The Land of Enchantment 1

Possessing genes acquired from a long line of northern and central Europeans, The Mad Scientist has a definite preference for cooler climes. A short stint of hot weather, preferably spent in a beautiful tropical resort, doesn't come amiss of course. But as the temperature climbs, The Mad Scientist tends to wilt and become more slothlike than usual.

So Our friends find it amusing that We now reside in the desert. More specifically in a place often known as 'The Land of Enchantment'. There are deserts, mountains, volcanoes and not a lot of water.

Some aspects of this Enchanted Land are worth examining.

It does have a varied landscape with a lot of interesting geology. There are mountains, deserts, dunes, plains and badlands. It also has a local culture whereby several tons of that geology, in the guise of gravel, comprise a front (and often back) garden. To be fair this isn't everyone's idea of a garden. Chunks of lava, not from the local volcanoes, and boulders often substitute for the gravel. A rock garden is literally that: rocks and not much else.

The Land of Enchantment has a history going back thousands of years: Native American settlements, the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s, various groups coming during and after the American Civil war and the more recent influx of people from Southeast Asia. It's the only US state that keeps disappearing.

Despite the fact the US claimed/took the territory from Mexico in 1846, many Americans think The Land of Enchantment is a foreign country. In some ways it still is. Often when booking an internal flight here, airlines have asked for Our passport; this was long before any security issues made it a requirement. When phoning a US government agency for a grant application for scientific research, upon giving Our (American) university address, the sender said such grants were never given to foreign institutions. If the US government doesn't know where this place is, We can't expect anyone else to either.

http://www.nmmagazine.com/50missing.php

http://www.newmexico.org/

Budget recipe of the day:http://notecook.com/appetizers/dips/southwest-cooking-basic-guacamole/