Pilgrimage to Taos

'Twas the weekend of visitors for the fellow-fellows; Jonathan had Agnes and Eric, the French friends from D.C. and Chris had Leslie, the charming Anglican priestess from Oxfordshire. And so, after a pleasant Friday evening dinner at Jonathan's casita de parties, a field trip was in order, and we all decided to rendezvous in Taos on Saturday. I'd not yet been to Taos and so was eager to go, especially via the high road and all its famed beauty.

I picked up Leslie and Chris in Tesuque and, picnic in hand, we began our day. We took the back roads to Taos--incredibly lovely--and I can't even begin to explain the sudden changes in landscape at every turn. You gaze out the window and see mountains that appear and disappear, replaced by dirt hills of numerous hues, followed by pine forests and then the stunning Rio Grande. The incredible vastness is so striking. On the way up we stopped at the charming Santuario de Chimayo, a pilgrimage site that the Archdiocese describes as the "lourdes" of America. Built in the early 1800s at the site of an appearance of a mysterious cross, the church is famed for it's sacred healing dirt, which visitors scoop up by the bagful in no end of creative containers--plastic, paper, metal--and my personal choice, one of the pockets of my purse. The church itself is really sweet and filled with thousands of pictures, crutches, baby shoes, mini-shrines and no end of the detrius of people's prayers. Touching really, the tangibility of belief. It's clearly a sacred space both inside and out, and surrounding the church, one finds stone crosses under archways, and candles and makeshift shrines everywhere, like the one below. It was a peaceful place, full of visitors and families, and we stayed for quite awhile, finishing off the journey with a snack at the restaurant. While Leslie and I went with the traditional tamale, Chris felt the need to eat a polish sausage burrito with cheese, guac, and green chile and while he claims it was quite good, I have my doubts.

We left the parking lot and headed to the small town of Dixon for the annual open studios. Dixon is a "middle of nowhere" kind of place, but was absolutely rockin' on the sunny Saturday of the open studios. The artists all had their homes and studios open and people wandered in and out, and we saw quite a bit of "good" art as opposed to the giant metal horse statues and southwest kitsch filling the galleries of Santa Fe. After talking to painters, photographers and weavers, we hit the local church's thrift store where, for ten cents I purchased a plastic salt and pepper shaker from an Indian school fundraiser still in the package as well as a fabulous "Massachusetts" glass with a red pilgrim hat and musket embossed over a white outline of Massachusetts. Amazing what a dime could buy. We left Dixon and headed up the high road to Taos and took in the somewhat surprising scenery.

Upon reflection, the road to Taos was far more striking than the town itself, which I found a bit touristy and cheesy, but I think my initial expectations were a bit high. After shopping around a bit we decided to go to the Pueblo, a world heritage site, but it was closed for a ceremony. We decided instead to go to the Taos art museum, which was the former home of the Russian painter Nicolai Fechin. The house, I thought, was far more stunning than any of the art it held because Fechin hand carved the wooden beams, railings, and all sorts of closets, shelves, doors and decorations throughout the house. We all agreed we would move in at any time--especially into the large sunny bedroom on the 2nd floor. After wandering through the house we ate our picnic on the patio and then went and wandered the shops and the central square of Taos. Chris was dead set on me finding some redeeming qualities in Taos, and when we visited Mabel Dodge Luhan's house on the way to dinner, he succeeded. Luhan, a rich eastern transplant and patron, attracted many artists to Taos and New Mexico (including O'Keeffe) and her house is the strangest of pueblo structures. It's now a bed and breakfast--one I'd happily stay in.

We went to dinner at El Monte Segrado (Sacred Mountain) which was actually a big hotel with mountains in the background and cottonwood trees in the courtyard and had a surprisingly good dinner in the strangest of surroundings. I finally married the burger with green chiles (and spicy ketchup)--a happy combo--but the highlight of the meal, for everyone, was dessert as we watched the French couple battle over every bite on two plates and Chris and I shared the most delicious churros swimming in pistachio creme anglais. The ride home was a long one, but it was a lovely full day. I'll reserve judgement on Taos until I return again and go to the Pueblo, but one thing is clear--don't take the highway, take the high road!

Pic. 1: El Santuario de Chimayo
Pic. 2: One of the Outdoor Shrines, Chimayo
Pic. 3: The inexplicably beautiful evening light at Mabel Dodge Luhan's house, Taos

A Weekend of Hiking in Santa Fe National Forest and Bandelier National Monument

It was such a lovely weekend in Santa Fe and since I didn't feel like doing any work, I decided to do some exploring. On Saturday afternoon, after searching the internet for some "easy" hikes in Santa Fe, I headed back up toward the aspens at the ski basin to the Chamisa Trail in the midst of the Santa Fe National Forest. Now the internet warned me the first 1/4 mile would be "steep" and the rest "level"--yeah right! After climbing the steep part, I followed the narrow trail of rolling terrain through a pine forest looking off into the mountains. It was lovely but strenuous as I got as high as about 8700 feet. I definitely have not overcome all my altitude issues. Having gone about 1.75 miles I decided not to climb down to the Tesuque Creek (next time), but when I got to the top of the trail a sign told me "You are here--breathe deeply." I did my best to follow instructions and made my way down--which was far more pleasant except when the scary mountain bikers drove past. So, an hour and a half later I had much more hike than I bargained for, but it was an experience. I rounded out the night going to see the movie "Lars and the Real Girl" (which I liked) with my friend Chris who afterwards made us some amazing late night carbonara! Watching the sox win game 3 rounded off the evening nicely.

This morning I decided to make the hour drive out to the Bandelier National Monument at the slope of the Jemez mountains, home of the cave dwellings of the ancestors of the modern pueblo people. Nestled in Frijoles Canyon, the cliff dwellings were inhabited about 600 years ago and are extremely cool. The major trail (mostly paved) started at the visitor's center and wound 1.2 miles around ruins and up many stairs to peer in some of the cave dwellings. Wooden ladders were placed at the base of some of the caves so you could climb up and look in. I was surprised at how many people did not actually climb up the ladders, but just walked past them. There were also some incredibly interesting petrogylphs carved into the rock formations, so I spent quite awhile trying to pick out shapes--a dog, a bird, some swirls, a river, and some interesting faces. It was a beautiful day--sunny and around 68, so I decided to extend my explorings and walk the extra mile through a lovely forest to the Ceremonial Cave House. The sign warned me about heights, ladders and stairs, but I decided to assess the situation when I got there. I was really scared to climb the 500 feet up to the cave on wooden ladders and stairs, but decided to overcome my fears and just do it. The experience was worth it, but I don't know if I would do it again. You can see the ladders and the ceremonial cave from the ground looking up in the pictures below. I spent about 3 hours at Bandelier and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting. Bandelier is only 6000 or so feet above sea level, so it was much easier hiking for me than yesterday's 8000. I was happy to use the National Park Pass I bought for the roadtrip again, saving me a $12 entrance fee.

I really do love the New Mexico landscape--the mountains and the sage brush and all the interesting rock formations, but don't think I could permanently live in the desert. I miss the ocean. Aside from my bandelier adventures, it was a typical Sunday--laundry, grocery shopping, football (the Pats are unstoppable)--and now the red sox. I ate my first purple potato at the farmer's market on Saturday, so I bought some and made a purple potato hash for dinner--delicious.

Back to work in the morning!@!

Pic 1: Cave Dwellings, Bandelier National Monument
Pic 2: Dog Petroglyph
Pic 3: I climbed 5 big ladders and a bunch of stairs to get to the Ceremonial Cave--scary!!
Pic 4: The Ceremonial Cave is the opening at the top of this wall
Pic 5: The woods surrounding the Monument

Among the Aspens

Yesterday (Saturday), I decided to do some things I've been wanting to do since I got to Santa Fe but haven't done for any number of reasons. So, after the Saturday morning ritual of the farmer's market (a ginger apple muffin, mixed greens, 8 apples) and a quick workout at Fort Marcy, I drove down Cerrillos Road in search of Jackalope. Jackalope is a very strange store, more of a mercado, where alot of Mexican imports, antique furniture, and huge planters are sold. I wandered around for a bit, and was very good about not buying anything except a few cards. After Jackalope came shopping for the week at wholefoods--I am trying to eat as organically as possible down here--and then I decided to take a drive up to the Santa Fe Ski Basin. The Ski Basin ride is a lovely one--about 15 miles each way--and the starting point is just a few quick turns from my casita. The ride is famous in the fall for the explosion of yellow as all the aspens turn. I gather, from my ride up, that I missed the full flowering of the aspens by about a week as many of the leaves had already fallen. It was, nonetheless, an absolutely beautiful ride up a very windy road through the Santa Fe National Forest and a few state parks along the way. Lots of people were out and about--hiking, biking, walking dogs--and next time I venture up, I will check out some of the trails. When you are at the top, there is a lovely view of Santa Fe and the mountains in the distance. The pictures below will give you an idea of what I saw along the way, and some of the stunning vistas. Being from New England and used to all of our lovely fall hues, seeing just yellow leaves was strange, but no less beautiful. I didn't really know what Aspens were, but their bark reminds me of birch trees, and they are just as handsome without their leaves. It really was a lovely day (in the high-60s) and so after my ride up and down the basin trail, I decided to visit another Santa Fe hotspot I'd not yet ventured to--Tara's Organic Ice Cream. Hidden away on Second Street, Tara's was a little hard to find, but worth the wandering. This ice-cream store is famous for its uniquely flavored homemade icecream. I had a combination of Rosemary Pear and White Pepper Chocolate Chip. Savory, and strangely delicious. Well worth the adventures.

Today's adventures will not be so exciting I think. I've just cooked a big pot of turkey veggie chile and am off to the research center for a little reading and note-taking before heading over to Fort Mary for a workout.

Hope all are well. The offer of coming to visit stands until December 21 when I leave!

Re-Settling In

Hi All. I've been a very lax blogger as of late, but October has been a whirlwind month. I flew home to Boston last week for a multitude of reasons: a wedding, a birth, a funeral, putting a house on the market--sounds like a bad British comedy, I know. It was a hectic and stressfull week in Beantown despite a number of nice chats, visits and events. The visit started off with the craziest Southwest flight I've yet been on, and never care to repeat. The plane stopped in: El Paso, Austin, Baltimore, and then, finally, after 8 hours, Manchester, NH. Ugh! But all worth it when I saw the smiling face of Steve in the waiting area.

I spent the week hastily gathering research at BC, running around for the house, seeing friends, and scrubbing. It was strange to return to BC and not have any sort of affiliation there. Students, friends and former colleagues looked like they had seen the ghost of Libby past, it was funny. I do miss teaching though, and will (somewhat reluctantly) leave Santa Fe for the wilds of Maine winter around Christmas time. I did get to write my first real academic department memo this week, which was a fun experience!

Although it rained in Boston all week, Kate had a lovely day for her wedding--sunny, crisp and cool--the epitome of New England Fall. A good time had by all, except for Chrissy's smashed window in the parking lot of the international. Mr. and Mrs. William Travis Morgan are currently vacationing in Bora Bora, and I wish them well!

Our house is now on the market--feel free to purchase it--it is a buyer's market as they say! So Steve and I (though Steve had done the bulk of the work by the time I got home) scrubbed like Cinderella and moved yet more useless possessions to the storage unit to get ready for our open house which had a grand total of 3 visitors--competing with upwards of 70 open-houses in Framingham that given Sunday. Good times. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and pray to the St. Joseph statue that my mother has promised to bury in the yard.

It was funny how stressful it was to return to reality--all of my organic eating, non-diet coke drinking, gym going habits went out the window. The challenges of incorporating the ease of my Santa Fe life into my "real" life will be many, I think. But it is easy living here, and save the absence of Steve, I am really very happy in SF. I couldn't ask for better colleagues than Chris and Jonathan, and we have a lot of fun together, coming up with new dishes--like O'Keeffe Apple Cobbler (from the tree outside), pear cake (from Chris's casita pear tree) and my experimental Southwest baked ziti with roasted green chiles from the farmer's market. I like the various types of people who wander the streets of Santa Fe--always something to see. I need to start up on sightseeing again, which I've been kind of lax about since working. A drive to Taos is on the agenda soon, and the scholars are being treated to a trip to O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch on Halloween (how appropriate)! This weekend, I think I will head up to the ski basin and go for a little hike among the aspens before all of the leaves fall.

It is most definitely fall here--very chilly and breezy with many yellow leaves. It tends to be in the 30s in the morning and at night, and then rise into the 50s and 60s during the day. Lovely weather, really. Nice to be wearing sweaters again, though it is rather funny to see all of the Santa Feans wearing winter hats already--I mean, come on, I just put my flip-flops away!

Have Happy Weekends. Go Sox. Go Pats!

My What a Bad Blogger I am....

Typical Libby. Starts out with great gusto documenting new adventures and then gets so wrapped up in new adventures that she forgets to write them down. Ah well, such is life. At least I can report that I am being a diligent scholar--revising an article, writing a chapter for a book and researching a new project! Life at the research center could not be more pleasant. Our new fellow, Chris, came today from Pennsylvania and he is a delight, along with Jonathan. We make quite the trio and the staff tells us that we are atypical scholars in that we like to talk to one another and talk about things other than academia. I am happy to be an exception.

I cannot believe that today is the first of October and that I left Framingham nearly six weeks ago. But, I return home on Saturday for a week to be in Kate's wedding on the 13th and to see my husband whom I miss terribly. Big shout out to Steve who is single-handedly getting our house ready to be put on the market. Anyone need a house in Framingham?

The weather in New Mexico is turning to fall. The sage is blooming yellow and makes a lovely contrast with the purple lavender. The aspens, I am told, up in the ski basin will turn yellow in a few weeks as well. The weather is in the 60s and 70s and cooler in the mornings and it's been raining quite a bit as of late, as it is while I am typing this. It's not the same as New England fall with its multicolored leaves and crisp burning smell and football everywhere, but it's pleasant in its own way. The baloon fiesta begins next week in Albuquerque, but I think I miss most of it, having chosen to go home and visit.

I hope all are well and I send my heartiest congratulations out to Derek and Petra, proud new parents of Benjamin Henry Peplau, their beautiful son born on Friday. He's adorable!

More frequent posts promised in the future.

All Aboard the Georgia O'Keeffe Express!

Good Morning,

It seems, sometimes, that weekends are too short. Such was the case this weekend, with so much going on in sunny Santa Fe. Jonathan and I, as fellows, got invited to come along on the annual "summer picnic" for the museum staff. This year, as it's the 10th anniversary of the museum, the picnic was a special event. We boarded an historic train in Santa Fe and left for Lamy, an hour train ride away (not because Lamy is far, but because the train only goes 25 mph). The train ride itself was interesting, as most people had never been on this train, and for some, it was their first time on a train ever. Trains are not nearly as common out here these days as on the East Coast! The ride was very scenic, through a lot of wide open space, and the trainride itself was a lot of fun--with old fashioned seats, a club car with a bar, and a general party spirit. We arrived in Lamy to go to, literally, the only place in town, the Legal Tender Saloon. The Saloon, had been closed for a decade, until recently it was restored and revived. It was a neat old building, with a lot of history and cowboy stories of Billy the Kid, poker games that ended in death, and general mayhem. It's a bit quieter today, mostly a stop for tourists who take the rail ride.
We had a BBQ buffet dinner, with bandannas for napkins, played horshoes, line-danced (NOT me!) and generally had a good time. It was nice to meet some new people from the museum outside of the work setting, and definitely a fun excursion.

The rest of the weekend was spent reading, watching movies, going to the gym, and at my favorite Saturday morning activity, the AMAZING Santa Fe Farmer's market. I did a better job of keeping my purchases in check this week. Buying only some delicious little grapes, some Mediterranean flatbread, some orange and purple dahlias, and a breakfast calzone. But, it's always fun to walk around and take in all of the sights and smells. Were I able to pass on via this blog the smell of roasting green chiles, I would, because it's such a unique and wonderful smell--one that's often in the air around here because it's high chile season. I find myself being able to eat spicier and spicier food here--especially the chiles--which are made into a sauce that is ladled over everything from eggs to enchiladas!

But, now, on a gray Monday morning here, it's time to hit the books as it were and get back to business. This is a busy week here as a new show is opening--the women of the Stieglitz circle. The opening is Thursday night, and should be a lot of fun. Hope everyone is well! I miss New England Fall--I can only imagine the lovely weather and the leaves beginning to turn.

Pic 1: Chiles are in season and they are EVERYWHERE!
Pic 2: Chiles Roasting--I've become quite fond of this smell
Pic 3: The Bounty of the Farmer's Market
Pic 4: The train we took from Santa Fe to Lamy

Routines...

Three weeks in, and I've finally settled into a bit of a predictable routine. It's strange relearning the nuances of living solo, even if only for four months. I typically spend from 8:30 to 6ish at the Research center, hit the gym, cook dinner, watch a movie (to settle my brain down) and go to bed. After so many months of Netflix, it's also strange to be going to a video store again, but it's good people watching and the staff enjoys being slightly rude to all of their customers. Might I recommend "The Painted Veil" and "Starter for 10." Life's fairly predictable, save nights like last night when the power goes out for a few hours. My 4 year old neighbor Drew brought me candles--it was adorable. I like my gym here alot because it's a community center so there's always a lot going on. I've learned that men's basketball leagues take their games surprisingly seriously :-). Lots of rivalries. It's extremely cute how many wives and girlfriends and little kids fill the bleachers to watch the games. The swimming is best late at night, when the lights are dimmed and it feels like you are swimming outside at night.

We had our first bi-weekly "Scholars Tea" today outside on the patio. It was fun to hear stories about the museum. The director is really vibrant and funny. There's a new exhibit being hung this week, opening on the 20th. It's about the women of the Stieglitz circle who preceeded O'Keeffe. I am really looking forward to seeing the Gertrude Kasebier photographs. She was a good friend of Day's. I also got to meet Max Weber's daughter who lives here in town this afternoon and look forward to chatting with her about her father's connections to people in my circle like Clarence H. White. Most of the time I like the quiet of the research center--the uninterrupted spans of work time--but I miss being to walk outside the office and stroll around chatting for a bit when my brain is fried. And I miss answering questions from students, strangely enough. I worked for 9 hours straight today revising an article and wished a bit that someone would knock on my door and ask me an advising question, just to break it up. However, it would have taken me two weeks to get the same amount of revising done while teaching, so maybe the uninterrupted quiet is good for working :-). Jonathan, my scholar neighbor, is good company though and we're going to check out Santa Fe's famed breakfast joint, the Tecolote Cafe on Friday. We also got invited to the Museum's 10th anniversary staff party on Saturday, where we board a train at the Santa Fe railyard headed for a saloon. It promises to be an adventure.

Santa Fe has settled down considerably after fiestas ended on Sunday evening and the weather is cooling off nicely as we head into fall here. I can't wait to see snow here--it just seems so strange to think of snow in the desert.
Any and all visitors welcome in the casita (one at a time however--that's the rule).