Taos

Friday, June 25, 2004

What a pretty drive! We drove up through Santa Fe, Española, along the Rio Grande Gorge and into Taos. Brian was sweet enough to take me to the Gorge itself so I could marvel and take photos. I haven't had time to get them all ready to post, so there'll be more on Monday. These are what I have for now:

The last photo is of the Rio Grande Gorge. A vital part of the states culture, history, and livelihood. Yet the river is endangered. The droughts have depleted her waters so low that we are in danger of losing her altogether, reports have said. There is a major battle between environmentalists, New Mexican citizens, and New Mexican farmers over water.

Chili Ristas hang from a shop along the main street of Taos. Red chilis are strung and dried, making for festive decoration.

Mural outside Taos gift shop. Reminiscent of art found on Native American pottery.

The Rio Grande Gorge. The river runs from into New Mexico, Texas and Mexico where it empties into The Gulf of Mexico.

Taos Trip

Thursday, June 24, 2004

We're on our way to Taos today. Brian is a Mechanical Insulator, and I do office work for him. He's invited me to go along to Taos on a job he's doing, and I am excited for all the photos I'll be able to get, so I expect I'll be posting some new ones today.

Toas is a very cool little village, home to many famous people, center for art, culture, and awesome skiing and white water rafting.

So, anyway, we'll see ya later, off to Taos. I'll see if I can find something cool besides photos to post!

Adios!

Some Favorite Photos

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

These are just a few of my favorite pictures of New Mexico. I take my camera everywhere, I find that there is probably fifty or more opportunities in a day to capture the personality of this place I love so much!

1) This is a black and white of the Sandia Mountains as seen from the road coming down from La Luz trail.

2) Here we are in the Sandia Mountains looking out eastward toward Moriarity and Edgewood. The rocky terrain of these mountains is so different from what I experienced in the Ozarks, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and other eastern and southern mountain ranges. The Rocky Mountain range has a personality that begs to be discovered and dares you to delve deeply into her deepest secret places.

3) Santa Fe is a wonderful mix of old and new, traditional and contemporary. Sometimes walking down the sidewalk I feel like I am in some old western movie.

4) Windows and walls say so much about this part of the country. Adobe is prolific here, and comes in colors that you'd have to see to believe. Some of these buildings have walls that are a foot thick, and some even still have dirt floors. It is a walk backwards in time, reminding you that while New Mexico is hip and modern in every sense of the word, it has roots and tradition as solid as the ground we walk on.

5) Life struggles and refuses to be held in check no matter where you look. Even in the rocky terrain of lava fields, yucca, cactus, and sage lay claim to every crack and crevasse, growing abundant and strong.

6) Albuquerque is home to the International Balloon Fiesta, and at almost all times of the year you can catch glimpses of these graceful hot air balloons drifting across clear blue skies.

7) The sunsets are spectacular. Sometimes fire, sometimes ice. Streaks of every color imaginable paint the horizon each evening, never the same twice, creating a canvas that soothes the weary soul.

My family :)

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

We are a large family. Larger than some, smaller than some, perfect for us. :) I don't have a photo of Patrick right now... but here are the rest of us.

Photo (1) is Mitchell, he's big into track as seen in this picture.

Photo (2) is Dawn (me) and Brian. Presently engaged to be married this fall of 2004.

Photo (3) is Logan and David.

Photo (4) is Keri.

Photo (5) is Patrick. It is hard to get a normal picture of him without weird faces ... so I only have this one where we made him up in one of our "weird photo" sessions.

**(Update: Mitchel is now 16 and in high school as a Junior, and stands nearly 5"9", he excels at guitar, enjoys wrestling and works weekends to save for a new car. Brian and I haven't married yet, we keep putting it off for financial reasons, but we're still as happy together as two peas in a pod. :) Logan is 19, going to CNM and working as an extra in some movies. David is 12, and growing like a weed, and hugely into skateboarding. Keri is 19 and living in North Carolina. Patrick is 14 and is a freshman this year in high school and has gotten over his shyness in front of a camera. )

The Sandia Mountains

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

The first photo here is the Sandia Mountains as seen from the east, coming from Moriarty. The plains stretch wide and flat, little to see except an occasional cactus, piñon tree, or perhaps a barbed wire fence. The setting sun colors the mountains a deep blue. In less than an hour it will be nearly purple, with the sky bright and wild with the colors of a New Mexico sunset.

This next photo is a stream in the Sandia Mountains. We drove up the backside from Placitas, a small community on the Northeast side of the mountain. Even during the hard drought, the stream still danced down the rocky terrain and gave life to the forest around her. We glimpsed rabbits and dear this day, but none of them wanted to hang around long enough for a picture. :)

Hello to Anyone who visits my Journal :)

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Hello to anyone who visits myJournal. :) I hope you find in it, as time goes by, some of the beauty and joy which I have experienced living here in New Mexico.

I grew up here. I spent most of my childhood wandering the wild plains, thickets, and mountains. I explored every arroyo I could find, built forts under sprawling piñon trees, climbed the low hills at the edge of the Sandia Mountains, eaten cactus pears right off the cactus, (and picked stickers out of my lips and fingers for hours,) and enjoyed the multitude of colorful and diverse Fiestas that abound at every opportunity.

I moved away for many years, traveled the US and many parts of the world. But my heart could still hear the winds of the Land of Enchantment calling me home. Together my fiancé, Brian, and I raise our five kids in a place that is like no other.

Revisitig Older Posts

I began Enchanted Ramblings on AOL in June of 2004. I had more time to journal back then, and I did quite a few posts.

My journal made front page of AOL, and I enjoyed a great deal of traffic in those days, but AOL went through some major changes that I found disconcerting and offensive, and so I left their membership after almost 11 years. I found Blogger shortly thereafter and have been doing sporadic journaling here ever since. :)

I never transfered my older entries from AOL to here, and so I have decided to do so today. So many of those photos and thought still make me smile, so I'd like them in a place I can visit them sometimes, and perhaps you too can enjoy them if the urge hits you :)

I will inclue the date of the older entries on the top of the page so you can tell them from the newer posts. :)

Wildflowers

About two miles west of my home there is an overpass stretching across I-40. Currently there is a gorgeous display of bright blue wildflowers covering the entire hillside which drivers on I-40 pass on their way to Albuquerque. I love this brilliant burst of color, even though the allergies they bring cause me to moan almost daily due to headaches.

A few weeks ago little bouquets of purple wildflowers could be seen everywhere. There are still some signs of them in the cooler areas where the warm sun has yet to eradicate them. Also I have seen bright stalks of Indian Paint brushes, (bright yellow and red) and little blue bell -like flowers no larger than my pinky nail. Soon wild sunflowers will blanket fields for miles. These are my favorite, they are so hardy and friendly at the same time. They all go to seed so fast, a lovely view for a moment fading until next year.

I've tried collecting the seeds, but I always seem too late. This time of year things change so quickly, and the Spring winds are quick to blow it all away.

Backroads

I grew up in New Mexico, and I spent many a day playing in the mesas, the arroyos, (where I would never let me child play in now) along the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, and building forts underneath sprawling Piñon Trees. It was not a unusual experience for me, and it did not occur to me that anyone else might have grown up differently. I knew that in other places they had many more trees, and a great deal m ore water, but I didn't know how unique my experiences of growing up in such a different culture really was until I moved to North Carolina at 13 years old.

There my friends asked me if I had to have a passport to move to the U.S., complimented me on my fine grasp of the English language. They had never heard of Piñons, or green chili or pueblos. They'd never been in a Kiva or seen a Navajo. They thought my poncho was a rug. When I brought beans, tortillas and jalepeños to school for lunch. they were disgusted. I didn't know that many of the words I used for the things in my life were Spanish or Native American in origin.

When I had children of my own and I was living in Florida, I wanted so badly for them to have a taste of my childhood. I wanted them to see the Balloon Fiesta, hold a Horned Toad, help me light Luminarios for Christmas, and see the wide expanses of beautiful acreage you can only find in New Mexico. They've both lived with me here now for close to 12 years, and they love it here. I know where ever they might move, they'll always have a piece of this in their heart to keep close.

We're still part of the United States here, but a little different from the one you might find just anywhere. It's off the beaten track, a sweet spot on the back roads of America, and I am lucky to be here.

The Bare Bones Truth

My good friend recently introduced me to her beau, a very nice young man originally from Virginia, now living for the moment in Utah. He was visiting his sweetheart hear in the Land of Enchantment, and she was showing him the sights.

I am not sure how the conversation steered in the direction of bones, (pardon the pun,) but he amazed at what he called our obsession with bones. My friend had found a tiny animal skull the week before, and was trying to clean it so she could use it for a decoration. He was surprised. (Surprised isn't the word, but disgust may be too strong. Maybe.) I pointed out the cow skulls in my yard, I have three in different areas of my garden, placed strategically so that mint, flowers, and strawberries grow in, and around them. His reaction was anything but subtle. I think he was beginning to suspect that he had stumbled onto the New Mexican version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

Trying to placate him, I pointed out that hunters frequently keep the mounted heads of deer and other prey over fireplaces. Quite correctly he mentioned there is a difference between trophy mountings and keeping the bones of varmints found on the roadside.

I admit I was a t a loss for words and explanations, and so he left my home quite sure I am crazy.

It wasn't until he'd was long gone before I realized that my inclination for collecting bones isn't as morbid or as unusual as it sounds. The New Mexican culture I have grown up in is heavily laced with influences from many cultures, most pointedly, the Native Americans.

Historically Native Americans as a culture have used whatever was available to them in order to survive. Wood, shell, stone and beads and clay from the earth; meat, hide, hoof, horn, and bone from the animals they hunted. Never a culture for waste, they created flutes, tools, utensils, jewelry, and other decorations of all kinds from what was left.

When I was a little girl my grandmother gave me a bone-bead necklace for my birthday. I have seen cow skulls all around me, painted with riotous color hanging on the walls of even the Capital Building. I had a friend who owned a beautiful horn cup, made from the natural shedding of a huge mountain sheep.

I sometimes forget that everyone hasn't grown up this way. Even though I have lived and traveled all over the US and some of Europe, I often take for granted that everyone hasn't been a part of this rich experience I have owned.

It's a place like no other, and that's why I come home after so many years. It's why I and so many love this wonderful place we call The land of Enchantment.

Downtown Albuquerque

Downtown Albuquerque at night. I love this city, "A big little town" as some people call it. A place where so many opposites exist. High rises and old territorial style homes on the same street. Business suits and cowboy hats. A city teeming with life, with a multitude of people and cutltures incredibly diverse, blending to create a wonderful culture of it's own.

Day of the Dead

Otherwise known as "Dia De Los Muertos" in Spanish, a traditional Mexican holiday celebrated also in some parts of the U.S. is a three-day Mexican holiday to honor occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saint's Day and All Souls' Day which take place on those days. Day of the Dead celebrates loved ones who have passed away, and is not a morbid but a joyful holiday.

Colorful and celebratory, it is a fun holiday filled with flowers, food, images of skeletons and family get together.

I didn't make it to any festivities this year due to my surgery, however, my friend Crystal humored me and let me paint her up and do photographs.

Enjoy.

Traditional Flavors

Green Chile, Sour Cream Enchiladas

3 servings


3 cups chicken broth 9 Corn Tortillas
3 tablespoons flour 2 cups grated sharp cheddar
1 cup cooked chicken cheese
1 cup chopped green chile* 1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 2 cups sour cream
Shortening

1. Combine 1 cup of broth with the flour in a medium-sized saucepan.
Add the remaining broth and cook on medium heat until thickened.

2. Stir the chicken, chile, and garlic salt into broth and set
aside.

3. Heat 1/2 inch of shortening in a heavy pan at medium-high heat.

4. Quickly dip each tortilla into the shortening to soften. Drain on
absorbent towels.

5. Combine 1 cup cheese, onion, and sour cream in a medium-sized
mixing bowl.

6. Assemble the enchiladas by placing 1/4 cup of sauce on each
dinner plate, followed by a tortilla, 1/4 cup of sauce, and
1/3 cup of sour cream mixture.

Top with remaining sauce and cheese.

7. Place in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese
melts.

NOTE: Traditionally, enchiladas are topped with a fried or poached
egg before serving.

* (Do not use bell peppers! For best taste use Hatch Green Chili or another chili from the Capsicum species. This chili encompasses a wide range of colors, sizes, shapes and spiciness, are roasted, stewed, fried, cooked or simply added fresh off the plant.)

This church is San Felipe de Neri, built in 1793 to replace the original 1706 mission church.

It is an adobe church, as are most of the old churches in New Mexico. This beautiful building sits in Old Town Albuquerque on the square, and still holds Mass for the public.

Autumn In New Mexico (Nonet)

November in New Mexico and
The air is crisp and trees are gold,
Holidays are coming 'round
And winter's lurking near.
With joy my heart sings -
Celebrating
Love, life and
Seasons
Change.

~Dawn Allynn
11.03.2005