The Sunday porch: geraniums

More properly called by their genus name, Pelargonium.

Porch, Chamisal, New Mexico, Library of CongressAn enclosed front porch in Chamisal, New Mexico, July 1940, by Russell Lee, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Lee and his wife, Jean, spent two weeks in Chamisal and Peñasco documenting the lives of the towns’ Hispanic small farmers and ranchers. Both communities are located along the High Road to Taos, which begins in Santa Fe and crosses the high desert and forest of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

The area was the setting for the 1974 book  The Milagro Beanfield War  as well as the filming location for the 1988 movie of the same name.  Milagro was the first of a trilogy of novels by John Nichols about north central New Mexico.  The second and third books were set in the fictional town of Chamisaville.

Vintage landscape: Penasco gate

Cemetary gate, New Mexico, Library of Congress“Entrance to the cemetery at Peñasco, New Mexico (along the High Road to Taos), July 1940, by Russell Lee, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Lee and his wife, Jean, spent two weeks in Chamisal and Peñasco documenting the lives of the towns’ Hispanic small farmers and ranchers. The area was settled by Spanish colonists in the late 18th century.

Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings…

— William Shakespeare, from Cymbeline