Las Nubes de Nambe

The view here is titled "Las Nubes de Nambe," by John Vigil. I know the view intimately. It was made along the highway that is/was the northern boundary of the old adobe house where my family lived for 40 years. I sent it to my sibs. My sister, Cary, in Los Alamos, wrote the following, in reply to my query "Look familiar?"

"Indeed! I see my barrancas behind Web and Margaret's wall off our hill. and the triangle on the Jemez. "Yesterday we went to SF, we walked around downtown and the sky to the east was purple, there was a cool pre-rain breeze coming down from the mountains, the clouds were big and looming behind the bright blue sky, there was water in the river and the smell of the cottonwoods and olives was mixed into a divine perfume.
"On the way home it rained. ..no it poured. As we crossed over the bridge at Pojoaque toward Los Alamos we saw the Tesuque river was flooding. It was soooooo great. We stayed on the highway and all the way to El Rancho the arroyos were running.
"We got off the road and went to the El Rancho bridge. It's made of concrete and reinforced now so it doesn't wash out..... and you get to stand on the bridge's sidewalk and watch the flood.... ! OH! it was terrific! That muddy mixed smell of juniper and pinon needles, cottonwood, leaves, sticks, dead cows and a yellow basketball. "Marvelous! "Then we crossed the river and drove up the river road to the Monks driveway and crept out the water's edge and put the car in reverse and sat and smelled the smells for a few minutes. We drove back to the bridge, crossed over again, and turned east. ,"WELL, by this time the arroyos next to the road were flooded. We splashed through 1 shallow arroyo to continue our journey... yes we evaluated the situation before entering. We were stopped by the water at the Jaconita road intersection with the river and had to turn around.
"IT WAS GREAT!!! It felt JUST like it used to."

Summer storms were magical in the older days. I've seen whole cars swept along like milk cartons in the muddy churn of a flash-flood, 250 yards south of where that foto was made.