Sante Fe

I am having trouble sleeping here.  I'm not sure why; perhaps it's the altitude; perhaps it's all the stimulation.  I lay in bed each night thinking about all the sights, sounds, and experiences since arriving here. 

First some pictures of this house:

The grounds

The house is classic adobe style with a long portal and vigas supporting all the ceilings. You enter through large wooden double doors into a good sized circular hallway.  To yourright is a den and entrance to the garage.  TO your left, the house stretches out long with 2 bedrooms on each end and the common rooms ( kitchen, dining room, living room) in the middle. There are two bathrooms, one on each end of the house and each with doors that open into the indoor pool area which runs the length of the back of the house.

The indoor warming pool and lap pool

  The pool is seperated into a warming pool and the lap pool and both have a cover that is  easy to roll up or down to keep the water at a lovely warm temperature.  There is also a hot tub that is outside, up in the garden area.

The house is well furnished and equipped with washerdryer, multiple TVs, a modern kitchen with loads of kitchenware, etc.  All in all, very comfortable.

The view from the living room

 OK, that's the house. What about the people?   It occured to me in the middle of one sleepless night that I haven't really introduced you to all the people here in the house, so here goes.


Any description of the people here has to begin with Sterling, my brother-in-law.  He is the force behind our being here and the center of our little group.  Sterling couldn't be more different from his brother (and my husband) Chip.  Whereas Chip was all about sports, Sterling is all about the arts.  He moved to NYC for college and stayed there ever since; and he now lives the quintessential New York lifestyle, cabbing about town,  attending performances of opera, theater, or music several times each week, and getting together often with members of a close circle of friends with whom he enjoys discovering new restaurants or frequenting old favorites.  More significantly, for me at least, since Chip's death in 2004, he has been a brother to me with more love and caring than I would ever have imagined.  It is he who offered me the chance to come here and share his love of opera.

Liam in the pool

Sterling's partner Liam is another member of our party.  He is a tall, broad shouldered and handsome man, self-effacing with a quick wit and considerate manner.  He is always aware of each of us and ready to help with whatever our needs might be.  There is a manner about Liam that immediately puts others at ease, feeling welcome and appreciated.  He is the go-to guy in the house whenever something goes wrong or someone needs help.

Sterling and Will enjoying the warming pool

These two are the humans owned by two mini-dachunds - Mae and Will. Mae, named after Sterling's Mom, is slender and full of kisses for anyone, but she never asks permission for whatever it is she wants to do. She knows her mind, thank you very much, and follows it and then asks for forgiveness, if any is needed, afterward. Will, named after Liam's Dad, is quite the opposite.  He is  unusual looking because of  a coat the color and thickness of English clotted cream.  And he uninterested in anything or anyone other than his humans.  Will is the baby crying to be held, crying if one of the guys goes out of sight, crying to be cuddled.  Mae will come and sleep with me at night.  Will couldn't care less if he never saw me again.  Together they are a striking pair continuously amusing us all.

Logan and Mae

Another long time friend of the family is Logan, a lawyer, a banker and a native American.  Think of every prejudice you have against lawyers and bankers, and then think of their opposites in temperament and personality and you have Logan.  He is among the most gentile and trustworthy persons I have ever had the good fortune to meet.  Unfortunately, he didn't join us until late Monday and he left Thursday morning to return to NYC.

Ester enjoying the cool grass (!) in Santa Fe

There are two other women in this house besides me.  One is Ester, an Arkansas native who adopted New York 40 years ago and became a driving force behind Sterling's business success years and years ago.  She has become a member of the family, with us for holidays and many special trips such as this one.   Generally quiet, be careful on the topic of politics when she will become agitated, erupting with emotion over the stupidity of so many of our elected officials and their equally obtuse policies.  And, unless you are quite sure of your abilities with words and strategy I warn you not to challenge this lady in a game of Scrabble.  You WILL lose, I assure you.

Julie outside Bobcat Bob's

And last, but by no means least, is Julie, an elegant and sophisticated woman I have known for over 20 years but only gotten to know over the past 2 or 3.  Julie was the wife of the man who hired me into my last job.  Jonathan, her husband and my boss, died suddenly and unexpectedly a few months before Chip died.  I am struck now, as I get to know Julie, at how similar we are in our tastes and wonder if perhaps that factored into why Jonathan hired me way back when.  Julie, like Red and like me, thinks nothing of packing her dog in her car and taking off for a 3000 mile journey across the country.  Julie and I have similar tastes in literature and art and food, tho she is far better educated in all these things than I.  I greatly enjoy her company and am quite pleased she wanted to come out and be with us for this week.

So we were three men ( now two ) three women and three dogs enjoying this week together.

OK, now you've got an idea of the house and the people.  So, how is it we spend out time?  Well, there is really no typical day, but here's an idea.  We each awake sometime between 7 and 9 and slowly make our way into the common living space.  Sterling or Logan will go out to see if the NY TIMES has yet arrived; Julie or I would put on a pot of coffee.  The dogs would count noses.  Each of us would wander into the kitchen to hunt out something appealing for breakfast - sometimes fruit and yogurt, sometimes granola, sometimes toast or a sweet bun.  Ester would go to the pool and swim for 30 minutes or more.  Between 10 and 11am we would begin to think about organizing the day.  One day Julie, Tramp and I went for a walk in the neighborhood; another day she and the guys took all the dogs out while I worked on this.  Sometimes the guys head out to the gym to work off last night's meals.  Time will be spent on computers doing emails or researching festivals or events that might be interesting to take in.   We  might go into Santa Fe to window shop before lunch or let the dogs run on some cool grass.   One day Julie and I spent an hour or more in just two shops - one with furniture and furnishings that were unusual, beautiful and oh, so tempting and another with a jewelry system where you buy semi-precious or precious stones and various settings where pieces are interchangeable and necklaces morph into rings or bracelets that can be simple or quite elaborate depending on how many pieces or parts you feel like building up, one on another.  It is a brilliant design.  However we'd do things, we'd generally all meet up together around noon or 1 for lunch. One day it was Mexican at the Cayote Cafe (I highly recommend this place for lunch or dinner) and we feasted on chips, smoky salsa, melted cheese, guacamole, and soups and salads.  Another day we ventured further to a hamburger joint recommended by our Tucson friend and burger afficionado.  (Boy does he know his burgers!) Another day the guys shopped and then put out and elaborate lunch of salads and cheeses and fruits and we sat on the patio with a friend of Sterling's from Manhatten who has been living in Taos for the past 10 years.

Most days, after lunch it's time to nap or read or otherwise relax, then before we know it we must shower and dress to go out to an early dinner and the opera.  Sterling, Liam and Ester attended 3 operas.  Julie and I went to two.

The Santa Fe opera festival theater is built into a high bluff.  It is covered with a roof reminiscent of billowing sails.  It is open on the sides.  You enter at parking lot level and walk down to your seats with the stage at the bottom open at its back to the setting sun.  The level of talent is remarkable - as good as you'd find anywhere in the world; and the production quality is also first rate.  Julie and I saw a relatively new opera called Albert Herring which is a comedy and Madame Butterfly which had me crying throughout the entire second act.  It is not an exaggeration to say it was one of the best productions of this opera that anyone in our party had ever seen - and this is a highly educated opera group.  The voices, the acting, the staging all equalled Puchini's extraordinary music.  After seeing that I really had no need or desire to see another opera.  Nothing else could be as wonderful.

On a day when Julie and I did not have opera tickets (A show neither or us particularly wanted to see) but the rest of the group did, we took off in the late morning to travel the New Mexico fiber arts trail.  We drove a loop of about 150 miles of this trail that meanders throughout New Mexico.  Here's how the trail is described in it's website:

To the north, back roads beckon, weaving along river valleys,



winding through velvet mountains and red rock canyons sculpted


by time, crossing plains that stretch as far as the eye can see. The


land speaks in textures. Sage, golden chamisa, violet asters, and


grasses cover the earth in a blanket of natural hues.
 
And this description really does capture it.  And it goes a long way in explaining why so many weavers - craftspeople and artists working in fibers - have chosen to set up their lives and their workshops in this area. First there were Pueblo Indian communities here; they were joined by Mexicans;now weavers from all over the country and possibly the world mix with the Indians and Mexicans to learn from each other and to experiment and share their love of the various fiber arts with each other and appreciative collectors and tourists.  They do everything here from raising the goats and sheep, to collecting the berries and other things used for dies, to building looms and, of course, weaving rugs and clothes and art pieces to hang on walls.  So, all along this beautiful roadway are workshops and home studios, yarn emporiums and galleries, schools and community centers waiting to greet the interested traveller and explain their processes and show their work.  We stopped at half a dozen places, met the weavers and learned about their art and craft, and bought some examples to enjoy back in our homes or give away to family and friends this coming Christmas.  It took us 8 or so hours to do this without a stop for lunch or dinner.  We came back thoroughly pooped and quite happy about what we learned, what we saw, and what we purchased.
 
Now it is Sunday.  I drove Julie to the airport in Albuquerque early this morning.  She is on her way back to Boston.  I will spend the rest of the day with the Sunday TImes and on this computer figuring out my route home.  I think I will leave on Tuesday, but that could change.  I have loved the time out here.  The weather has been perfect.  My days have been full of good company, good food, and high culture.  Liam said to me this morning that he is ready to go home.  I'm not sure I could say the same.  I am glad I will have a long drive as a re-entry into my normal life and routines.