Long Time No Post!

Greetings Friends and Family!


Its been months! I am gearing up once again to do a FaceBook purge and take back my time.
I find myself once again, mindlessly scrolling, over posting, and robbing myself of the one thing we all wish for more of: Time!!!  I also want to get off facebook before the madness of the election year begins. It will just put me in an unsavory mood.

Blog updates are better.

Life here in the desert is very fine!  A few quick updates!

Life on the ranch is a total blast!

We often have what I have coined: Happy Hour, or  Cocktail Hour. We also work to get ahead of the weeds, keep the grass hoppers out of the house, and make sure we don't provide any cover for the rattlesnakes. (which is why we have to stay on top of the desert weeds) these are not just any weed. These weeds are bionic! Mike works the hardest. He is always working, working, working. Building walls, mowing, building out houses, shoeing horses, and helping family and friends with their projects.

For me it is just Happy Hour because we stand out there as the sun sets and watch the sky as it bursts into flames of warm orange, red, purple and blue. Every night the show is different and beautious!

Sunset is magical!

Some times Mike makes a fire and other
friends from the village come over and
tell stories and make merriment

Mike, Kevan, Daniel. My buds!



I attempted to get our rather large garden space going.
We have some kale, broccoli, spinach, parsley, rosemary,
oregano, flowers, and some tomatoes but the soil here is more
like clay. Things are tasting bitter and the weeds are formidable! 

Happy Hour at the ranch!

Shar, Vinny and  went to Ojo Caliente for my birthday. Hot springs heaven!

Once a month I get together with my girls Kristina, Tasha and Maxine to work on
our original songs and play music. This is Kristina and I earlier in the spring.

Shar, Vin and I had a fine day hiking in the Taos Canyon!

This is JR, aka: Spirit Boy. One of Mike's horses.
He is back on the big ranch in Stanley now but I had a few good rides on him before he left.

Paloma is helping me rankle our large grasshopper population.
Here she is resting after a long day of hopping on the hoppers!!

This was my seeding collection as they got bigger and strong enough
to go outside. Now they are on their own with the grass hoppers!

My private practice is growing! I am liking working at Loretto very much and JD and I are having fun. That's the quick version!

Santa Fe Groovy

 Happy Spring!

It has been a while since I've posted to this blog. I hope this finds you all well. I miss you all terribly.

My 3rd royalty check for my book came in!  I forgot take a photo of it before I cashed it but here is an older one! This quarter was for about 100.00 bucks! I need to go see how many books I've sold so far but I do get excited when these checks come in.  I've got to get back on promotional efforts.

My eternal thanks and gratitude for those of you who have shared the book with friends and family. That means more to me than anything else.

 A little Santa Fe --vibe Burro Alley!

This was a jam at my house I think two years ago. Chuck
is the first person on the left, he's got my Ovation in his hands.
 You are missed Chuck.
This is our jam crew from Liberty music. All fine musicians and
dear friends. We've had more fun than I can say
playing music together.

Some sad things happened this winter. My friend Chuck, (who I met through taking guitar lessons at Liberty Music) passed away. Chuck was a gentle, kind soul who loved music. He played the banjo and the guitar. He was a pleasure to be around always. He is sorely missed.

Life is short y'all. Live it up, follow your heart and never ever take a single thing for granted -especially not the people in your life. They mean every thing.

This is a groovy place, with good music that we
hang out at a bit. My friends' Tasha and Daniel have played here. 

The other sad things that happened this winter were the loss of Jonathan Ellis and Bill Brennan. I grew up with Jonathan, his family still lives next to my parents. Jon's sister Lisa was a bestie through most of my school years and Jon's mom is my mom's best friend. He was too young to go and leaves behind his large family and his young daughter.

Bill was the beloved husband of my dear friend and client Grace Brennan who I've had the pleasure of working with for many years.  Life is so fragile, people are gone, and that is it. You don't ever get to be with them in human form again. Just in your heart, which will simply have to do. Time the great healer is all there is for it.

The PBA strap!

On a lighter note. My friend Adam
went to the Peter Bradley Adams show
at Club Passim a few weeks ago.
Peter Bradley Adams is just about my favorite
singer/songwriter. His music is sublime, and stirring. I was bummed to miss the show.
In Adam's thoughtful way, he had PBA
sign a guitar strap, then sent it to me! (the caption is pretty cool and funny!!)
I've been wandering around the house
with my guitar strapped on for days now.
Adam you rock dude!!!!

My first long spring ride! It was AWESOME!! Road biking
here is truly an adventure of the senses!

This is what I look at on my bike rides. Stop the madness!!

I had such a nice surprise to run into my old friend JD Garfield. More of the magic of Santa Fe! It happens daily to the point where I don't really even report on it much any more.

He's done quite a bit of living since I last saw him in the 90's. Here he is after the play he did written by Ron Bloomberg here in Santa Fe. He's had some great movie roles over the years, still as humble as ever though, so much fun to hang out with him! 

Ron Bloomberg, Debrianna Mancini and JD Garfield

Since I seem to finish with an update on Paloma
here she is in all her cuteness.

I also got a new roommate who is a fellow musician, and a much better fit. Life is really good, except that I miss everyone from home.


HAPPY SPRING!!

Quick update!

Lean-to

Made a random stop on what looked to be a hiking trail off Old Santa Fe Trail this week and came upon this! Horno ovens and lean-to's in the sunshine.

This was some kind of mud hut, it looked cosy inside. Amazing how our ancestors lived, and many people still dwell in much the same kind of structures today. Close to the earth and a hard way to live.


On this 2 hour walk I also met a woman named Therese, she was looking for a wood pecker in a tree and so I joined her in looking. The woodpecker had left the scene but she and I walked all the way to the other end of the arroyo together chatting away. On the way back I met a fellow named Mike who had two beautiful Australian Shepherds, so I walked all the way back in the other direction to my car with him. He was such a cool guy and his dogs were beautiful. I asked him to keep me in mind if he needed a dog sitter some day :)

"You just never know what will happen when you step out your door" - Bilbo Baggins


Last weekend Shar, Alisa (my new roomie) and I went out to the Cowgirl Saloon to watch my Song School friend Daniel play. Twas a fun night~~ The social life here is a blast.


   

This week we are going to the Palace Restaurant and Saloon to see my friend Tasha's band Half Broke Horses, they are an Americana, honky tonk band, it should be a good time.

The Palace

I think this place has some history - looking forward to checking it out! Somehow the word "Saloon" conjures dusty roads, cowboy boots, painted ponies and wranglers.







I took a two day a week job at a place called Rancho Encantado. It will be a steady known amount of income until the tourist thing picks up at Loretto and the Day Spa (yes I have 3 jobs but two of them are slow this time of year).

Rancho Encantado

 I will be supporting people in the Jump Start Program which is The Human Restoration Project in a nutshell!
So I am really excited about this.  People come for a week to a month for a supervised juice fast, yoga/exercise, lifestyle counseling program to 'Jump Start' a healthier way of living. Pretty cool stuff.

Santa Fe Livin'

A class act this cat :)

Greetings and Happy Solstice!!

Due to internet slowness at home,
I've been lagging behind on blog posts.
I hope this finds you all well 
and making your way through winter.
I miss everyone, alot~~~ I'll be home in the spring
and look forward to seeing everyone!!

These foot hills are magic! This shot I took after an intense and
unusual torrent of rain. 

A few updates as we head into the New Year~~

I've been on lots of hikes, met lots of really cool people and decided to take a job at the historic Inn and Spa at Loretto. Right on the Old Santa Fe Trail. 

Took this shot today as I went in to fill out lots of paper work.
The skies were pretty amazing today

The Inn at Loretto! 

It is a lovely spa. I wonder about me and a spa though. 

It snows every now and then. The mountains
get very quiet after it snows~~

Old truck up in the hills

I love the culture here, the people are so friendly. Everyone looks you in the eye and says hello and very often times people want to stop and have a nice chat. I am so enjoying the community feeling, the kindness, and the slower pace of life.

Every day as I drive home I stop and take photos. The beauty around me is almost surreal
Some times the earth pulses red, and the mountains seem to be glowing. This
is a photo I took right off Route 41 in Galisteo about 2 miles from my house. The foot hills of the Sangre de Cristos.

Small Herd of Horses, they've been hanging close to the fence lately
what a treat!

Sorry it's blurry! I was studying in a cafe downtown and I heard music.
I went to check it out. It was 3 young native students singing their hearts out!
Wonderful!

Can you see this little blue bird sitting right at the tip of the branch? The Galisteo

Basin Reserve is the most wonderful place to see coyotes, giant rabbits

(I mean GIANT rabbits taller than me!)
and blue birds fly around every where. 

Hangin' with the giant rabbits and bluebirds!

Santa Fe takes her light very seriously. The whole town is lit up with these little
Farolitos. Locals joke and call them "Bagolitos" little bags of sand with candles in them
a New Mexico Christmas tradition

Gas is going down and down! Thank goodness
because my car is a gas hog. Soon I will sell it
and get something more economical.

Me and my pal Shar, at an open mic in town. This is from last summer actually
we are going to the open mic again after Christmas. I am looking forward to the
New year so life can start groovin!!

Paloma hunting gophers.  Of late she has been on gopher patrol. We had a gopher who was tearing up the yard.
I think we got rid of it with a gadget from True Value Hardware that simulates the distress call
of burrowing critters.

That pile of soil there is one
of many tunnels the gopher made all over the property.
A gopher doing what gophers do! Imagine??
Not grounds for death as far as I am concerned.
It almost drove my landlord insane not to relieve this gopher of its life.
I begged him to give me a week to find another way to
get rid of him. As of this moment we are gopher-free
and the gopher gets to live. Hmph! Cowboys with guns..wanting to shoot
every thing that moves! NOT ON MY WATCH~~~

I asked him if was his practice to end a life because it was "bothering him" ~ he said "of course"
So I said okay then...if you bother me, do I have permission to put an arrow in your butt???
That shut him up... :)

Paloma fits perfectly in these windows. She is starting to settle.

This house caught my eye many times. It is on the same road as where I live.
I took a bunch of photos and finally asked around the neighborhood about it
because it looked abandoned. Turns out the local Galisteo Healer lived here
for about 30 years. He recently went into assisted living and his house is vacant.
I am thinking it might be an auspicious place to set up a healing center! I will inquire
with his daughter in the spring perhaps.

The Healers House



I had the very good fortune to re-connect with my favorite yoga teacher Tias Little for the Solstice. He offered a day long yoga immersion to usher in the light with yoga, meditation and mantra at his home studio in the hills just outside Santa Fe. SUCH A wonderful way to spend the Solstice. I am so excited to have more time to study with him!

Tias at the Prajna Yoga Temple. A beautiful place to practice yoga
in the quiet hills outside Santa Fe.

I think that's a wrap for now!

 I will close with a few images from the final Hobbit movie that opened this week. It was EXCELLENT!! I cried through most of it.

People complained that Tauriel wasn't in the books
being a Middle Earth aficionado I half agree. I loved her character
in the end. A powerful Elvish Warrior Woman!
What's not to love about a woman with a bow!
(being one myself!!)



I ordered my target and in the spring will get some hay bails to attach it to. I finally have some land, and a free enough society that I can practice archery right at home!

My landlord (who is an old cowboy) is beginning to understand I shoot only to develop physical and mental skill NOT to kill, most certainly not to kill animals. He thinks it's weird.

He sort of thinks I'm whacked~~~ Okay with me!! :)