Penning Photography Daily

The City of the Crosses – Las Cruces, New Mexico. That’s where you will find this display, recalling the dual towers of a church, with each crowned by a cross. The sun’s rays also remind me of a cross.

We had spent the morning, touring at a leisurely pace through a densely packed and blocks long farmers market. The variety of goods was vast, from local produce, artwork of all media and styles, wood products of all sorts, baked goods, freshly made on the spot kettle corn, the list would go on and on. There were street performers at every turn for that bit of culture, my favorite being the musicians. Musicians for all tastes, guitarists, keyboardists, and a mariachi band, but the gentleman playing a hammered dulcimer as the “Musical Mendicant” complete with full monks robes was the best for my ears.

Just as we were taking our hot and tired selves to our car, I saw this sculpture, and stopped for one more composition.

Las Cruces is nearly 4,000 feet high, and the skies are the most delicious shade of blue. Our friends that we are visiting say that they get even deeper blue at times. There’s a thinner layer of air, the higher up you go. That, plus a complete lack of heavy industry, leave the skies very clear, much to my delight. I do miss the clouds, though, but I’m told that the form behind the surrounding mountains, as I’ve seen already in the short time we’ve been here. The clouds seem to build up behind the mountains and not cross the valley between them.

More to come. The mountains are calling me.