Sidetracked Charley

On December 29th, 2006 it started to snow. It snowed on the 30th and the 31st. On January 2007 we had six feet of snow in parts of the Moreno Valley and all of the four routes in and out of the valley were closed. They were closed for five days. My neighbor's husband was in crisis because of his just diagnosed cancer and could not be gotten to the hospital in Taos until January 2nd. The continual snow made even life flight impossible. It started to snow again, a friend reminded me, on January 3rd. Some areas of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico received a total of nine feet of snow over a week long period. When the weather was clear the National Guard dropped hay to stranded herds of cattle on the eastern plains of New Mexico. That made the national news. But the plight of our valley did not. It was the height of holiday season tourist and the visitors were trapped in the valley with us locals. That means 10,000 more people than normally live here in the towns of...

Christmas Morning Elk 2011 When my sister lived in New Mexico she would come up to my house for the holidays and we would almost always have several photo exhibitions. The Christmas Day photography trip was a tradition. Snowshoeing Christmas Day 2012 Last year we had snow but we have had some warm Christmases in the past few years which allowed for more playing around. In 2010 we even had a picnic on Christmas Day.  Crystal and Debbie Looking for Picnic spot 2010 Ponil Creek 2011 2011 was a bit chillier but in the sun it was definitely warmer than expected. We took tons of photos and had great laughs. But 2010 was exceptionally warm as the picture below indicates. Off road in Ocate 2010 There was always animals and great photos to be had and memories to be made. Everyone else was at home in front of the television and we were able to have the wilderness and off roads to ourselves. Nobody to spook the buffalo which were sunning themselves. It was b...

Ornaments on the tree Tomorrow is Christmas Eve? Really? Already? Physically I am ready. The tree is up and decorated. I have had my studio open for those looking for (and finding last minute gifts), and I know with whom I am spending tomorrow even with my sister having moved back to Texas. But 2013 from July until now has moved at such a pace I am exhausted. I feel as if I have run the entire time. And yet my body does not look that slim and trim. My 365 day photography challenge appearing on my other blog certainly has told me daily how soon 2013 is destined to end but denial is a God given survival skill. I have not even reviewed my wish list for 2013 let alone made out one for 2014. Did one of those silly games on Facebook where you post in comments the first word you see on a box of jumbled letters. It was wealth. I will go with that. I usually put that one down and hope for peace or love or some such. But I am going to stick with wealth for 2013. Wealth and fame. Some ...

It is that time of year again. I swear the absolute worst comes out in everyone. Maybe it is all the expectations of peace and love and goodwill. Or that we look back at all the times we have prayed for peace and it has never been delivered. And there seems no hope that it will. Read some where that out of the entire history of the United States we have only been not at war 35 years. Not any of my 35 years. In fact I no longer can say Vietnam is my war like WWII was Dad's. There has been Korea which Dad and I shared and then Iraq one and Iraq two and Afghanistan. Peace on earth is just a laugh. And unless you can put it in a computer program and sell it as an app for your smart phone there is no good will to man or woman either. Angry Birds sort of says it all. But the sun keeps moving on through its cycles and this morning brought the Winter Solstice (Summer Solstice for my southern friends). The days will be growing a bit lighter every day and that is good. And that Wik...

There is this debate on this other blog I post to sometimes weekly. The Mag is a weekly post by Tess Kincaid in which she challenges us to write a poem or vignette in response to a visual prompt. I like the group of people and their poems. I like the challenge of having to come up with the right words in a set time frame. I like thinking out of my comfortable box. Even when I do not post a poem I will read the poems of others linked to The Mag. I do not always comment. How many times can you say "nice imagery" and sound authentic. I do comment, however, when a particular offering really hits a nerve or it is a friend of mine or someone who has just posted a particularly nice comment on my offering. Hey, they are not always gems. The debate this morning on The Mag was down in comments and about the difficulty of posting comments. Not there but on the blogs of some contributing poets. It is those damnable "prove you are not a robot" puzzles you have to get thr...

The Time of Long Shadows I definitely think I am behind in my weekly blogs here. Too quickly we seem to be into the time of the long shadows. And the too short days. I seem to have gone into longer sleeps and more things to accomplish when awake. And less of those things done perhaps. My neighbor has been gone and when she left that seemed like a really good thing because I was going to gain all that time I had been spending on morning coffee of late. Best Laid Plans*, etc. She left me with a list of tasks I could work on and get paid for while she was gone and I fully felt I could easily get them all done. BLP* again. And this week she will be home. I blame all the things I had to do at my house like clean up the studio, get the holiday tree cut down and decorated, etc. But there is a whole list of what I was suppose to do here that did not get done. BLP again. Studio open for visitors  But the Yule tree did get selected and erected and decorated. And the studio cl...

While the rest of the world is upgrading to more and more sophisticated cell phones I have downgraded to a burner phone. And have even debated doing that at all. I got it originally for road trouble but on my roads I have no signal in any place where I might have a mechanical problem. It gets used mostly to find my shopping partners in large box stores. I once used it for long distance. But I had signal problems. Turns out 55% of users do have signal problems and I am willing to bet the majority of them live in Utah or New Mexico. And that isn't easy to do because there are whole sections of both states which do not have cell towers. The service at my house has improved except when doing cell phone to cell phone. A whole group of people have decided in the effort to economize to cut themselves off from a land line. Yes, I went the other way when my land line company added DSL. But I had to get unlimited long distance because it does not matter if the person whose cell you a...

There is something about November which is without distinction. If it were not for Thanksgiving we would all forget it as we do February. I get so tired of things in November. Maybe it is some primal desire to crawl into my prepared cave and sleep away the winter. And yet because of December one has to stay conscious through November. At least barely. And the cycle of submissions for exhibits in the art world requires some attention to details I would rather just forget. But I know I will regret it come January. And a whole number of things have been going on which have required my attention. The tenant is not moving out at the rate promised. My sister has moved to Texas, and that has not gone as planned. My friend next door went frantic in her speed to get to Florida. Frankly, I am finding myself happy she is gone. And guilty I feel that way. December looks busy with a whole list of odd jobs for pay. And with the driveway (hopefully any day) free of all cars but mine I can ope...

Wintery Mix I really do not hate winter. I was a ski instructor for more winters than I am willing to admit to this morning. And I have lived in Colorado and New Mexico where winter provides much of the local income. But there are certain winter conditions I am not fond of. The older I get the more picky I get about snow. And since the record winter of 2006 I would just as soon the snow line be 250 feet above my house. I am not fond of the new favorite term on weather sites: Wintery Mix. It seems to encompass the absolute worst of winter - sleet, hail, freezing rain which it tops off with blowing snow. I hate the term blowing snow. Frankly, I think it is a cop out. What they mean is blizzard but they do not want to panic us because blizzard brings back the PTSD from the winter of 2006. I have a friend who suffered a crisis during that three day storm that delivered six feet of snow which didn't melt until May. I believe it finally just wore out from being blown around into ne...

It is 4:09 a.m and I have been up for two hours. For the record I do not do the fall back part of daylight savings (is there a daylight bank were it is stored?) at all well. In fact I am not sure if we are just entering daylight savings or exiting it. But I digress. This blog is supposedly about thinking out of the box when I should be sleeping. At least the clock said I should be sleeping. But I am not sure I believe any of the clocks. Friends of mine on the ethernet know I am much upset about the current tenant, who thankfully is moving out not a day too soon. I have, rather automatically, put a for rent notice on Craig's List. But in my gut and soul I really do not want another tenant. The last three have been from hell. And the last two have cost me money. With the current soon-to-be-gone tenant I have not been able to have my studio open. There has been no place to park with his sometimes six (yes, 6 large) vehicles and three trailers. People have not been able to see my...

Goodbye October The last two days of October were punctuated with snow. The snow on the 30th was beautiful. Wet and heavy it clung to the trees and soaked the land as it quickly melted into the dry ground. The next day's snow was not nearly as beautiful and it came with a wind which closed you into the house. Halloween snows were once to be counted on here in the high country. Trick or Treating door to door went without protest to community parties, haunted houses, and going to businesses for treats. I live on one of those quiet little back roads with only two juveniles so it has never been an issue at my house. I think I got one party of ghouls after I first moved in and still had the two huge German Shepherds. On this first day of November I am told by a British friend I must say white rabbit for luck. Living alone that means typing white rabbit. And posting white rabbits. White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland The above image certainly seems appropriate. And it goes...

And then the leaves were gone The lone tree on the hill was glorious last year but this year it seemed to suffer from the drought. By itself on the hill you could see so clearly that its leaves were smaller and its foliage less dense. The monsoon rains came in September in earnest and while they were nice in the amount they were late. Late for almost everything important like trees and deer. First year I saw fawns with spots in October. Almost as if the does had waited and rushed to reproduce when it will be too late for their offspring to survive the winter. Maybe even the fall. It has been a rough fall. Temperatures have been lower than usual and the golden trees few and sometimes far between. Like the lone tree on the hill few reached peak color before dropping all their leaves. Summer came late and left early. Fall just could not seem to make up its mind. Grove of gold I was surprised last week to find this grove of aspen in glorious color. They had stayed greenish fo...

Along the Rio Grande The aspens because of the drought have not been colorful this year like last. So in a last ditch effort to capture some gold in them thar hills my photography buddy and I set off for the river edges in the area. First was Embudo canyon along the Rio Grande and then on to the Rio Chama near Abiquiu.  We got lucky but not without getting out of the car and hiking remote paths to get unique perspectives. Unfortunately after about two hours of doing that and taking some 80 pictures my card in the camera failed. So I cannot show you those pictures. They are forever the "fish that got away" sort of thing. And they included to fly fishermen on the Rio Grande. A fly fisherman told me once that it was not the gentle and passive sport it appears to be. Wading through rushing water and standing on slippery river rocks and casting in an exact rhythm does involve lots of fine tuned muscle movements and balance. So does photography. Reflections in the Rio Gr...

And it is off to the Ball The runway is still being repaired in Angel Fire so I had to throw my bags in my car and get to Taos early to meet my dates Henry Standing Bear and Walt Longmire. Lou Diamond Phillips Robert Taylor as Sheriff Longmire  It is cold and dark here on the Taos Volcanic Plateau before dawn but I think I have been promised a catered breakfast once the jet takes off for Ohio.  I am told a couple other members of the cast of Longmire are coming too but it is suppose to be a surprise. They had heard of the great fun to be had at the 6th Annual Willow Manor Ball . Seems last year's date, Johnny Depp has been talking about the Trinidad Rum Bracelet by Jessica Duke At the last moment before I left the house I spied my Jessica Duke silver bracelet from last year's ball and put it on. Something old to bring to the new adventure. See previous blogs for everything I have packed. And stay tuned for breaking news on the fun to be had at...

Hammered Silver Necklace My friend pointed out I had forgotten shoes to wear with the morning dress and I suddenly realized I had forgotten a lot of accessories. The above necklace will go with the morning dress and also with the travel suit and blouse I chose below. Went for a burgundy silk blouse instead The ballet slippers will be a nice relief for the high heeled boots I am wearing with the harlequin costume too. When you are dancing all night it is good to have alternatives. Taking off the elastic and putting on black satin ribbon And decided to throw in last year's travel shoes because they had a lower heel then those recommended by Bee. These will go very nicely with the black satin lapel suit. I think one of the reasons I forgot accessories is the harlequin outfit I am wearing does not lend itself to jewelry because of all the ruffs. But I found these gold cuff bracelets for some added bling. They go with the gold trim on the ruffs and accents on...