July Parades and Wildflowers

glorious chickory

The annual Fiesta Days celebration – shops close, alcohol is consumed, dancing is revived – is meant to commemorate the multicultural heritage of the area including Native Americans (you know - everyone calls them Indians here, including the Indians), Spanish Conquistadores, French Trappers, Mountain Men, the Catholic Choich, etc. It was a low key parade, political banners aplenty. According to the fella next to me, Taos went Democratic 88% in the last election, hence Repugs parade participation was, let's be kind, thin and listless; it comes naturally to them. The kids' Mariachi Band was a hit with me, along with the Sheriff's Posse folks (I think there's a gal in there) from the Rodeo.

These are the dog days of summer, but the heat is nada compared to places like Roswell and ABQ, where it's reaching into the triple digits this weekend. The local news is nightly fraught with tragic report of babies left in cars, window cracked open, while mum runs errands. Say what? So the Health Dept. etc. recommends, so parents don't mistakenly leave kiddies to boil (104 to 107 degrees is all it takes), in their carseats: When you get in the car place your hat in the backseat to help you remember there's a kid there.  So Hat = child ? If you can't remember there's a child on board, how the hell do you expect folks to remember to check the backseat for their hat?  Or even to wear one in the first place? Who gives such people license to procreate?

Nights here are blissfully cool, plenty of ceiling fans, nevertheless by noon one begins to thoroughly appreciate the siesta tradition. It's just too damn hot to stay outdoors. I tried about 40 minutes on the tennis court today at 11 and nearly ended up prostrate on the court. Lotsa water down the hatch and a nice dip in the pool; it's hard to believe they go to the trouble of actually heating the pool it as the couple of days the heating unit was broken I thought the water temp was perfect, certainly much warmer than a day at the beach in Maine!

hollyhocks hang in

The abundance of wildflowers is simply amazing, flourishing in the wake of monsoons. And, to top it all off, who knew sunflowers grew wild here? Towering sunflower plants line every thoroughfare and sidewalk on the verge of  bursting forth a la Van Gogh any day now. What a riot of color that will be.  The hollyhocks are still going strong, a constant and delightful distraction from the heat if I need to runout for something, like the daily Santa Fe paper which daily and weekends runs a syndicated version of the NY Times crossword. And then there's the wild chickory, massive fields of it spread just outside town near the mountains and their color, that French mignonette blue, blankets the fields of grazing horses. Fuschia pompoms, some kind of wild thistle, tall and graceful, hanging in, again growing with wild abandon wherever they can manage to find purchase in this stingy, sandy soil. Today a sea of lavender color, plant unknown, presented itself on the way back into town from the tennis courts. My crap camera couldn't do it. Just a short bike ride from the house are local sheep farms, goats, horses and cattle farms that run along the lush green tree-lined valleys of the Rio Pueblo and Rio Lucero – a short, pleasant and, most important to my mind, flat  ride without too much car traffic if you time it right.

evening stroll

It's Friday, so tomorrow is Farmers' Market, a weekly event I enjoy. Last weekend there, a rather good string band performed a crooning, soulfully Appalachian rendition of "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" that made my day. I came home and spent an hour reading about the history of that tune, looking for original lyrics, etc., generally nerding out about it, humming away all day. It suits my present state of mind; wish I had a guitar with me.

I filled the hummingbird feeder with 1/4 sugar to 3/4 water and those buggers came a-runnin.  One of the species migrates all the way from Mexico, up through California and over the Rockies to Taos. That one is mostly orange (there are others as well) and, for its body length, holds the record among all birds for the longest migration.  The orange ones are highly territorial.  I watch from the porch as the other species wait for him to leave so they can approach the feeder (as I cheer them on). Admonitions to share fall on deaf ears. The babies are tinier than your thumb and less watchful than the adults. We hear them all day, from sunup to sundown, whirring across the back yard, making a sound much like circus clown whistles. Temporary pets. I miss the cats.

park Santa Fe

We headed to Santa Fe for grocerias Saturday and to see the annual Spanish art show there. I 've become thoroughly taken with those small enclosed tin altars with religious figures painted in them, nichos, they're called. Sometimes the picture is simply a holy card, but they have utterly conquered my heart. We found a cool place for lunch, been open a year, Chez Mamou, in SF, the owner is French and the food is reasonably priced and authentically francais.  Sat outside on the tiny alley terrace and imagined we were in Nice. (below)

chex Mamou SFe

Last night we tried a friendly mexican resto in Ranchos de Taos, just south of here (a more authentic feel than Taos proper) and stumbled on a gallery tres charmante, stuff the owners had painted or sketched plus an eclectic collection of everything from Indian figurines to Star Wars collectibles,  to, yes, a lovely old nicho I wouldn't mind having. Nice folks there. Weird stuff, I  was charmed utterly. Every now and then you find something around here that has the ring of authenticity, that isn't trying to be something long since lost.  One thing I've noticed: you are much more likely to get genuine and friendly good quality service in restos and cafes with an ethnic (Mexican or Indian) staff than caucasian.
I'm just sayin'...  It's been true much more often than not.

tin altar, Spanish Market SF

Headed to local library today for more Steinbeck and maybe see if Martha's new tome has arrived. My brain is rubbing its hands in excited anticipation.

Oh, please take note: A friend's old beau of many years ago has just published an autobiographical novel that is, today, available on Amazon. It's called Who Quinn Became and I highly recommend it, especially for the Boomer cohort, based on a few snippets I read on his website.  It's third on my list of must reads at the moment. Check it, ya'll.

ciao for now.

Muah!

early morning in the valley

Of Rodeos, Powwows, and other things...

Rodeo grandstand in background

A couple weeks ago we were looking for something to do that didn't include wandering around the vicinity of the Taos plaza like tourists. A notice in the paper announced the Taos County Sheriff's Posse Rodeo (the word "posse" alone, folks on horseback proceeding swiftly with purpose, got me going, the Wild West still lives I'm told, not always a good thing though) and we were out the door in a flash, headed for the dusty rodeo grounds on the southwest side of town. For a measly ten bucks each we sat in the shaded bleachers and enjoyed an afternoon of skilled calf roping and bronco riding (not real broncs, but tamed horses they tie a tight cinch around that pisses the horse off, and voila! a bucking horse).

You have to admire the rodeo circuit folks. For a fee they enter competitions where the odds are wildly against them and hope to rope a calf or manage to stay on a half mad horse doing his best to throw you airborne; performances are timed and judged, I take it, on style points as well. The thing that impressed me most was the sense of cooperation and the incredible confidence of every participant, from the spangled rodeo queens to the calf ropers, when it came to handling a horse in the arena. I couldn't help think if everyone in the US had their confidence and skill with large animals, we all might be in better shape. The fellas who rope and capture runaway broncs after they throw the rider were the stars of the show; they had that sense I witnessed once on a Wyoming ranch, the basis of which is simply to offer the horse the best possible choice in order to get him to do what you wanted him to do. Much like raising kids.

budding cowgirl

Last weekend we spent two days at the Taos Pueblo's annual Powwow, a gathering of various tribes performing in traditional dance and drumming competitions. The color, sound, rhythms, pack a powerful punch in themselves, and the event is held on tribal land spread beneath the shadow of the big mountain. They have to be one of the very few tribes that ended up with nice land for a rez, it's gorgeous out there, only a couple miles out of town.

opening procession

shawl dancer

At the opening ceremonies each day, tribal elders and folks of note in the tribal community lead a procession followed by all the categories of dancers while about a dozen different drumming groups (six or seven singers in a circle, each with a long padded stick chanting in unison and beating out a rhythm on a giant drum) accompanying them from the sidelines. All I could think was if I was an early settler and heard that insistent chanting and drumming, the thrumming bells and jingles of dancing feet, I'd figure I was a gonner. Standing close to the inaugural procession, its power was something to behold, circling the grounds in a ONE-two, One-two rhythm that mesmerized the audience and dancers alike.  I had my favorites, dancers I hoped would win in their respective categories.

jingle dancer

    I loved the gals with the jingle skirts, made from tin can lids I was told, but she might have been pulling my leg.  I should mention the watermelon iced tea was a big hit with us.    

most awesome

the arena

drum circle chanters

It's monsoon season here, every afternoon serious rain complete with hail, lightening and thunder rolls over the valley, drenching the grateful earth. As a result, wildflowers abound. Hollyhocks, Russian sage, wild white desert poppies, blue hazed fields of chicory, daisies, bachelor buttons, pink thistles in profusion fill the fields. The hillsides seem greener, the sagebrush's grey-green more vibrant. It's the best thing about this place, to my mind. The Farmers' Market is quite good. One tires of the endless exudation of brown houses. I'm sure there are loads of rationales for it, but.. sigh...I sense a wee frisson at the sight of a rare two story house. We haven't ventured very far afield, but plan heading west some, to Farmington, Chama, Abiquiu, eventually.

farmers' market band

The days are hot and the nights fairly cool. Lotsa rain lately. Extreme drought here needs the relief. All the county rescue vehicles are housed only blocks from here, so we hear a fair number of sirens, sort of like you might hear in New York City. But some days it's quieter.

I managed to locate the only real nursery and bought some zinnias for the pots of half dead fleurs on the porch. It's Fiesta weekend this weekend on the Plaza, yesterday we enjoyed an amazingly good Tejano band on the bandstand there.

We appear to have a family of skunks living under the garden shed in the backyard. A mum and five absolutely adorable babies who come out to sun themselves and have a frolic in the afternoon sun, tails aloft as they roll and tumble playfully over each other, I watch from the window. I never thought I'd see the day I found skunks fascinatingly cute.

It's turning out to be a Steinbeck Summer. Can't get enough of him. Glad he wrote so many books.

Still...  I feel quite homesick for a place I can't seem to find on a map.

Nevertheless, I thought this had definite appeal....

peace out

What Does It Mean To Be a Democrat These Days?

I found this today on billmoyers.com, one of the best news sources out there. It's nice to know someone sees the forest for the trees out there.

This post originally appeared at the Campaign for America’s Future.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), center, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, make statements introducing Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) seated at left, to the committee during his confirmation hearing to become secretary of state, replacing Clinton, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Over at The Washington Post, the usually sensible Greg Sargent endorses the notion that divisions among Democrats are “mostly trumped up.” The tension between the Wall Street wing of the party and the Warren (as in Elizabeth) wing is an overblown fiction of a press corps desperate for some action.

It’s true that the prior divisions on social issues have dissipated, as liberals have swept the field. Obama’s halting attempts to wean the US from its foreign wars have garnered widespread support. And on economics, Sargent argues that Democrats “largely agree on the menu of policy responses to the economic problems faced by poor, working and middle class Americans — a higher minimum wage, universal pre-K, higher taxes on the wealthy to fund a stronger safety net, job creation and job training — whatever the broader rhetorical umbrella is being used.” Even Hillary says she agrees with Thomas Piketty that extreme inequality is a “threat” to our democracy.

There are differences on how aggressively to go after the big banks or whether to expand Social Security, Sargent admits, and a debate underway about “whether to push the Democratic Party in a more populist direction,” which he declines to define. But generally, he argues, there’s broad agreement that Hillary or any Democratic candidate will run on.

All of this is true except the conclusion. There is a broad agreement on what might be called a “populist lite” agenda — one that has been put forth repeatedly by Obama and frustrated by Republican obstruction. And the reforms — from the minimum wage to universal pre-K — are important and will make a difference.

But it strikes me as bizarre to suggest that there is no serious debate among Democrats when the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country and a key power in Democratic circles, has just called for the resignation of Obama’s education secretary. Democratic House and Senate leaders refuse to allow even a vote on fast-track trade authority sought by the president, and a majority of the Democratic caucus lines up against Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. Progressives in both houses demand bold action on jobs, on taxing and investing that the president resists. Democrats revolt against the White House desire to trim Social Security benefits.

In fact, there is a fundamental debate brewing in the party, grounded on very different perspectives that lead in significantly different directions.

On one side are the passive voice populists, which include both Clintons and Obama. They argue that our Gilded Age inequality is the product of technology and globalization, as if these were autonomous forces like the weather. The effects — a declining middle class, stagnant wages, spreading misery — can be ameliorated by sensible policies, like the agenda Sargent ticks off. Most of all, Americans need to make certain the next generation gets better education and training so they can better compete in the global marketplace. Universal preschool is a first step to that. But the largest thrust — driven by the party’s deep pocket donors — is an assault on teacher’s unions and public schools, investment in charters, public and private, and a focus on high-stakes testing to measure teacher and school performance.

Undergirding this is an acceptance that we can’t really afford to do even the minimum in public education or child poverty, so the focus has to be on cheaper ways to make progress. This assumption also fuels the interest in cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits, experimenting with public-private partnerships to raise funds, and so on. All this assumes that we’re close to the limits on taxes, that corporate tax reform should be “revenue neutral,” (that is, companies should not contribute one dime more to our investment or budget needs), and that taxes on the wealthy can’t produce much additional revenue.

The activist-voice populists disagree fundamentally with both the analysis and the prescription. They argue that extreme inequality results from rules that were rigged to benefit the few and not the many. That leads to the demand for structural reforms to change the rules: fair and balanced trade and tax policies to replace those created by and for the multinationals; breaking up big banks and curbing Wall Street’s casino as opposed to accepting banks that are too big to fail and too big to save; progressive tax reforms to create revenue for the public investments that we need in everything from education to infrastructure to an expanded safety net; empowering workers and curbing CEO license to ensure workers share in the profits they help to produce; expanding Social Security and public pensions while moving further towards true universal, affordable health care.

These differences are only now emerging, as the failure of the recovery forces a bigger debate about our economy. The Wall Street wing presses forward with corporate trade deals that are opposed by a growing majority of voters. The bankers bear no accountability for their pervasive frauds and lawlessness, while most Americans are looking for perp walks. Well-heeled lobbies block any sensible tax reform, while polls show Americans strongly want the rich and the corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Obama has already felt the revolt of the Democratic base against his plans to pare Social Security benefits. Clinton and Obama have been essentially AWOL in the war on labor and collective bargaining, essential elements of any strategy to rebuild the middle class.

Obviously, many of these questions pit the wealthy Wall Street and Silicon Valley donor class against the vast bulk of Democratic voters who are struggling in this economy. It’s not surprising that smart politicians have moved to adopt the populist lite agenda to appeal to the latter without offending the former.

But the divisions are likely to grow because most Americans are struggling in this economy. (Most still think it is in recession.) And with the deck still stacked against most Americans, little is likely to change without a new deal (to borrow a phrase).

And in addition to this is Hillary’s apparent intent to run to the right of Obama on foreign policy — to champion more interventionist and hawkish views at a time when Americans want to rebuild at home. If she pursues this course, it will likely spark a new debate around foreign policy that Obama’s relative caution largely avoided.

Democrats have always been a big-tent party. The divisions between Southern segregationists and Northern liberals were apparent. The battles over civil rights, women’s rights, choice, wars and gays and guns were fierce. Many of these debates now have largely dissipated as liberals have won and the party’s base has evolved. The New Dem scorn for traditional liberals and labor drove big primary fights.

But the new debates over economic direction and the likely battle over policing the world are just beginning to take shape. And if the economy continues to reward the few and not the many, the divisions won’t need to be trumped up.

The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone, and presented here to offer a variety of perspectives to our readers.

Robert L. Borosage is the founder and president of the Institute for America’s Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America’s Future.

Life At 7,000 Feet Above Sea Level

Taos Pueblo

Well, I've been here a month now, and find Taos a rather mixed bag. Friendly people, and not so friendly people (the latter mostly at the local chichi grocer.)  I vaguely recall a brief visit here in 1980: a quiet village, dirt roads, hollyhocks in profusion against white stucco, not much going on, few people. Laid back so far as to be reclining. I've tried in vain to find that utterly enchanting coffee place from back then, and an art gallery on a dirt road where I once bought a photo print, but the place looks entirely different than I remember it. (This is a common occurrence wherever I go in the Southwest. Still, one expects something to remain the same, despite the passing of three or four decades.)  I might have been in another town altogether for as little the present day Taos resembles my memory of it, a sleepy, silent place no more.  But the hollyhocks, oh joie! still flourish everywhere you look. Gorgeous color, lush, valiant plants in a mercilessly dry climate.

hollyhocks galore

Living in town, just blocks from the Plaza, is a quaint but rather noisy business. The cops here seem overly fond of their sirens; there just can't be as much criminal activity or urgent trips to hospital as screaming sirens seem to indicate. More like Beirut than a country town in the wilds of New Mexico. The houses, all brown "adobe style" are planted cheek by jowl separated by coyote fencing and stucco walls, an illusion of privacy which does little to muffle the sound of, say, your neighbor hacking and clearing his throat at 5 a.m. or engaging her dog in lengthy, inane conversation. Garbage trucks get rolling every day at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. and, like the cops, are immune to the annoying beepbeepbeepbeep they emit at every stop. For a small town, there's a lot of traffic. Sound travels.

The town is nestled in the valley of surrounding mountain ranges, the Sangre de Cristos (Blood o' Christ), among them; nearby Wheeler Peak looms about 12,000 ft. to the East, providing a kind of wall against which billowing clouds arriving daily from the north and west appear to compact and condense, gathering force in preparation for the afternoon monsoon. We sometimes walk a few blocks out of town to witness "walking rain" falling everywhere but here or another spectacular sunset. Gentler peaks south of town curve westward around to Angel Fire peak, further west distant ranges beckon, fading northward. Snow blanketed the peaks near Angel Fire July 4 weekend; one day green, next day white, now green again. From my Flagstaff days back in '72 (an era my kids perceive vaguely as "back in the day") I recall that it takes a few weeks to acclimate to high altitudes – even if you drive there from sea level as we did – to get to the point where, say, walking fifty feet up a twenty degree incline doesn't leave you completely winded. And yet there we were, five miles out of town at the tennis courts, thinking we'd blast through a couple of easy sets our first week here.

Dream on, chile.
The air here is thin and dry as an old bone. Local advisories suggest measures to counter altitude adjustment issues (windedness, dizziness, that feeling of imminent cardiac arrest): drinking several quarts of water a day and "carbing up". In fact they recommend changing your diet to, like, 70% carbs for awhile. Say what now?

Not with this inflated enchilada round my waist!  After struggling to get carbs down to a reasonable 15% of my food consumption carbing up was not on my agenda. We opted instead to take it slow for a few weeks and can now manage a couple hours of tennis, early in the a.m. No alarm needed, as the garbage crew is so dependable.  Heat prostration (otherwise known as "siesta" here) sets in by noon when  the sun beats down so intensely through this thin atmosphere my fair Irish skin can't tolerate poolside for more than a half hour before I throw in the towel and head home to spend the rest of the day reading, enveloped in cool adobe, ceiling fans whirring quietly, time passing.... drip.. drip....   like Xeriscape irrigation, eeking liquid ever so slowly ... sands through the hourglass...  the days of our lives...

Speaking of reading, wandering the nicely stocked fiction isles of the Taos Library a couple of weeks ago, I happened on Steinbeck's "Cannery Row". What a welcome respite from the cynical me-itis of much contemporary literature, not to mention the sheer joy of writing so divinely wrought its purity and utter lack of nonsense just blow you away, his manifest love for his characters. Gorgeous. I was hoping to find "The Pearl" next, but no luck. Instead I've got "The Winter of Our Discontent", his final, disappointed commentary on American life. I'm not expecting all that love in this volume but have no doubt I'll relate.  Then there was Lily Tuck's "Siam",  another wonderful read by a friend's ex-wife whom I once met on Islesboro.  I wish I'd read her work before that meeting as it's really lovely, wickedly so. Am diving into Turgenev's "Faust" now...  Here's a nice quote I came across today. It rather nicely puts the art of writing in perspective.

"Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself. '-Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922) 

High season brings tourists saddled with fanny packs (Really? Still? You'd think given all the photos folks take of themselves those unflattering sacks might stand out as something they'd have eschewed by now), slurping ice cream cones. People sporting cowboy hats, boots, sneakers, those ungodly hiking sandals, aimlessly scuffling along. This scuffling habit, begun, as many bad habits are, with the younger set, has trickled up to the older set, as "you guys" and "awesome" have. It's a pet peeve of mine (yes, one of many), a not so subtle indication of lazy nonchalance gripping the nation, along with grown men who dress like teenagers and folks, women no less,  who insist, despite my obvious anatomy, on calling me a "guy". It strikes me as depressing, somehow. Is it such a chore to pick up your feet? Or just say "you" when addressing me? I don't recall scufflers in my high school days. It's a fairly recent, now multigenerational, bad habit  – this je ne give a shit cavalier posture, one of many defiant fashion (socio-economic?) statements borrowed from the Hood?  To what end?  Given the price of shoes folks seem unreasonably determined to wear them out as fast as possible and fork over more cash to the Chinese. Then there are the ones who don't even bother to put shoes on. Why just yesterday: a man resting in Walgreen's midday shade in his bedroom slippers. In the middle of the afternoon. Was he homeless? If so he might be forgiven this lapse in protocol. I mean, technically, that side wall might be his daily siesta spot, his home away from no home, as it were. Hence the slippers. To his credit, he was not dragging his heels, so props there. His sense of economy prevailed.

carlotta's truck?

There are frequent free concerts in the Plaza for the hoi polloi, other pricier concerts at the well-designed town concert hall. From our front row seats we enjoyed the Borromeo String Quartet performing Britten's String Quartet in C Major. In the brief stunned silence that followed we turned to each other, a la Bill and Ted, with a whispered "Whoa!" Astoundingly good.  But again, as in Maine, surveying the audience, the preponderance of "old heads" saddened me. No young people, just a sea of white hair. At times like that (there are many) my own generation repulses me; perhaps it's a mark of immaturity, but I relate to the twenty plus to thirty plus set far more than my own cohort, who strike me as, by and large (yes, there are exceptions), rather smugly concerned with their own comfort. Too many of us seem to feel entitled to a certain distance from the very socio-economic and  environmental messes we either created or let accumulate in the process of, yes, pursuing our own precious thang.  What price convenience?

the Taos Inn Bar

The Taos Inn, popular with locals and visitors alike, is worth a visit, interesting interior, with free live music every night. A wonderful young duo from Oregon performed last Friday, original electronic music; we sat in front and stayed for the whole thing, for which the guitar player thanked me afterward. I mean, sweet and unassuming or what? Their group name, Forever Growing, expresses their self image nicely, the music was very good, live guitar and drums, everything else programmed LIVE on the spot and very cool, as in refreshing, exciting new music.

reminded me of my old choir mistress

Taos' museums are a treat: The Harwood, an impressive collection included a new show of giant spray painted Buddha's on twenty foot high sheets of tar paper; Hacienda Martinez, my personal fave, the oldest hacienda around, preserved as it was originally, it gives the visitor a real sense of what life was like for early settlers, minimalistic, practical and ingenious in design; the Millicent Rogers museum, her private collection of New mexican art, includes a stunning show of Native American rugs and those little tin altars I find so cunning and can never remember the proper Spanish word for; the Fechin House (haven't seen yet); and we love the Mabel Dodge House, Millicent's rival for the attentions of local artists and writers in the early twentieth century. But most visitors come to see the old Taos Pueblo, centuries old and still inhabited by Native Americans. We are headed there tomorrow for the annual tribal dances competition.

death cart

the story of spider woman

As we're here for the summer we aren't really tourists. As residents, we generate recyclable trash and wondered what to do with it. Here in the land of old hippies and plentiful new money, if the swank gallery prices are any measure, a lively recycling system should be a given, non?  As there's no door to door recycling program, you have to haul your recycles across town to a chaotic lot of screaming machines and absolutely no one to ask for information. Incredibly they do not recycle boxboard. Say what now? The packaging Americans toss more than any other, save plastic bottles? Furthermore, most plastic is not recyclable here! I found this disappointing. This simply confirms what I've always said about the sixties: It was NOT a majority movement, even among my generation, not philosophically anyway; free love, long hair and Levis do not a raised consciousness make.

Still, there is a good farmers' market on Saturdays on the Plaza. If you first sweat the block, don't buy the first thing you see, you can get some nice quality produce at a fair price. Some of the farmers come all the way from Colorado, four hours north. I bought a "paddle" o' cactus – "a bit like okra, mucilaginous" was how the woman described it, explaining in Spanish I should grill it, slice it and make a paste to mix with other veg, as her son translated. I caught the word "hamburguesa" in there, indicating I should slather mine with this goo. It was too intriguing to pass up, but is still lurking in the fridge.  Another vendor, asked if his eggs were free range, stated they were "macrobiotic". I laughed, sure he was joking. I mean, there's no way eggs are 'macrobiotic' in the classic sense. He seemed offended, I instantly adopted a more sincere expression as he explained: he grew their feed, they ranged free sometimes, ergo - 'macrobiotic'. Not sure George Oshawa would agree, but I bought the eggs.....   They were pale yellow, dead giveaway, not so much free range. Another vendor was selling purslane, a product of recent rains, he said. Very exciting as I've never tried purslane, a green touted by the French.  A gardener selling perennials cheerfully educated me re local plants new to me. The yogurt vendor let me take home a wee gluten free strawberry ricotta pie, saying, as I was out of cash, (I pictured Wimpy in the Popeye cartoons),  I could pay next week. Nice. So, you find all kinds at the market.

Much of what the town offers in the way of "entertainment" doesn't excite me. But when I heard there was a Rodeo in town, we boogied on over there.  Next time: The Taos County Sheriff's Posse Rodeo.  Now that was a gas!

sangre de cristos

Happy Birthday to Tee!!

hollyhock madness

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to YOU!
Happy BIRTHday, Dear TEEEEE!!

Happy Birthday to YOU!!  (and many more...)

Wishing you all the joy imaginable in the coming year, to the most beautiful woman I know.

The Hollyhocks grow like weeds out here. Voici des glorious bouquets for your viewing pleasure.

Every one is waving madly, "Hallo! Happy Birthday, Tee! We love you!!"

growing out of the sidewalk

L'Oueste Sauvage

The day before we left for GojiLand, on a tip from Marci at Princess Nails, we headed down the road apiece to Ranchos de Taos to see the annual "mudding" of St. Francis de Asis church. Every year the church community gets together, men, women and kiddies alike, and "remuds" the degraded adobe of what is the oldest church in the area – construction begun late 18th Century, completed 50 years or so later. Now, we americans, I find, just LUV to go on about 'community this, and community that', but, truth be told, I find precious little real community anywhere I travel in the US, folks out for Number One is more the norm. But THIS church community was bursting with the real thing, everyone pitching in to giterdone.  The work had a serious air about it, even the kids sweeping the entrance were going at it like they aimed to do it right. It was a heartwarming thing to witness, and many thanks to the gal at the nail salon for putting me onto it.

interior st francis de asis

As much as we LUV the Old Taos Guesthouse in the foothills south of town, a week there in our room was enough, and, being from Maine, we had a yen for wide open country and a little personal space and quietude, the likes of which you only get in the boonies. So we booked a cabin (via airbnb) billed as once inhabited by DH Lawrence and headed for the Goji Berry Farm past Arroyo Hondo about ten miles outside of Taos.  It's a good thing we ventured forth a day ahead of time to check it out, we were glad we did as the original cabin we saw online turned out to be not so great in person, we instead decided on Frieda Lawrence's cabin (girls rule), four times the size of our room at the Inn where we could spread out some, unpack the car, thinking we'd manage just fine. It was the space that registered. Details, not so much. When we actually landed there for good, fresh from hotel luxe accommodations, I felt as though suddenly it was 1969, I was back in time, livin on s shoestring, visions of communes, a slower, less fussy time,  tres laissez-faire, so to speak. (P's impression of the Taos locals is that they're "messy".) The cabin was, um, rudimentarily equipped – so I got quite excited upon finding an old Farberware coffee percolator, only to discover, once I emptied out the old water and scrubbed the thing within an inch of its life, its perking ability was un peu fatigué – still, we managed, and, I have to say, once we let go of the sort of expectations one develops living spoiled at home – we quite enjoyed the simplicity of fewer things, finding that what we had was quite enough.

After two weeks of travel and constant decision-making we chilled out big time, slept nearly all of the first day we were there, listening to the breeze. P took wonderful sunset photos while I made it my mission to get the best possible photos of Luke, the baby lamb whose pleadings woke me every morning, who baaa-ed all day until you came over and pet him (happy I was to oblige). Of course dear Clarisse came to mind, and the silence of the lambs took on a whole new meaning.

I KNOW!

Peace and quiet abound out there with the lambs and chickens in patched up pens and the fields of goji berry plants. The owner sells them to folks who arrive with a hankering to start a wee farm project of their own. The owners, a Medicare- qualified vintage hippie couple from Hawaii, are nice folks. And for the price of a cabin you get unlimited access to an infinite supply of fresh sweet kale (pick it yerself) and free range eggs, staples of our diet while there. I got a brief introduction to the acequia system of water rights from the farmer, a very old water rights program that goes back centuries; it's how much of New Mexico's scarce water is managed, and it seems to work. Although, seriously, there is a major water issue throughout the state that, despite the best efforts of many (not enough) New Mexicans, is only going to get worse. In today's paper, yet again, an article about water rights for golf courses. Seriously? Do we have our priorities in order, people?

Two darling young fresh-outta-college WOOFER (Willing workers on organic farms) fellas were living in a teeny cabin nearby, volunteers,  (one Yale, one Georgetown, something quite jarring about that somehow, an Eastern presence out here in the Wild West) – one staying for the entire summer, the other for only two weeks who departed for back East our third day there. The woofers' two-hole outhouse was built by none other than Aldous Huxley himself, or so the story goes. Weird how that simple fact can leave you dumbly staring at a structure for far longer than its architecture warrants.  (The mind wanders to DH and Aldous occupying their respective 'holes', shooting the shyte, so to speak.)

huxley's twoseater outhouse

I particularly enjoyed the unlimited supply of fresh well water, and spent each day wandering the farm, doing a bit of therapeutic weeding (for me) while Paul wrangled a weed whacker and went to town on tall weeds out front of the cabin. Having thus 'marked' our territory, we settled in for three days, walked the foothills, checked out the local "store", an old trailer run by a well-weathered woman who seemed glad for company when we bought a can of coke for later. We basically did nada but swing desultorily on the swingset, watch the unending drama of the chicken coop (twenty or so hens and one rooster on Viagra), and listened to the quiet.  I breathed a lot, and gazed into distances.

We were actually reluctant to leave when the time came to take possession of the house we'd rented for two months in town. Just goes to show, modern life hasn't really much to offer when you get down to it.  It's too bad we've lost so many US farmers, that they've lost so many farms to agribusiness. Something sane-making about small farm life, despite its hardships.

More pics of my little Lukey, who was nearly kidnapped, by moi.

weird art thing at farm

 Next Up: Town life in Taos, the Borromeo String Quartet plays Britten, The Taos Sheriffs' Rodeo, Copper sunsets, our fave places to eat, and we take up tennis, ride bikes and actually not much of that as Wimbledon isn't over yet...

go roger!

First sunset ....

In case you're wonderin' why I haven't said anything about that Hobby Horseshit with the Supremes yet..... I'm just bidin' my time, cleanin' my weapon, checkin the site. I'll just finish readin those SCOTUS opinions and dissents and see what gets me most fired up. Tell you one thing.... anyone who doesn't see the similarities to this and Bush v. Gore isn't usin the the brains god game em.  "not to be viewed as precedent" indeed. What a crock.  These wicked people will live to regret what they've done.
"Everything touched is by political choice, the life you take is your political voice." And she meant everything.   (Chrissie Hynde)

Vote with your pocketbook. Think.  It's the only weapon left in the arsenal, but it's a good'un.