Sidetracked Charley

Too much going on. And I can get a little crazy when there is to much I need to do. But not to worry, I will not declare myself The Chosen One . I will just lose track of  computer glasses. Again. And lose some sleep. More sleep. Waking up after just three or four and falling into the trap of hamster wheel thinking.  In the wee hours before dawn I remember a trick that used to work to make the hamster go back to sleep -- paper and pen beside the bed. Course I had to get up and go downstairs and find a pen and paper, so I could write down the worries keeping me up. Then in the morning I could look at my midnight scribbles and decide which to take up after coffee. Course that just seems to make me busier. So triage. In my days of working for corporate America these were skills I was well schooled in. I must confess to a re-learning curve here at the moment. I cannot seem to get past finding my computer glasses. They should be at my desktop or my laptop. Or sinc...

One corner of the studio with beaded jewelry and the new standing panel paintings. As most of my frequent readers know I have been busy cleaning up for the second annual Angel Fire Studio Tour . And of course I was not going to take the easy way out would have been a simple done and dusted. Fall is my usual time for a thorough cleaning and rearrange of my living space. And I confess I live mostly in my studio. With winter approaching it is a good time to make all ship shape while taking inventory of what might be needed to entertain myself if snowed in for a week like in 2006. Happily the studio tour occurs just when I am doing the fall dust off. Fall is also when my sister and I try to snatch a few days by ourselves and this year it was at the Kamaja Resort on the Rio Grande River. And just before that event I slammed the door of my pickup the wrong way, and activated an old injury of my left shoulder. My theory was a few days in hot tubs and pools at the resort would sol...

Red Sunflower There is a point in August when the wind comes from a new direction and carries with it a hint of cool weather coming. This year I was down on the Bosque north of Albuquerque when fall arrived. Thus proving it didn't have anything to do with my higher altitude in Black Lake. And it isn't just a coolness to the breeze but the smell of fullness or ripeness. Fall smells different than spring or summer.  Changes in color on the bosque I returned to my Black Lake home to find the wild asters in bloom, late cowslip. The rust colored sumac in seed is missed. We missed the wildflowers of the spring because of the winter drought which continued into early summer.  Mare and foal in the fall  I have felt off step through the summer with my edible garden efforts. Root crops did not produce and I lost my Spanish garlic crop for some reason. Greens and chard fed me well but Broccoli and Brussels Spouts were disappointing. But the flowers in my beds mad...