On the road again....

Since GK starts school on Tuesday, Sweet Man and I took her on the last trip out of town yesterday. We headed north this time. Our destination was Chama NM.

The road between Espanola and Abiquiu Dam is other worldly. Maybe because I have always been a fan of Georgia O'Keefe, I can just imagine her in several spots along the area in her 1920 something car loaded with easel, paints and canvas or sketchbook and recording this area of NM in such a soulful way. The morning light on the monoliths of layer upon layer of Triassic sedimentary maroon, red, green, cream, white and Jurassic ocre, gold and caramel. Millions of years of show off bluffs and upcroppings everywhere you look. It is breathtaking.

It is no wonder that Ms. GK has an appreciation for "rocks and crystals" (to the point of obsession) with a geological nerd for an Oma. Historically enhanced Papa, shared the story of the native peoples of the northern pueblos and the genocide that occurred in central and northern NM at the hands of our ancestors to our ancestors. Funny that. We so want to give our grands the love and understanding of what is our state, our past so that that voice will live in them not just around them.

GK's comments along the way about what she has already learned on our adventures is the stuff that pride is made of. She has a real sense of nature's beauty, how it came to be and who was here before. And she is a giant 12 year old goof ball to travel with on the byways. Her latest back seat sensation was songs about the "fam". My tribute song goes something like this:

Oma got run over by a donkey
Coming home from thrifting Blue Moon night
Some others may not believe in Karma
But as for me and Papa, we know it's right.......to the tune of Grandma got run over by a reindeer

Okay the others get progressively....sillier but hey it was only 9 hours together.

We stopped at Abiquiu Lake and she just jumped in the lake with her clothes on. Wild child. Of course we did plan for that contingency with a spare set of clothes and a towel. She had a blast. Watched the folks who were setting up for their holiday weekend by getting to the lake early. Beautiful blue water set against red rocks. I may not have access to the ocean but even man made lake water is a source.

We also stopped at Echo Canyon, a naturally occurring amphitheater from a cliff face. You can whisper and hear your whisper echo. It is so cool. It's been years since we stopped to partake of the echo chamber and the walk is a good path of exercise for this old broad. We sent our early warning, snake scaring, varmint scaring younger member ahead of us, singing and jumping up the trail. I should imagine that every snake in the county was booking it to elsewhere as she made her way to the echo opportunity. And had a super fun time partaking of the opportunity. Sure am glad we were the only ones there at the time. She's a mess.

We got back on the road and made it to our destination of Chama. There is the Cumbres Toltec railroad in Chama and we toured the old station and got a chance to see the rusty dusty rail yard. The train was out along the tracks spewing the steam engines puffs between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO and back. We settled for lunch at an old looking restaurant and saloon. Relaxed for a bit and then headed back home.

Chalk up another fun day and two tired old people and a chatterbox filled with adventure to share with her Mom and bro. Ry by the way was a bit on the peavish side about being left here to attend school, but soon that gave way to his enthusiasm by adding what he knew of the land and peoples of NM learned on other trips and now he wants to go to see the different layers of color and search for dinosaur bones.....that came about from the use of the Jurassic prehistoric references. Those words always trigger that dinosaur mania in him.

We still have so many more day trips to make with the grands.......and they're fired up and ready to go.

Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and tonight dance by the light of the Blue Moon.

An aside, I am having computer difficulties and will not be able to post as often as I would like. Don't think I have gone far far away, I am simply having to eeck out posts on a catch can basis.

Pink for October

I would like to encourage everyone to go to Sharon Henry from Plumrose Lane's loving creation Go Pink for October. This is a labor of love and also of concern for everyone, male or female to do self checks, be a boobie buddy to someone and remind them to do self exams and to raise awareness and possibly money for the cure for breast cancer.

The Mission

Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.

Raising money isn’t the primary purpose of this web event. The hope is that you educate yourself about the many issues related to Breast Cancer, turn your site pink in whatever manner works for you ~ from selecting one of our free buttons or backgrounds to using your own pink photo ~ and then take that knowledge and tell someone else what you’ve learned.

Also if you would like to add a sidebar button, Sharon has also provided several to pick from at this link.

Won't you please go to the website, pick a side bar button and call a buddy and make sure that they do a monthly breast self exam and get a mammogram every year.

What's a little pink among friends, right???????

Let's talk about the Mercury Retrograde afterglow

I can't say that my life was affected too much during the recent Mercury retrograde. As a matter of fact, not much at all. I know many were anxious for it to be over.

Now the after party for the retrograde kicked in on the 8th for me and mine. Camera, phone, computer keyboard, mouse and the real biggie was our closer than I ever want to come to killing someone incident. And I'm not kidding.

SM and I took the grands to a park at the very foothills of the Sandias for our weekly outing. Park was full of wasps, saw several rattlers basking within 20 feet of the playground equipment......we didn't stay.

Took them to lunch and were headed home. We were in the far right hand lane near the sidewalk on a three lane street. A brand new peach colored convertible VW bug came along side of us with two teenage girls no more than 16 and GK said what an ugly color car they were driving. She had not even pronounced the ending g when the driver of the VW just made a right turn from the middle lane, right in front of us. If SM had not been aware of that car and the idiot girl driving it..........I can't even bare to think of it. He stood the SUV we were driving up on the front end and the girls whizzed past us onto the side street.

We pulled in front of them, cutting them off. Easy to do because the drivers was still looking for something between the seats and hadn't even noticed us until I screamed what do you think you are doing? And the little biotch in the passinger seat yells we were turning, you dumb ass. What's it look like? (Well to me it looked like Daddy's little girl has great taste in friends and didn't have a clue as to how to drive the "still with dealers paper tags car" she almost wrecked.) And then the driver looks up and gives us the Jersey state bird.

SM walked to the back of her car (I wanted to walk up and smack um both) and wrote down her license plate number and told her to stay put and proceeded to call the police. They almost ran over SM when they put it in reverse and backed up into the major street where they had cut us off without even a thought. Squealing tires a huge crash and a police siren. All within 90 seconds or less.

As we pulled up into the parking  lot on the corner to stay and give our report to the police, we were able to see what had just happened. The little girl in the passenger seat (who I thought afterwards, we could have killed if we had hit them) was stuck with the air bag deployed. The driver was caught behind the airbag and the police car was up into what used to be the new car's back seat.

The grands were, needless to say, shook up. And us oldies  had our knees knocking as well.

The "idiot girls" were taken to the hospital as was the police officer driving her car. Joe stayed and gave the police his statement and I took the kids home. GK says she doesn't want to drive until she is older. Ry said, "yeah Sissy and let's not ever have a peach car". And there you go.

A little more junkin'

You know what happens when you let two cuckoos loose in a thrift store.....one of them has a brain fart and then a think occurs......it's called junkin.

We found these blue bottles and this fabulous wire basket.....I bet you think it's just bottles and a basket but you would be wrong......it's a blue hanging lamp.....just you wait and see.

And here's the chandelier on the back porch. I tried taking photos of it while lit last night but it was just a lovely blur of crystals, chain and baubles with fairy lights. I will attempt a shot at twilight and include a photo if it looks better. I just love it because it also makes a clinkety clankety noise in the breeze....ambiance folks, we crave ambiance.

And my lovely daughter fought her way through a whole bin of "crappee" and found this fabulous Hamsa hand.....don't you love it?

And for your dining.....or I should say snacking pleasure, you gotta get this book and try the wonderful recipes for Mexican ice pops (some made with adult beverages as well, yum), shaved ice and aguas frescas.

We did this one the day we got the book and I thought Shelley and Joe were gonna go to fisticuffs over the last of them.....they are that good.

from Paletas by fany gerson

paletas de coco rapidas
quick coconut ice pops

1 can coconut milk (13.5 ounce)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounce)
2/3 cup half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened and lightly toasted coconut (the absolute best part)

Put the coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, half and half, salt and vanilla in a blender and blend until smooth. Stir in coconut.
If using conventional molds, divide the mixture among the molds, snap on the lid and freeze until solid, about 5 hours. If using glasses or other unconventional molds, freeze until the pops are beginning to set (1 1/2 to 2 hours), then insert the sticks and freeze until solid, 4 to 5 hours. If using and instant ice pop maker, follow the manufacturer's instructions. 

So there you have it. Junkin' and making treats....what's an Oma to do....couldn't be having more fun....well yes I could but this was great.

Happy Weekend.

The grands go to Placitas to see the wild horses

Sweet Man's days off during the summer afford him opportunity to take the grands on short driving adventures. Short because we're old and don't want to have to hog tie the grands before reaching our destination or arriving back home again. They are the poster children for she's touching me and then turning around and making each other laugh so much it's contagious. I'm very used to this because I am with them lots....SM uh....not so much but he's a trooper.

Thursday we went to Placitas which is just up the road a bit north of Albuquerque. When I was a teenager, my friends and I would go to Placitas to skinny dip in the stream and pretend we were part of the communes that Placitas was known for. Later on in college, I lived in Placitas for awhile and practiced even more being a dirty dreaded hippy. But enough of my lurid past as a flower child.

And back to the grands adventure. Last time SM and I were up there, we didn't see but one stallion and only for a split second. He must have been scouting out the area because we didn't even see traces of any other horses. But this time, just as we entered the "historic village of Placitas" was a steaming pile and we knew they must be close. It wasn't 2/10ths of a mile and they were three on the main road. There was a big grey with black main, a painted black and white and a beautiful shiny roan. They took their time crossing the road and we followed them as best we could up a stream bed.

Nope, not picture one of the horses. I was too busy looking out for the grands.

After disengaging our tracking mission we headed to the north part of Placitas where the huge houses are. A friend had told us there were gourds to be found along the main road and she had seen an entire 15 horse herd last week.

As we drove along the grands started spouting back some of the geology and terrain things they have learned in past driving adventures, it was very cool to hear them speak of Mother Earth with knowledge and affection. We found mistletoe, they asked the plant if we could pick it, and brought some home. We also found loads of gourds, but only brought home a few for our turtles (some of their favorite food in the wild) and left the rest for whatever animal feeds on them.

Then we reached the high voltage wires that bring in electricity from the 4 corners of NM, Utah, Colorado, Arizona area and just before getting to the turn around there is a bridge. We've never even noticed the sign before. Maybe it's new or maybe us oldies but goodies just missed it but.............a for really troll bridge.

How could the grands resist getting out of the car and calling the troll to come out and defend his bridge. They are a mess.....thank goodness.

So the adventure was a success....horses, other wildlife, plants, beautiful scenery, troll bridges and spending quality time together. The cherry on top was a meal at Cracker Barrel. And everyone made it home sans ropes and gags....tee hee

Faerie Moon where for art thou?

Normally, I would not be using a post to ask a winner of the giveaway to contact me, but......I have tried several times and in different ways to get in touch with Faerie Moon Creations. If any of you know Faerie Moon, please let her know she has won. If I don't hear from her by Sunday, I am going to award to another person who commented on this blog during Celebrate Oz.