Zia Sun
I am sometimes surprised at the misperceptions people have of Santa Fe's climate. Friends comment about our move to escape winter, and some have made jokes about living in a landscape of cactuses and sagebrush. I think the general understanding is that New Mexico is all hot desert, like west Texas.
Some of it is, in Albuquerque and further south. But mountainous northern New Mexico is not.
Situated at the end of the Rockies, Santa Fe is 6,900 feet high. Winter is cold here. It snows if there is ever any precipitation to be had. There is a major ski area 18 miles from town. Some cactus will grow here because it's so dry, but mostly we have pine trees, junipers, aspens and cottonwoods, and forested peaks all around.
As I write this post on a December morning it is 22 degrees out and the forced hot air furnace is roaring. We do not have a quiet heating system.
The air temperature is wintry, but the sun here is so strong, that even in the depths of a winter morning well below freezing, it heats things up enough to sit on the deck and have my coffee. Without a jacket.
As long as there is no breeze to stir the cold air, and as long as the sun hits my black sweatpants and the top of my head, it is really, really pleasant. Hot even, after a while -- and I have to leave my sunny chair to sit in some shade from the house. The balance of hot sun and cold, still air is wonderful.
If it's cloudy or overcast and if the breeze kicks up it's really chilly. But that's rare. Mostly it is sunny and usually it is still, and that ever present sun is a potent force.
The sun is so important to New Mexico's identity and it is the design on our state flag. Like so much of modern culture, the sun symbol was appropriated from a native culture, the Zia Pueblo Indians.
The Zia symbol celebrates the inescapable dominance of the sun here, and its four rays of four lines depict the four cardinal directions and the four seasons -- all of this original to the native people but now completely taken over by government and commercial interests. Zia Pueblo asked for royalties whenever the symbol was used (which is everywhere) but we know where that went.
You can't escape it -- both the controversial symbol which is central to the modern state and sacred to the native population -- and the force of the sun itself, which transforms everything it shines on here.
So picture me outside on a winter morning in northern New Mexico, warmed by a powerful sun and surrounded by pines and mountains. Just don't picture me sitting next to a cactus.
 |
| New Mexico's state flag displays the Zia sun symbol. |
Some of it is, in Albuquerque and further south. But mountainous northern New Mexico is not.
Situated at the end of the Rockies, Santa Fe is 6,900 feet high. Winter is cold here. It snows if there is ever any precipitation to be had. There is a major ski area 18 miles from town. Some cactus will grow here because it's so dry, but mostly we have pine trees, junipers, aspens and cottonwoods, and forested peaks all around.
As I write this post on a December morning it is 22 degrees out and the forced hot air furnace is roaring. We do not have a quiet heating system.
 |
| A surprisingly warm place to sit on a sunny cold day. |
The air temperature is wintry, but the sun here is so strong, that even in the depths of a winter morning well below freezing, it heats things up enough to sit on the deck and have my coffee. Without a jacket.
As long as there is no breeze to stir the cold air, and as long as the sun hits my black sweatpants and the top of my head, it is really, really pleasant. Hot even, after a while -- and I have to leave my sunny chair to sit in some shade from the house. The balance of hot sun and cold, still air is wonderful.
 |
| I took the chair cushions into the garage for winter, but it's still pleasant to sit outside. |
If it's cloudy or overcast and if the breeze kicks up it's really chilly. But that's rare. Mostly it is sunny and usually it is still, and that ever present sun is a potent force.
The sun is so important to New Mexico's identity and it is the design on our state flag. Like so much of modern culture, the sun symbol was appropriated from a native culture, the Zia Pueblo Indians.
 |
| New Mexico's flag is one of only four state flags that does not use the color blue. (the other three: California, Maryland, Alabama. You can look it up.) |
The Zia symbol celebrates the inescapable dominance of the sun here, and its four rays of four lines depict the four cardinal directions and the four seasons -- all of this original to the native people but now completely taken over by government and commercial interests. Zia Pueblo asked for royalties whenever the symbol was used (which is everywhere) but we know where that went.
You can't escape it -- both the controversial symbol which is central to the modern state and sacred to the native population -- and the force of the sun itself, which transforms everything it shines on here.
So picture me outside on a winter morning in northern New Mexico, warmed by a powerful sun and surrounded by pines and mountains. Just don't picture me sitting next to a cactus.
Comments