there was nothing I couldn’t stomp down to lay the replacements. When I looked at them, I saw the problem holes in fact were small V-shaped openings. I don’t think they were made by an animal.

The leaves on the forsythia were wilting. I thought the black locust was encroaching. I cut some suckers near its base, and all the branches on a limb that had curved down in the wind. While I was at it, I cut the new growth on suckers elsewhere for the third time this season.

Animal sightings: Cat, rabbit, hummingbirds, other small brown birds, geckos, dragonfly, sidewalk ants, bumble and small bees, hornets, other small flying insects, grasshoppers; heard crickets


Weekly update: More of Española’s history fell to a backhoe bucket this week. The adobe buildings are the easiest to level; there’s no concrete or wood debris to remove. And, this particular building seems to have little of either.

When the front wall was knocked down, you could see the thickness of the exterior walls. Interesting, the interior wall was also adobe, with wall board laid against it. I don’t know if it was built one room or one section at a time, or if that was the original construction. The roof was thick, but its construction wasn’t obvious from a distance. The fireplace and chimney were brick, and probably added later. The backhoe operator waited to knock them down.

The building complex across from the south Sonic always intrigued me. I was never sure if it had originally been a homestead, or a tourist building. The building on the south side of the road was once the Flamingo Bar. However, it had cinder blocks around the entrance, suggesting it had been built after the road from Santa Fé to Taos was improved.

The main building looked like a house with a smaller building behind it. In 2010, it had eight rooms and two hallways. [1]

A yard wall went around the back with two arched entrances. Beyond the back gate, there was a another building that looked like a house with another smaller building next to it. If there had been more buildings on the north side, they disappeared under the paved drive. Ones knows there had to have been outhouses before city plumbing.

The white stuccoed adobe was located at the base of the hill going out of town on the south. The local ditch entered the area above the Flamingo Bar, and split with one branch going to La Mesilla. The branch that went to San Pedro crossed under the road, then circled the property on the south and west sides. The construction of that segment of the ditch would have made it prime growing land.

Before the ditch brought water from Santa Cruz lake, land there would have been irrigated from an acequia that came directly from the Santa Cruz river. The row of trees on its north boundary suggested it once might have flowed there.


I always suspected the building might originally have faced Middle San Pedro Road with grounds that extended to the river. Once the main road was built, the owners, like many who faced Middle San Pedro, may have reoriented the building to the east. That was when it was possible it might have been converted to a more commercial use like a small inn.

When I first moved here the main building was used by the Oasis Cyber Café. In 2002, Anna Dillane open the Boomerang Thrift Boutique in the back building. In 2010, she rented the main building, [1] and in 2014 Nurturing Seeds Day Care was using back building.

Then in 2016, everything closed and a "for sale" went up. I don’t know if the owner or the tenants didn’t renew the leases. Both probably had small profit margins and competitors in town.

When Oasis was there, the grounds were maintained. The area in front of the yard wall was filled with daylilies and sweet peas. An apple occasionally bloomed, and a productive apricot grew on the north boundary. With neglect, Siberian elms and trees of heaven crept in from the ditch.

Dillane didn’t neglect the building. She had friends paints murals on the exterior: [1] pink storks under the main window, a frieze of wisteria at the top.


Notes on photographs:
1. Daylilies and sweet peas blooming at Oasis Cyber Café, 12 July 2008.

2. Main building showing the entrance, depth of the building on the north side, and two chimneys, 15 January 2012. The picture was taken in the morning, and the camera lens reflected the light in iridescent streaks.

3. Area behind the entrance, 10 July 2018. The blue wallboard was against a thick adobe interior wall. You can see details of the roof construction.

4. Southeast corner of the main building with mural work, 6 July 2012.  Russian sage blooming in front.

End notes:
1. "Boomerang Thrift Boutique." Horsetail Trails website. 5 January 2010.

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