Number 3

Where have we been for the past 6 months? Touring with a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band. No? Can we pretend that is where we have been? Let's do. That way I can just skip right to telling you where we are now. That's all that really matters anyway. Here's a nutshell version.... we left Nantucket in the end of March, spent a month on the road visiting family, bake saling for dollars and trying to live in an Airstream with no running water or electricity that has major parts being held on by duct tape. We managed to travel all the way back to New Mexico in this way and have now settled in to apartment 3 at El Zaguan on Canyon Rd. It's an artist's residency space in an historic building owned by The Historic Santa Fe Foundation. It's a pretty remarkable situation. We have fabulous neighbors, access to real food again (I'm thumbing my nose at YOU Nantucket) and are really glad to be back home in Santa Fe.

This is the street view of El Zag looking down Canyon....

And the view from our garage roof tops out back....

The view from our bedroom door on the zaguan (a long outdoor hallway that runs the length of the building) at dusk.

This place is pure magic.

Here is an (lengthy but interesting) article The New Mexican published on the building and it's history for anyone curious.

We (the current artist's in residence) will be writing a blog sharing work, photos, writing and event dates such as shows etc. which I will post about here as soon as it is up and running.

Thanks for hanging with me.... it was a long, tough winter and I had no motivation to write! The tide has most definitely turned!

Getting Settled

Whew! It has been a wild change of pace for us over the past few weeks since we left Mendocino. Up there we were sort of floating around in a slow paced fog wearing layers of long sleeves and woolen sweaters and suddenly now we are stinking hot in the Santa Fe sun in 90 + degree temps, zipping back and forth across town in traffic and working on a real live schedule (something that we have not done in years.) I have been a little overwhelmed and a lot exhausted since we got here. But! Things are starting to shape up and settle down now.

My new job is great and I am so thrilled to have scored such a cool gig. I start my chocolatier training tomorrow. Up until now I have been learning the general ropes of the shop and just getting acclimated to the whole scene there. One bit of interesting news is that Billy is actually going to be helping out working one or two days a week cooking at the shop. He will be making the caramel, toffee and the pate (6 flavors of ganache style chocolate enrobed in wax for easy traveling and longevity.) He starts tomorrow training with Keith (one of the owners) on how to cook all these goodies up in a huge copper kettle. It will be funny to have him there at work with me. Rudy will benefit from this in that he gets to go spend the days we work together at the doggie day care which is right next door. The place is called Santa Fe Tails. It's a new business and they seem to be doing a great job so far. One of the best things about the place is that they have web cams set up so you can check in on your dog while they are there playing for the day. They also take each dog out for a walk at the railyard park across the street. Rudy had a blast the last time we dropped him off for the day although the dudes working there did mention that Rudy was a pistol and they could hardly even believe his energy levels. Yo. Tell me about it.

My biggest news to report is that as of August 1st we will be taking a break from the Airstream. Probably a long break other than occasional weekend trips. We just rented a little place right on Canyon Rd and will be moving in the first of next month. We are doing this because the RV parks in and around Santa Fe are just not aesthetically pleasing to me, they are almost as expensive as a casita rental and in the winter here we would freeze our ass off in the trailer. So we will be putting the old girl in storage for awhile. I guess I am ready for a change of living quarters since we have been in the AS for a solid year straight and on and off for almost three years now. Our new place is really sweet... it's not very big but it will suit our purposes quite well. And the location is as good as it gets. We can walk down Canyon Rd and into town in a matter of minutes. I can't wait to move in. Even though we have no furniture! It will be heaven to have a real live big bathroom (and tub) again.... and a full kitchen with counter space! I love our Airstream but variety is the spice of life baby. I am ready to live without wheels under my bed for a minute here.

So with all that said... on to the fun stuff. Yesterday we drove out to Abiquiu, one of my favorite places in the whole of the USA. We had the intention of spending the afternoon and early evening out on the lake in our kayak waiting to shoot photos at dusk. The weather had other plans for us unfortunately. We had only been in the lake for about 5 minutes when the storm clouds starting rolling in and the lightening started dancing across the horizon. Lightening in northern NM is nothing to fool around about.... especially out in the middle of a big assed flat lake. We paddled around a bit, pulled of to have a late lunch and then high tailed it back to the launch site before we got zapped. Also the wind was making paddling around a stupidly huge effort so it was best to give it up for the day. After we got the kayak secured back on the truck we cruised over to Ghost Ranch to shoot some pics.











Rudy was pissed that we did not let him out of the truck at Ghost Ranch but in light of the fact that the bubonic plague is on the loose in the flea population of the area we felt it best that his hairy little ass stayed put inside. The last thing we need is him sticking his snout in some rodent hole and bringing home a host of black plague party animals to roost in our bed sheets.

The next two weeks will entail a lot of cleaning, organizing and prep for moving along with training at work so bear with me if posting is light. I'll do my best to jump on and post some pics and a few stories as the days roll by.