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.