A Bee Hummingbird in the New Mexico Mountains

Last night, just at dusk, we saw a bee hummingbird. There's red penstemon growing wild all around us, and one of the flower heads was moving. An almost incandescent fluttering caught our attention. My SO said, "How small is the smallest hummingbird you've ever seen?" I thought at first we were watching a dragonfly. So I moved over to stand still among the penstemons to get a closer look. It took a while for the tiny bird to come back, but it finally did, and my gosh, it was the teensiest, no more than two inches, if that, with wingbeats so quick they were invisible.

We are in a beautiful place, in the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rockies in northeastern New Mexico. Rociada is the name of the place. We found it last year and determined to come stay here in the future. The future is now, as they say. The owners call it an RV Resort, and if any place qualifies, this does. It encompasses 158 gated acres, so each site is as large as a city lot, with magnificent ponderosa pine towering overhead. There's an adjacent golf course and we think a lot of the people here have come here for the course. There's also a clubhouse with planned activities, which we probably won't participate in, but it's nice that they have activity directors and keep such a close watch on everything. There's no television, which has taken a little getting used to, just for the noise factor. But we sat outside until dark last night, then came inside, talked for a while, and took magazines to bed to read.

I'm pleased with how well the cat and dog are coexisting in such close confines. The cat sleeps with us, which for him is the only joy to camping, and the dog makes her bed on the sofa in the front room of the RV. She cooperates by laying her head at the opposite end from where the cat's food and water are on top of the side table, so he can jump up there unimpeded throughout the night. The dog spends most of the time outside with us. But last night, after the park had quieted, I even harnessed and leashed the cat and took him out with us. Mostly, he was panicked, but I think he enjoyed looking around from the safety of my lap.

We have no neighbors to the front of our trailer, and our friends from home occupy the space behind us. We put one of the picnic tables between our trailer and their motorhome. I fixed a big salad with leftover garlic roasted chicken, and they contributed bagel crisps and meat-stuffed empanadas. Our friend had a birthday the day before, so I had found a small fudge cake decorated with slivered marbled chocolate. We put one candle in it, my SO supplied the fire, and we took it out to the table singing Happy Birthday. I think we surprised her.

Today we're off to Taos. My SO has some business there, and then we're going to the downtown plaza for lunch and to tour Kit Carson's home, and maybe to see the Indian pueblo there. Mainly, though, we need to study how far and difficult the drive is, because we'll be going back through Taos tomorrow on our way to the narrow gauge railhead at the southernmost edge of Colorado.

Nice and cool here this morning. That's what we came for -- the cool weather. We'll have our coffee out under the awning.

Onward ....