gilligan sociologic alembic

“Never be afraid to do something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic”

— Anonymous

Gotta love those recessive genes.

Well now, I have some 'splainin' to do after my long absence from blogging.  We actually boarded the dogs and took a trip!  been several years and a bit overdue.

First we flew to Denver;

Eastern Colorado, my ancestral homeland.  Can we all say ugh?  This is where my dad was born, my mon more to the west and in sight of the mountains.  As soon as we landed we rented a car and plugged in my GPS to head for my favorite aunt's place, just a bot south of the airport.  This is my favorite (and frankly now my only!) aunt remaining and she is 91.  I was so happy o find her in good health and still making faces and telling jokes with me, and there were glimpses of my own mom flashing by-  all in all a happy occasion and wish we could have stayed longer:

Ignore the pudgy person in the front-  it must be the camera angle.  Yup, it is.

We had to leave to get down to Colorado Springs to the Broadmoor.  I guess I am not a resort kind of gal-  it was beautiful, amazing, and you are looking at only half of it way across the lake-  it kept me busy just going from one building to another looking for our friends or a restaurant or, even better, their amazing collection of Western Art all through the main halls.  Hopper, Bellows, Remington, O'Keefe and on and on. Unfortunately it rained most days so TY didn't get his golf in. I didn't get my girl scout falconry badge and I've been hoping for that for 65 years now.  But I DID get a birthday present of an amazing photographic work of a close up of a raven.  It's due to arrive tomorrow and I am yanking all my stuff off the walls looking for it's perfect place.

One of the outlooks that TY delighted in dragging me to-  a road with about ten switchbacks, no guardrails, and a full parking lot so we couldn't even get out of the car before heading back down the damn mountain.  And gee, it doesn't look nearly so scary from this angle.  We did visit some cliff dwellings and a nice little museum dedicated to Indian artifacts found on the site.  

After four days of drizzle and monsoons alternating we took off for Santa Fe and ended up in a lovely SMALL hotel where I finally felt at home-  no spa, a lovely small restaurant, and walking distance to everything in downtown Santa Fe.  We always planned on ending up there but it was just too far to commute, and it still feels like home.  TY did get his golf games in and I got to wander, and even had expert guidance from the wife of one of the golfers.  She was a wonderful generous woman who showed up to show me the sights but it ended up we hit the Santa Fe International Folk Art Museum in spite of both of us being there many times.  She wanted to see the Flamenco exhibit, I was interested in the Chinese Quilt exhibit but we walked into the Tramp Art Exhibit and were both blown away.  My dad was, my whole childhood, a whittler.  Sort of today's version of the damn little wheel everybody is playing with.  I saw a bunch of forms I remember him whittling (before tv!), carving a long chain out of a stick, carving a little cage with loose balls inside, things like that.  But the wondrous items on display were amazing.  Sure I've seen hundreds of picture frames and little boxes but the stuff on exhibit was so artistic with beautiful craftsmanship, and mostly made from found wood, like cigar boxes.  Well my darlings, you KNOW that cigar boxes are right up my alley.  We had a wonderful day!  Yes, I still love Santa Fe!

And of course I hit the Weavers Store, and Patina Gallery and anything else that had an open door.  We headed home on Sunday and have been playing catch-up since unlocking the door.

And look!  The clouds in Palm Beach as ever bit as beautiful as in Santa Fe!  I am a lucky woman.

Today FedEx brought 'Al' home to me, so now I have TWO pieces to hang before I am officially out of walls.  'Al', my quilt about the Albino Alligator has visited (I think) 11 National Parks over the last 2 years in the 'Changing Climate' show.  He is a permanent resident of the West Palm zoo and I took about ten pictures of him one day that I worked from.  I would have made him without the show to work towards- Welcome Home, Al!