Baker H. Morrow, professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of N.M., will be at Page One Books at 3pm on Sunday, May 1, to talk about and sign his updated non-fiction effort, Best Plants for New Mexico Gardens and Landscapes: Keyed to Cities and Regions in New Mexico and Adjacent Areas, Revised and Expanded Edition.

The book is described as such: "First published in 1995, this invaluable guide to the trees, shrubs, ground covers, and smaller plants that thrive in New Mexico's many life zones and growing areas is now available in a long-awaited new edition. Landscape architect Baker H. Morrow considers the significant factors that impact planting in New Mexico—including soil conditions, altitude, drought, urban expansion, climate change, and ultraviolet radiation—to provide the tools for successful gardens and landscapes in the state. Added photographs and sketches identify the forms and uses of plants, including many new species that have become widely available in the region since the 1990s. The latest recommendations for specific cities and towns include more photos for ease of reference, and botanical names have also been updated. With ingenuity and efficient water management, Morrow demonstrates how to create landscapes that provide shade, color, oxygen, soil protection, windscreening and outdoor enjoyment."

Morrow, Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, has been a principal of Morrow Reardon Wilkinson Miller, Ltd., Landscape Architects for the past 36 years. Morrow is Professor of Practice of Landscape Architecture at the University of New Mexico (since 1975), where he is the founder of the MLA program in the School of Architecture and Planning. A third-generation New Mexican, he is the author of a number of books, including Best Plants for New Mexico Gardens and Landscapes and A Dictionary of Landscape Architecture, and the co-editor of Canyon Gardens: The Ancient Pueblo Landscapes of the American Southwest. Morrow is an award-winning landscape architect, experienced at working with stakeholders on pressing issues in both English and Spanish. He and his firm have received over 90 design awards and citations since 1980. Practicing in New Mexico and the surrounding area, he has served as project manager and principal in charge for more than 3000 projects. Among Professor Morrow’s award winning projects are the Journal Center, the New Mexico State Fairgrounds entries, Park Square, Dietz Farm Plaza, Children’s Psychiatric Center at UNM, St. Joseph Square, the Albuquerque Academy, and Yale Boulevard in Albuquerque.

Page One Books is located at 5850 Eubank NE, Suite B-41, in Albuquerque's Mountain Run Shopping Center (southeast corner of Eubank and Juan Tabo). The Morrow event is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 294-2026 or visit www.page1book.com.

James Terry will be at Page One Books at 4pm on Saturday, April 9, to talk about and sign his book of Deming-based tales, Kingdom of the Sun: Stories.

The book is described as such: Set in southwestern New Mexico, the stories in James Terry's debut explore the joys, insecurities and failures of memorable characters as they attempt to connect with—or disconnect from—others around them. The elderly landlady of the Darling Courts apartments hires a reclusive handyman who suffers from a fear of water, and the pair forms an unlikely bond. A worker's unscrupulous plan to build a road in the middle of the desert is threatened by a lonely pregnant woman living in a trailer parked directly in his path. Overcome by nostalgia, a married trucker making the California run from Waco to Los Angeles takes a truck-stop waitress to the Deming drive-in theater with disappointing results. Together, these surprising stories uncover how our environment manifests itself in our everyday lives.

Terry's fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Prize, and his stories have appeared in the Iowa Review, the Georgia Review, Fiction and elsewhere. Raised in Deming, N.M., Terry now resides in Liverpool, England.

Before I moved to Albuquerque a few months ago, I had a talk with my roommate (who had already lived here for a year). She explained to me that Albuquerque was a huge art-based city with such attributes as relaxed people, balloon festivals and green chile. She explained that you had to ask for “no green chile” or else people put it on everything. She also warned me of another thing.

She paused for a second before saying, “Well, the people here are really nice.” My initial response: “Oh no … ” “Yeah,” she said, “That means you have to learn how to be nice back.”

She wasn't lying. Since I've moved here, I've noticed that everyone I've met, or had the pleasure of conversing with, is incredibly nice to the point where it makes me feel inadequate, almost foreign. Not to say I'm this huge egomaniacal, mean-spirited, better-than-everyone person. In fact, just the opposite. Everyone I've met has told me how incredibly nice I am, but when I meet people that are described as “nice” or “sweet,” my guard is immediately up. But that hasn't happened here.

Whether I'm riding the Tram over a plane crash that happened years ago (fearing for my life) or traipsing through Old Town in search of some old-fashioned quality to help me escape the somewhat-midlife modernity of adulthood, everyone I speak to always wants to know two things: Where are you from? And what brought you to Albuquerque? I've never seen a place where people want to know your story, know who you are, and know about your hobbies, goals, artistic endeavors, favorite color, etc.

What was once a fear and apprehension of moving to a city surrounded by the desert quickly turned into relief at the fact that this city not only has so much to offer, but that its people are just happy and content to be here. And that shows in their carefree attitudes. My hometown could use a little of that. This, in itself, is one of my first experiences of living here, and though people have suggested a few items of adventurous inquiry, everything worth doing is done in due time.

Who knows? By next Friday, maybe I will have ridden a donkey in the desert while sipping Tequila, or fired a shotgun at broken bottles at the foothills, or eaten at a traditional, Burque restaurant. I'm always up for more suggestions.

In this week’s news section, reporter Jack King highlights a lack of transparency when it comes to the Dirt City’s water supply.

The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority spent millions on a project that’s designed to take some of the strain off our aquifer. We divert water from the Colorado River Basin and add it to the Rio Grande. But the utility hasn’t met its relief objectives for 2009 and 2010, and the governing board had no idea, according to King’s story.

The utility’s promised to up its transparency game.

This week, County Commissioner Art De La Cruz wrote a letter to the Alibi defending the project. He writes:

First and foremost, after three years of project operation the U.S. Geological Survey is reporting that the aquifer is showing signs of rebound. According to the USGS New Mexico Water Science Center, increases in winter groundwater levels (which are most representative of aquifer condition) are being observed. This is consistent with predictions from model simulations wherein groundwater pumping was reduced in favor of using surface water. Given that the water-level trend had generally been downward through the early part of this decade, the reversal is an extremely positive development.

Read the rest of his letter in the next edition of the Alibi, which will be online tomorrow evening. And look for another article by King in the coming weeks.

Family of civil rights lawyer Mary Han says police botched the investigation of her death.

Los Ranchos may get a plastic bag manufacturing plant that operates 24 hours a day.

Guv sent out letters to see whether immigrants with driver’s licenses still live in the state. She says more than a quarter of them were sent back by the post office.

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Carlsbad is running out of water.

Tonight, Republican candidates will debate in Iowa. Gawker’s got your predictions.

More people are getting their tattoos removed.

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Robotic exoskeleton. Yhuuuuuusssssssssss.

Underwater volcano to erupt near Oregon.

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The other day I was fined for having water flowing from my yard into the street. Now, I'm not complaining—wasting water is bad, especially since New Mexico is in an extreme drought. But guess who is wasting the most water ... not me, not your annoying neighbor who never fixes the sprinklers. No, it's the city.

According to KRQE, in the last year the City of Albuquerque has racked up a hefty fine of over $21,000 from the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Authority. Even more surprising than the fine is that the areas where the most water is wasted are not large city parks or grassy areas, but street medians. Wow Albuquerque, it may be time for some new sprinklers, don't you think?