light for the dark

November Night
by Adelaide Crapsey

Listen ..
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees,
and fall.

all hallow's day

he asked to carve the pumpkin.

a day for remembrance of the people whose spirits are with us.
our hallowed ones. 
we celebrate those at peace.
a day for all saints.

and tomorrow, the souls. dia de los muertos.
a day in which we provide light for those that still search the darkness. 

And I am called pumpkins.

Theme in Yellow
by Carl Sandburg

I SPOT the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.

ceremony under the aspens

this past weekend was a wedding of friends.
being a couple that love the mountains, they of course wanted to marry with the mountains all around them. so we all traveled up to an old forest service cabin.

it was cold enough that we needed to wear our long underwear.
and we, including the bride, were wearing boots instead of fancy shoes.

a few of us arrived early. to start a warm fire near the old cabin, and set up the chairs in a field surrounded by yellowing aspens and perennially green trees.

one of my new favorite photos. d in his tweed, doing the duty of groomsmen. cutting down aspen boughs in which to decorate the chuppah. the groom had built it with fallen aspen trees. and his friends covered it in a canopy of white branches & yellow leaves. 

the chuppah became almost invisible in the landscape.

little snowflakes began to fall just before the ceremony. a beautiful representation of the season.

and the guests sat with blankets. or warmed by the fire.
and it seemed every one knew it was the perfect kind of place for a wedding.

mazel tov.

sunny canyon walk

 last weekend we took a walk. we needed some fresh air & sunshine.

 

 along the rim of the rio de pueblo canyon.

the yellow chamisa is shining brightly right now. and it looks lovely against the gray green brown rock.

and we were rather thrilled when we realised we were being watched by bighorn sheep. a scattered herd of them. they would jump around the rocks, munch a little, and then watch us awhile.

it was a nice, long walk. down into the canyon and up to the rio pueblo.
at the bottom of the trail we sat at the water, and listened to the trees.
and on our walk up, we filled our pockets with rocks full of shiny mica or tiny, clear crystals.

he likes that he gets to show me these things. and I like it too.

light moving

it is clearly getting colder when the cat is choosing to be inside on the couch while still daylight out.

the light now fills our kitchen all afternoon.

and the mountains are turning green to golden.

and I find myself craving roasted root vegetables, warm pastas and hot, spicy tea.

fall signs

a few last handfuls as the air grows too cold for ripening.

replacing the house flip-flops with house slippers.

and driving home from winfield. with the landscape changing. kansas, oklahoma & new mexico.

we had a week in kansas, with all the weather and all our family & friends.
and a 9-hr drive home makes winfield seem all that more important.

 the farmer's market is full of pumpkins, squash of all sorts, apples & fall flowers. I bought an odd-shaped green & orange pumpkin. little apples. and some dragon-lady red dahlias.

and as it rains in the mountains above, I have a second batch of zucchini bread in the oven.

peaches & almonds

i love my gluten. but have been curious about how baking without it could work out. we were invited to dinner last week, and I offered up dessert, knowing that it would be appreciated if gluten-free. I had it decided inside my brain, that it would be almonds & peaches.

a few years ago I decided to pay more attention to how my body felt after eating certain foods. this was my attempt to transition from unhealthily obsessing over how much I ate into a more moderate obsession with what I was eating. we can't always get rid of eating disorders, but we can try real hard to convert them into better versions of themselves.

it wasn't long before I finally accepted that eating foods full of words I couldn't pronounce was a bad idea. and that I needed to focus more on fresh foods, whole grains and avoid additives & preservatives. eat healthy & therefore feel healthy.

i'm not convinced the recent widespread gluten-allergies, lactose-allergies, nut allergies are legitimate. right now they seem more like trends than they do fact. but if someone wants to avoid wheaty gluten goodness because they feel better when they do, then by all means, they should.

but hey, baking gluten-free looks complicated. & I wasn't interested in investing in rice flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum and all the substitutes needed to replicate the action of a fine, gluten full flour. I just wanted simple.  
 

so i baked an almond crust with ground-up almonds, sugar, some butter & an egg. I baked it until firm & golden.

I let the crust cool a little. and then into it I poured freshly sliced peaches that had been soaking in sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon & nutmeg.
and I dropped little cubes of butter all over the peach mixture.
then baked until the peaches were covered in bubbling syrup.

it came out looking simple & delicious.
and it was like eating a sweet, nubby almond crunch. with cinnamon-peach juices.
we didn't miss the gluten. 

a nice finish to the red chile chicken enchiladas and salad of fresh greens which we ate with views of the mountains growing dark.

a mom's weekend

before I left Kansas, mom had given me several packets of sunflower seeds.
they started blooming in time for her visit.

for the first time I was picking someone up at the train.

spent our weekend walking around town, showing mom  the places that i'm growing familiar with.
we visited the Millicent Rogers museum, a maze of rooms housing an astonishing & enviable array of native american & southwestern jewelry, art & religious antiquities.

and then we walked up a little road to the once home of Mabel Dodge. and thought about living in such a beautiful spot in a Taos of so long ago.

two places I'd wanted to see. and was happy to see along with mom & d.

 and now it is time to ready for Fall. bringing plants inside. thinking about how a garden should ready the winter. spending a week camping at winfield. losing the flipflops and stuffing my feet into real shoes. changing from tomatoes, cucumbers and peaches to apples & squash.

baking for flowers

on a lovely evening we had special guests over for dinner. we grilled burgers, made pasta salad with fresh corn, cucumbers, basil and salty pepitas.
I baked hamburger buns. and though oddly shaped, they came out well. helped I'm sure by the glaze of melted butter.

to continue the adventure in baking, I also made a lemon cake. it came out dense, moist and not too sweet. served with sliced freshly picked very sweet peaches.

in return I received a huge bouquet of wonderful kansas-inspired flowers.

I got to bake for people I care about. and spend a evening of happy chatting, laughing and warm friendships. all while sitting outside in the summer air, as the sun went down.

tonight rain & lightning are in the air.

summer time

last week on my walk home from the library I was admiring the storm clouds gathering above, and the way that there were stacking up in sky, reminded me of this painting.

am just now realizing that writing down the names & artists of my photographed paintings would have been a good idea.

saturday we were invited to dinner. we enjoyed a spread of summer-inspired foods. and then managed two rounds of croquet as we drank gin with limes & lemons, lemonade & tonic. as it grew dark the clouds over the mountains began to rain. we laughed a lot as we played. 

 we have a hummingbird that seems to like the pink, peppermint ivy geranium that hangs outside our living room window. hummingbirds can't be photographed. but geraniums can.

last night we threw a homemade pizza on the grill. it turned the crust magically crisp & bubbled the cheese. we had a friend visiting from los angeles. and we chatted as the summer day grew dark & cool.

we are finally having the kind of hot days which I associate with summer. they are not the kansas-kind, but enough to make me sweat.

a green walk, las fiestas and dinner with friends

last sunday we took a walk where it is cool & green.
this time it was at Columbine Canyon, though all the columbine have bloomed. there were plenty of pink raspberries not quite yet ripe, purple bee balm, elegantly tall white aspens and orange butterflies.

back in Taos the town was having its last day of Fiestas. I'd visited the day before to get my fix of cheap goods from Mexico being sold not-cheaply, the smell of funnel cakes, burritos, and sweet & sour lemonade, and plenty of sightings of little girls in brightly colored dresses & flowers in their hair. watched a group of kids do a spanish-style dance. listened to some mariachi music. almost bought a bright orange t-shirt that said, "que vivan las fiestas de taos". but when am I going to wear bright orange?

some of the cherry tomatoes from the backyard. I hope the heat of the day will be enough to ripen these, as the nights get so cool.

last night we visited friends in Sunshine Valley. they have a valley view of mountains all around. the view was so unexpected and impressive, that when we drove into the valley, a "wow" left my lips.

and they've recently had a rattlesnake in the yard. so we wore our boots. ate homemade veggie burgers & played a game of horseshoes. put on my flannel shirt to keep warm, & reminded myself that I'm lucky to feel chilly in late July. a storm of lightning lit up the northern sky. bats flew up in the trees. they are growing tomatoes too, but have little hope the tomatoes will ripen up, as the nights get even colder up there.

tonight I'm making pesto.
and tomorrow I get to see what is being harvested at the farmer's market. lately have been enjoying crisp, crunchy cucumbers and sweet peaches. 

summer sweets

sweet little yellow tomatoes from the farmer's market.

thank you summer.

visitors at sacred shrine.

willard clark.

july weekend

friday evening we visited the Taos Pueblo for the annual Powwow.

photography on the Pueblo isn't encouraged, and I am never comfortable taking pictures of religious, personal ceremony. so I have no pictures.

our visit was just in time for the Grand Entry, the opening procession of all the dancers from all the tribes. in outfits beautifully detailed in feathers, beadwork and embroidery, they entered the dance circle to the mournful sound of the slowly beaten drums and danced or simply walked stoically tall around. the amount of historical reverence & cultural pride was an emotional thing to see & feel overall, it was one of the most incredible things I've ever witnessed both spiritually & visually.



















visited the Harwood Museum yesterday. and took pictures of the pictures. of how the different artists of Taos saw their northern new mexico home around them.

it got me thinking about how I'm seeing what is around me. and though I'm not a painter, how will I begin to portray this home around me?

I left some of my confidence in Kansas. I only just realized this over the weekend. And I feel better, because now I know I need to get it back...and that's just a matter of embracing something I'd forgotten to unpack.

thy woods and templed hills

it took some driving to find the spot. but we found this gentle open meadow. a quiet spot next to the rio chiquito. our holiday plan was to enjoy a picnic & have a little walk.

these rusty orange butterflies were everywhere in the brush.

and it was near here, d. told me, that he last saw a bear. which of course, made me nervous. but of course my experience with wildlife in the actual wild, is limited to the occasional possum in my kansas backyard.

but where there is wildness, there is beauty. and we had a nice walk.

here now the clouds have darkened and the wind cooled off, as if it may rain. a woman just walked by wearing a bright pink scarf thrown over her shoulders. the neighbors down the street are having a party in the courtyard & I can hear them playing one of the spanish-language radio stations. and I've been thinking about all the writing I used to do. and all the writing I used to plan on always doing.