Lying on the couch with my poor feet elevated as high as possible commensurate with drinking scotch without dribbling it down my chin. josh has finally gotten the fire to take, and it is popping away while he writes postcards and I mull over what was a very full first day.
Trip out was pretty painless, except for having to get up at 5:00 AM to catch a 7:45 plane. Flights full but on time. Got to Albuquerque at 12:30 -- no snow to speak of on the ground, but great swirling clouds over the mts, diving into valleys and leaving trails behind. On the strength of forecasts for three days of snow starting tomorrow, I upgraded to an SUV, which I am already glad of as the winds were pretty wild across the highway. As we got closer to Santa Fe there were patches where the landscape was dusted with snow, outlining every crevice, making the stark landscape somehow even more graphic. A glimpse of one of those cone-shaped hills in the distance with dark green junipers dotted against the whiter background of the snow... A brief lift of clouds to the west suddenly reveals an entire range of peaks totally white.
No snow in Santa Fe, but the casita is quite nice. Biggish living room wi separate dining room and kitchen, bedroom etc. -- plenty of room for josh and me to orbit wi out running into each other's trajectories. In a nice quiet neighborhood down Don Gaspar south of the Capitol. Abt a mile south of the plaza, same distance to the rail yard, and to canyon road. Though we'd eaten a bite in Atlanta, we were starving, so just dropped things off at the casita and headed for a hearty late lunch of brisket at The Cowgirl, where I saw a woman wearing a purple velvet skirt and a green jacquard velvet jacket that were so outlandishly gorgeous I thought, only in a Santa Fe. Had never been to Cowgirl but I was quite taken by the many pictures of fast women on horses on the walls, and the atmosphere was extremely casual and laid back. Suspect I'll return on my own.
From there we went over to the Capitol building to check out their art collection. It was wonderful! The state has committed to buying art from local artists and the collection Is delightfully eclectic. The building is round with a central rotunda and the art lines the circular corridors that surround it. Going through the back tangles of various offices, I saw four Gustav Baumans -- there is art EVERYWHERE. There were even some prints, my God: a collograph, some woodcuts and several lithographs that screamed student of Wayne Kimball. We got there around 4:00 and only had two hours before the building shut down so didn't manage to see everything. I plan on going back once Josh has left to further study a fairly large exhibit of local book arts that had some gorgeous pieces..
Even though my feet were starting to protest, we headed over to the O'Keeffe gallery because we knew they were open late on Fridays. Wandered around the new exhibit on OK at Lake George; probably a dozen or more paintings I hadn't seen before. Bunch of leaf paintings and tree paintings in particular. But I'd pretty much reached my absorption limit for the day, and so mostly contented myself wi listening to audio commentary, knowing id be coming back for some more concentrated study.
We rounded the evening off wi a trip to albertsons to get basic breakfast supplies, snacks, alcohol, and wood for the fireplace. Think we are planning to go north tomorrow, to either Taos or Ghost Ranch and Bandelier. We figure we need to travel as much as possible before too much snow arrives. Sunday we'll stay in Santa Fe, visiting museums and shopping. That's the day snow is most likely to be heavy.
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