other good stuff

the plan for d's birthday was to take a drive up north to Colorado and look for antique stores. we'd be in southeastern Colorado, around Blanca, Ft. Garland & Alamosa...this is farm land amid mountains. a land of wood frame barns, towering stacks of hay bales and old farm houses...a little bit of familiarity just an hour from the land of adobe. 

one of our stops had a yard full of rusty junk, various old hunks of things, carved, wooden bears and many skulls & antlers. some of the skulls still with its hide not-yet-worn away. disturbing on one level, and interesting on another. the shop was full of curious things with a shop keeper full of stories.

continuing on, we found antiques as well as a thrift store. and spent our time exploring through shelves, boxes and cabinets of old, forgotten things. (northern New Mexico sorely lacks in these type of places...) after shopping, and a pizza lunch, we headed back down. we made our usual visit to the Stop Shop, a place owned by Polish immigrants and stocked with polish chocolate, jams and beer. which we bought a little of all things. 

then we took a back-road, country drive. a favorite pastime for the bday boy. stopped to take pictures of a herd of mule deer, they motionless at the presence of us. eventually parked in a field's tractor pull-in. there in a golden barley field under the gaze of Blanca peak, d. enjoyed one of his polish beers & I wandered with my camera. 

as we headed home through Taos County, the sun began to set.