Fruit Trees & Lilacs

by Wolf Schneider

Fruit tree in bloom in Santa Fe

We’re having a warmer than usual spring in Santa Fe. Temps have already hit 80. The forsythia, crocuses, and daffodils are in full bloom, trees are freshly greening, and now the fruit trees are blossoming pink and white all over town. Today, I saw the first lilacs emerging from a small tree on Botulph Road. Lilacs don’t usually bloom in Santa Fe until early May!

We are low on rain though, and have already had a fire just south of town. I’m hooked on the just-released “Fire Season” by Philip Connors, about being a wilderness lookout in the Gila. Connors writes in the great tradition of such other outstanding lit writer/wilderness lookouts as Jack Kerouac, Norman Maclean, Gary Snyder, and Edward Abbey.

Spring is when Santa Fe gets geared up for its busy summer season. Currently at the Santa Fe Playhouse is a show I intend to catch--“Callback,” a two-person dramedy about the aging relationship between an actress and director who she auditions for repeatedly over the decades, hoping for a break. I get the “hoping for a break” part. Also sounding promising is Brian Knox’s soon-to-launch Shake Foundation at 631 Cerrillos Road. Knox is the chef/owner of the pricey and delicious Aqua Santa, and with Shake Foundation (www.shakefoundation.com) he’s got plans for affordable gourmet green-chile cheeseburgers made from grass-fed beef, Portobello burgers, shakes, sundaes, and Velarde peach custard. When Knox and I used to board our horses at the same barn, I remember once seeing him on horseback conducting a cell-phone conversation with one hand, while using his other hand to steer his horse around the ring at a canter! He can ride!

Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor of Southwest Art. She also blogs at www.wolfschneiderusa.com.

Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in Artist Studio: Gregory Lomayesva