Last night on the news I heard that a flash flood out of the Cerro Grande burn scar has ripped through Dixon’s Apple Farm, and it may be the fatal blow the farm cannot withstand.  During the massive Cerro Grande fire they lost their home and outbuildings, but managed to save most of the trees.  This time the wall of water filled their irrigation sump ponds with silt and mud.  The ponds were forty feet deep and now they are gone.  All through my childhood a small stream had bubbled down from the mountain into this narrow valley, and helped water the trees.  But with climate change the stream died up years ago, and they have been relying on these ponds to keep the trees alive.

Now this flood, and on the news the family said they were going to have a family meeting to try and decide if they can clean up and go on.  This is heartbreaking for this family and for the community.  It is the only site in the world were you can buy the champagne apple.  The grandfather created this strain of apple, patented the graft, and they are ambrosia.  Now the trees may be abandoned to die if the family decides it’s too much to continue.  Of course my sorrow over this cannot be compared with the family’s, but it’s like another chip out of the edifice of my life.

I’m also saddened about the floor in my library.  The new stone tile is going in, and it’s going to look okay, but the warmth and softness of the bamboo floor looked so wonderful against the cherry wood book cases, and the kaleidoscope colors of the book backs.  I want my house back the way it was in so many ways; though I know that made no sense since this was the second time the floor had been damaged by water.

I hope the man who designed this house won’t be too sad over the changes in that room.  Just feeling a little low today.