Another Fine Home Sold in Placitas

With its Top of the World location in the prestigious Overlook subdivision, 8 Six Range Point has that quintessential Santa Fe style that attracts buyers who appreciate this distinctive architecture. The 360 degree views of the Sandias and the Jemez, along with far away mesas, will never get old. A discerning buyer purchased this fabulous home, but there are still many more properties in this place we love.

Recent Sales In Placitas Reflect Uptick in Closings

154 Windmill Trail  is located off of Camino de las Huertas and sold this month. The  custom built home has 3 bedrooms,3 baths, a greatt room, media room, home office, dining room, and gourmet kitchen with granite counters and island, cherry cabinets, stainless appliances,and walk in pantry. The mountain views from this property will surely bring loads of pleasure to the new owners.

The Rains Came

The rains finally arrived at Guillermo's ranch out in Cabezon country.  Year after year, he would hope for rain, but none came. It may be true what they say...be careful what you wish for. It rained a lot in September, and more in early October. The otherwise arid land suddenly got wet and look what happened.  A field filled with glorious golden sunflowers. Of course, it also meant flooded irrigation ponds and lots of soil erosion that left big holes in the ground, but you can't always get what you want.

Gad Zucchs!

How on earth  does one keep up  with the zucchini? We have it for dinner every single night these days  Sauteed, in ratatouille with eggplants tomatoes and herbs, fried, baked stuffed, zucchini bread, zucchini cake, zucchini with collards, chard and meat in a stir fry. Zucchini soup--yum. The pile of uneaten zucchini is just too big right now; our neighbors have had enough. I guess I'll have to compost it. If that doesn't work then I'll have ten times more zucchini in the garden next year.

Deadly Nightshade (AKA Jimson Weed) Comes to Town

I have never had a Jimson weed sprout up on our property until this year. Ours is of modest size. We have only one plant, but I am watching it closely and enjoying it immensely. The Datura plant, sacred to Native Americans and also called Jimsonweed,  is as breathtakingly sinister as it is beautiful since it can cause hallucinations, blindness and death. It is night blooming, and it is visited at night by the hawkmoth which sticks its long proboscis into the flower to drink the sweet nectar deep inside and in the process pollinate the plant. If I had known that the fat green catepillars I gather from our tomato plants were the precursors to the hawkmoth, and my having Datura in my yard, I might not have been smacking them one for gobbling up my tomatoes over the years. Anyway, I’m on an earnest watch for the hawkmoth these days. Hawkmoth also pollinates Desert Four O’Clocks, clusters of burgundy flowers among dark green leaves, which spring up from a large tuber under the ground, grow quickly and spread rapidly, water or no water. They are really pretty.

Lots of Hot Air Here....In the Balloons, That Is!

Even cows can fly here!

It's Balloon Fiesta time in the greater Albuquerque area and our daytime skies are full of color. There is a phenomenon here called the "box" and that allows the balloons to fly north on one air current and then back to where they started from on the other. Placitas is north of the balloon park, and this weekend we had several balloons decide to land in Placitas. In the meantime, we staged the Luxury Open House Tour in Placitas. It was one gorgeous day. We did see lots of our Placitas friends we had not seen in a while. They love to look at their neghbors house, I guess, or pick up ideas for remodelling their own casa.  Luckily they had long distance friends with them. This is the time when all of Placitas has visitors who choose to come here to see, but not necessarily participate in, the festivities. Maybe they will be so entranced they will decide to buy a house and stay. We hope so!