We had a bear in our back yard last Friday, walking right past our glass door across the deck. She jumped over the fence while I was calling Animal Control. We drove off to work having no idea she was up in one of our big ponderosa pines, right over our heads, until we saw it on the evening news!
The Friday before that another of our ponderosas took a direct lightning strike. Bark and pieces of fence-post were scattered up to 40 feet away. And it was loud! Aimée practically fainted. Hopefully the tree will be alright.
Erstwhile Human 
I watched lightning strike a tree in my yard once, and it seemed to go from the ground up, spiraling its way up and killing the tree. Here in Oregon, the dominant tree east of the Cascades is the Ponderosa, and west of the Cascades, the Douglas Fir.
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P.S. “Taking Long Walks on the (frozen, foggy, misty) Beach”
Then why are you in New Mexico instead of up here in Oregon?
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That walk was at Lake Pend Orielle in Sandpoint Idaho, Easter morning 1995. We stopped for Seder at our friends' house in Newport, about halfway from Spokane to Sandpoint, and as we left our friends were appalled that we hadn't made reservations. We wouldn't arrive until 11:00 and they were positive we would be unable to find a place the night before a major holiday. Well we actually didn't arrive until well past midnight as hwy 2 was torn up for construction most of the way, which with the thick pitch dark forest created an almost mystical aspect to the trip. But the first place we tried had a lovely room, which blew us away in the morning when we found out that the sliding glass doors opened directly onto the frozen, foggy, misty beach. Plus they had a fabulous Sunday brunch that was complimentary for guests. Wonderful weekend.
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But yes I do miss the Northwest. I have bad connotations with the Oregon Coast, as my sister died young there, alone and in misery. I used to love it. Not sure how it would be actually being there now though. 😦
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Our poir Ponderosa seems to be pulling through. The bark was scored down to the quick with two meandering, somewhat spiral lines on opposite sides of the tree. But they are covered completely in sap now and the tree doesn't appear fazed. We'll know more in the spring.
Our cul-de-sac was planted all over with Ponderosas when it was developed in 1950, and I love driving up to that cluster of trees ; it feels like “coming home” in more ways than one.
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“I have bad connotations with the Oregon Coast, as my sister died young there, alone and in misery.”
That would do it, alright. I'm so sorry. I can say this for the coast here; a pretty day on there is better than a pretty day anywhere else I have been. This is partly due to the fact that the whole darn beach in Oregon is publicly owned, and the water is so cold that it's rare to see people going into it (there are surfers, but they wear wetsuits), and this cuts down greatly on the noise, ugliness, and crowding that characterizes beaches in many places..
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