Morning in the Sandias

There was still a little nighttime coolness left when I walked up a tree-lined arroyo in the Sandia Mountains at the east edge of Albuquerque. All along the way there was a lush display of Apache Plume and quite a few cactus flowers responding to the touch of the sun. The thing that caught my attention, though, was ground litter from last year and before. Much of it was made up of tiny brown Live Oak leaves. They surrounded fallen pine cones and dry cholla branches which were merging into the forest floor. In the background were rounded granite boulders with an upholstery of lichens which seemed timeless.