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!! :)

Almost There!

A few images from summer good times and
pre-departure goodbyes

Mom and Dad, aren't they the cutest?

My Roxie Mama in her groovy new
space. Our time together as roomies shifts- hugs Rox!

The Most Excellent Strum Bums!

Karen, Sahar, Mare the best girls weekend
in Newport RI,

I am delinquent in posting the final approach to New Mexico so here are a few images from the final leg of the trip.

Oklahoma, Texas, and into New Mexico! That last day was exciting.

The real vibes of the west began emerging all around me. Images, thoughts and fondness for home blending together with the excitement and new possibilities of The Great American Southwest all sloshing around in my mind simultaneously.

I think I took this one, to show how cheap gas was but here in New Mexico it
is hovering around 2.39 a gallon right now. 

My co-pilot! She was SO brave! Paloma the super kitty!

The Blue Buddha in Arkansas at Jason's Deli!

I think I took this to show all the Scottish names...Edinburg, Orkney,
settlers to this region re-named everything to feel more at home. Must be
a good amount of Scots/Irish out here.
This is of interest to me because  I've been reading all about the musical migrations
from Scotland and Ireland into Appalachia
 and the birth of folk and bluegrass music scene that I love so much

I put this up on Facebook asking if anyone knew what on earth it was.
Turns out it is the mascot for the college football team the Arkansas Razorbacks!
The things you see on the interstate!

Oklahoma~~ I went through the Kickapoo, Creek, Chicksaw,
Seminole, and Sac and Fox reservations.

Oklahoma Welcome Center

The Blue Buddha in Oklahoma!

Cool rest stop in Oklahoma there is a blue buddha there now!

Wind farms on the Texas plains. Texas is not all bad...mostly bad, but not all bad

Finally made it! Lots of dead bugs on the wind shield~~

This was our final day...Paloma is barely
speaking to me. I have some serious
reparations to make. 

More to come from my first two weeks here! This is from today's
walk in the Galisteo Water Basin Preservation Land. It was full
of bluebirds!

A Hundred Miles From Memphis

A quick update and phew what a journey so far! Where to begin! I listened to so much music in the past two days my head is gloriously spinning. Spent two days in Nashville. The place was all a-buzz with the Country Music Award preparation. I got to see them setting up, doing sound checks and rolling out the red carpet. 

Getting ready for the CMA's - The Country Music Hall of Fame - Nashville TN

Guitar shaped bush? Only in Nashville!

The history of this town is truly amazing

Bill Monroe
Earl Skruggs
The Carter Family
Elvis
Patsy Cline
Johnny Cash and June Carter
Dolly Parton
Minnie Pearl
And soo many more!!

The Legendary Ryman Auditorium

He was around....yep

 

The Stage - Nashville One of many honky tonks I spent the day in
yesterday!

At The Ryman
Little did I know as a kid watching Hee Haw and The Grand Ole Opry
that I was watching history being made! 

A few more photos of the Ryman. This place was originally a church-in-the-round.  They cut away the "round"
and made it into a half circle to accommodate the stage. The Grand Ole Opry held court here from about 1943 until 1974 when they moved to The Grand Ole Opry House

Hee Haw and Hooowdy!!

A highlight of the Nashville stop was connecting with my friend Ursula King, who I worked with for several years at The Natick Community Organic Farm. She moved to Nashville over a year ago with her family. She met me Tuesday afternoon. We had dinner and then she made a suggestion that we mosey on over to Vanderbilt college music school to see a free "question and answer" event with Sheryl Crow. 

There may have been 100 people in the audience and there was Sheryl Crow, chatting away. A faculty member (I forget her name) at the music school at Vanderbilt is now in Sheryl's band and asked her to come and talk to the students about song writing. What luck!! Thank you Ursula!!!

Ursula and I at The Farm House (farm to table fare!! had an amazing kale salad!)

Sheryl Crow. Those chairs to the right of the band are where she sat for over and hour
chatting us up!

There is so much more but I must stop for now so I can get some sleep. Gotta get an early start tomorrow to get through Arkansas, Oklahoma and into New Mexico! So much more to come!!

Paloma is doing pretty well considering.  I am more than a little proud of her bravery and flexibility!!

She is the best co-pilot --- really.

The title of this blog 'A Hundred Miles from Memphis' is a song that dropped in as I was sitting in traffic just outside of Memphis today. I heard this melody in my head, started humming, and then wondered how far I was from Memphis. A sign came that said 109 miles to Memphis. But 109 didn't go with the melody so I  chopped it to 100.

"I'm a hundred miles to the Memphis line
in the pouring rain and I'm loosin' time
still I'm moving forward don't wanna look behind
I'm a hundred miles to the Memphis line"

I thought I was sitting in construction traffic (we were on a huge bridge that brought us over the Mississippi River on the Memphis/ Arkansas line, which was quite a sight to behold, if not for the rain and the closed shoulder due to construction, I would have a photo of it) I was wrong. The delay was caused by the most horrific accident I have ever seen. It involved 7 semi trucks, an SUV and a state police car. All where burned to heaps of scrap metal on the highway. 

I kept singing to keep my nerves steady and searched for an exit to get off that highway. I saw two major accidents today, the weather was intense, with very low visibility from torrential rains all day long.

I am happy to report I am comfortably chilling out at a very nice hotel off the Interstate!