It’s not really, but I call it that. There’s probably an interesting story behind it, but one that I’m not familiar with right now. I’ll probably look into it if prompted or someone will volunteer information, but for now I present the Purple Octopus – visible off of West Picacho and Melendres, at the Laabs/Lions swimming pool & tennis court complex in Las Cruces.

The whole thing, situated just south of the tennis courts along Picacho Avenue.

Views of the “thing” on top:

Inside and underneath is a round seating area with an Indian symbol written into the cement and lots of names, words, and dates (circa 1995) written into the ground below:

And standing inside, looking straight up past the crumbling cement, is this fish:

If anyone has info on this, please comment.

Winter in Southern New Mexico typically brings a few dustings of snow atop the Organ Mountains and some mighty frosty mornings, but nothing too extreme – and the sunny, mild 65-degree afternoons usually make up for any frigid discomforts. The higher elevations got dumped on a few nights ago, and by dumped I mean this:

And this:

I actually snagged the above two images from the LC Sun News website as a coincidental breakdown of my truck is now preventing me from venturing beyond the confines of my daily travels. I must say the mountains look stunning and alive with a blanket of white over them.

Today I managed to snap a few shots of the mountains from the open field of the Masonic Cemetery, as it provides some nice panoramic views of the entire range. Low-laying misty clouds and chilly temps = some lovely wintertime desert sunsets.

As I type this entry it’s snowing again and has been for the past 2 hours, so I expect to take a few more pictures tomorrow morning and post an update.

EDIT: It indeed continued snowing during the night and I woke up to a frosty, icy winter wonderland. Because seeing snow is so rare for me, I decided to take a leisurely walk to work instead of risking a slip-n-slide on my bicycle. Seeing cactus covered in snow is an odd sight and I imagine much of the plant & animal life in this area struggle with such cold temperatures. Like this bird:

It was as if he just dropped out of the sky in mid-flight. Just couldn’t take it.

I got some shots of the peaks of the Organ Mountains were poking up through the low-lying foggy clouds before the sun burned everything away.

Visual proof that cats are spawned from demon seeds:

Pure evil.

From what I was told, this pack of feral furries congregate daily near this convenience store for a bag full of leftover scraps from the Chinese restaurant next door. (Insert joke here about cats & Chinese restaurants).

My guess is that the surrounding neighbors totally love this guy for diligently attracting a pack of 30+ hungry stray cats day after day.