turquoise trail tales

i'm savoring the last few days of winter break. is it a new years' resolution to make more written appearances here? it's possible! especially seeing as bl0gger is mainly a placeholder and way to read and leave comments for the masses who've migrated. as for other '08 resolutions, some are being formed, but nothing announce-worthy. with a new camera, i may have no excuse not to flickr in '08. and how does a food/gardening blog sound? all fancy dreams but not reality yet. spring semester classes start this coming week, which is just a tad too soon. breaks and vacations spoil me, because it's the one time my time really is MY time, with nothing/no one threating to take that away from me.

new mexico was FUN, and i'm back with a suitcase of dried chile peppers. or not really... but if you like hand-made
tortillas (especially of the blue corn variety), tamales, all things related to chile peppers (either red or green but especially the famed green hatch pepper), warm sopapillas and honey, Georgia O'Keeffe art, turquoise and silver jewelry, Navajo and other native american crafts, the bluest of the blue skies, southwestern pueblo adobe architecture, fancy art gallery walks and mexican hot chocolate, santa fe is definitely the place for you!

one of their state mottos is "Red or Green"? meaning that when you order a dish in a New Mexican style restaurant, you have a choice of having it smothered in red chile sauce or green chile sauce. green hatch peppers are more famous, and quite good in my humble opinion. but the reds are excellent too. as someone who often struggles to make up her mind in "either-or" situations where both options hold appeal, i often chose both red and green sauce, which new mexicans call "christmas". considering that i was there during the holidays, "christmas enchiladas" seemed appropriate!

i'd never been to the desert southwest before, and it is beautiful in its own unique way that is different from the unique attractiveness of East Coast, or the West Coast or the Rockies. new mexico is one of the more economically depressed states, but it's among the more culturally rich places i've been to. there's so much native american art, and the streets are lined with so many gorgeous crafts and jewelry. turquoise and silver jewelry dominate the market, and of course i bought some in the form of a green turquoise pendant and a blue turquoise ring. turquoise is said to bring healing and power, and if you believe in such things, those aren't bad things to have!

not surprisingly, you see how important and dominant spanish language is in that part of the US. you realize if you'd been forward thinking and smart in high school or college (in retrospect), you'd have taken spanish for foreign language.

i came away from the Georgia O'Keeffe museum with two prints, now waiting to be framed: "Amaryllis", and "Poppies".
i've long been a fan of her paintings, and knew she was a desert artist, but she's also spent a short time in Charlottesville, VA. in santa fe, i finally learned so much about her i never knew. she was very much a "loner in the desert", and i think that just looking out at the landscape from our hotel window in santa fe made it obvious how strong an influence the southwestern landscape exerted on her art, and how much that region brought her peace and tranquility. i guess just as some people are ocean or mountain people, there are those who are desert people, first and foremost, and she was one.

when i was growing up, my neighbors used to go to their timeshare condo down in santa fe every summer. during my teens, their tall, lanky, teenaged, poetry-writing, guitar-playing son named C@rter (who in retrospect, might have liked me a little) used to rave about how blue the sky was and how special and enchanted new mexico was. now i'm convinced. :-)

more updates soon.....