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Just want to peek my head in here for a few.............. I am a big, big, fan of New Mexico. Been up - down - in and out-all over, Raton-Santa fe-ABQ-Ship Rock-Gallup-Four corners- Love it.
Gregw and beantownjoe-
Gregw-clearly the sun is your friend-if you can not move buy a sun lamp and visit NM as much as you can. I totally understand the depressing winter comment. I am knee deep in a depressing cloudy area myself. Sun lamps do wonders.
beantownjoe-sounds like you are really doing your homework on NM BUT you really have to understand that the southwest in general is not lush like back east. If green is important to you, I'm not sure you would like it.
beantownjoe, when I first visited here before moving it was winter also, and I was also shocked by the brownness of everything. But yes, those brown trees you saw really do sprout leaves and most of the year it is much more green here. Much of the grass is also brown/yellow over the winter but greens up in spring. You will develop an appreciation for other hues that you don't really see back east. I would advise you to find housing in a part of town where there are plenty of trees and shrubs. Some of the newer areas lack trees and have mostly gravel landscaping. But the valley areas and older parts of town have mature trees for greenery and that all-important commodity: shade.
What is the deal about questions on brown in the winter? I'm from Texas, and I recently lived in both northern and southern NM for the last 6 years. In both places, most grass goes dormant and brown in the winter--lawns as well as wild grasses. The only trees that stay green all year are the Evergreens. Other than that....
Are lawns NOT dormant on the East Coast....? Surely they cannot be green in the dead of winter.
Are lawns NOT dormant on the East Coast....? Surely they cannot be green in the dead of winter.
Most often they are covered with snow
The heavy brown overtones of the landscape here from Oct/Nov until June are much longer than the spring browns in the east. It doesn't take more than a few weeks for things to green up after the snow melts. In the fall the changing colors of leaves - even if it's just green to yellow - give the dying season a much different feel than we get out west. The fall brown tends to be longer than the spring, but it's still short by our standards.
I had little trouble transitioning to the west after spending a lot of my youth in Maine. We'd lived in Arizona too during that time, so perhaps I was more prepared than a native easterner would be.
One of the wonderful things about the southwest US is the variety of landscapes, as many posters here have mentioned. The main thing when considering relocation is to not make it permanent right away. Rent a house in Albuquerque or another city for a year, travel a lot, rent another house in Ruidoso if you prefer that. Stay flexible and you are sure to find a wonderful community in NM that will suit your preferences.
If you can manage it, plan to travel in the spring, when the wind is often unbearable for recent transplants. Or go up to CO or WY in March, then you're happy to get back to our mild 40 mph winds!
The heavy brown overtones of the landscape here from Oct/Nov until June are much longer than the spring browns in the east. It doesn't take more than a few weeks for things to green up after the snow melts. In the fall the changing colors of leaves - even if it's just green to yellow - give the dying season a much different feel than we get out west. The fall brown tends to be longer than the spring, but it's still short by our standards.
I had little trouble transitioning to the west after spending a lot of my youth in Maine. We'd lived in Arizona too during that time, so perhaps I was more prepared than a native easterner would be.
One of the wonderful things about the southwest US is the variety of landscapes, as many posters here have mentioned. The main thing when considering relocation is to not make it permanent right away. Rent a house in Albuquerque or another city for a year, travel a lot, rent another house in Ruidoso if you prefer that. Stay flexible and you are sure to find a wonderful community in NM that will suit your preferences.
If you can manage it, plan to travel in the spring, when the wind is often unbearable for recent transplants. Or go up to CO or WY in March, then you're happy to get back to our mild 40 mph winds!
Thanks for the clarification.
Having lived in the desert/AZ before would definitely make it much less of a shock.
That's also good advice (rent/travel) for anyone, especially someone from a vastly different part of the country.
Being in a subtropical climate, yeah, they would. Since the OP had New England in the title, I was thinking more along those lines.
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