Snow!

Fresh snow means lots of animal tracks and happy peoples tromping about!

Cat cat

 Kitty can be very photogenic, and also simultaneously trouble…

Ten Years of Holiday Kitties

 Merry Christmas & happy final night of Hanukkah!

If you've been paying close attention to our Christmas cards, you may have noticed that I draw a "holiday kitty" illustration every year. This year, amazingly, was the tenth! I've drawn one of these every year since 2013 (!!!)

It's fun to look at all the previous ones together, since you can really see my art progression over time:

 

And, of course, here's this year's:

Christmas Eve in Santa Fe

We really enjoyed the festive, yet chill, vibe walking up Canyon Road this evening.  The street was closed to traffic and all the shops and galleries were lined with lights and farolitos, punctuated by the occasional bonfire or group of musicians. It seemed like the entire town was out!

Not pretty

It’s not pretty, but this fire grate is a lot more functional than the loose pieces of rebar that were in there before! They’d fall apart in the course of every fire, and generally were poor at their one and only job.

I finally got the garage squared away enough that I could get at the welder, so I affixed these suckers permanently to each other (and added one more cross piece, as I had some extra rebar lying about.) Should be a lot more functional now.

May be a college student…

…but still my goofy kid!

Cozy

The cat has figured out that a fire has merit.  Chad, of course, already knows this. (Credit to Kean for the photo.)

Lights on the Plaza

We enjoyed the festive lights on the Plaza earlier this week when we went down to town for a holiday brass and carol concert in the basilica.

Sunroom

 I’m definitely going to hang out in the sunroom this morning — it’s gorgeous! (even if I do need to wash the windows)

Street names

 As I ride my bike, I’ve been noticing some entertaining street names. Or in this case, lack of name?

Other good ones include “Notorious Way” and “Camino del Destino”.

Lights

We started to put lights up tonight.  I still need one more strand for the bottom of the tree (13-ish feet is tall!!). Somehow lights ended up on the cd rack and out near the soaking tub too.

Festive outing

We tromped about the Santa Fe National Forest until we found a Christmas tree this afternoon.  I must have picked a good spot to go, as there were quite a number of cheery people scattered about the woods doing the same.

Decorated

I ran across about a dozen of these bird ornaments in the trees lining a trail on the way home from running an errand this morning.  How jolly!

Afton Canyon

We found a scenic camping spot off of I15 last night, and it proved to give us a nice place to hike.  And we got to see one of the rare part of the Mojave river that actually have surface water.

Covington Flats

We found the biggest Joshua Trees I’ve ever seen in an obscure corner of the park yesterday.

Excuse

I used this trip as an excuse to camp at the base of the Superstitions — my favorite mountain range in AZ.

City of Rocks

We found a cool campground to stay at last night, on our slow path to visit Kean. It had owls right in the campsite!

Frozen bubbles!

 The fish below the ice are still moving, albeit slowly.

I like the air compressor

The air compressor makes stapling projects easy.  And the hose is long enough to reach from the garage into the project room :)

Here is the re-covered card table in the sun room, now that I’ve finished it.  Not bad for a $3 piece of scrap material!

Sprinkle snow

 I left a shirt outside to air, and now it is a sprinkle snow substrate.

Also, I continue to be amazed at how good the camera on my phone is.

More snow

We got another dusting last night, so we went for a little walk before breakfast to look at the fresh white world of wonder!

I wonder... if we could put a heater in the greenhouse?

I wonder... if we should call it the white house, in the wintertime?

Just enough snow to make the grass look dramatic, without hiding it completely.

Holiday tree?

We noted this morning that a coating of snow makes the tumbleweeds look festive.

Petroglyphs

One thing that is fun around here is that it is easy to find hikes with petroglyphs.  And views.

Real snow

 First snow to stick on the ground - while earlier we got flakes falling out of the sky, this time it was cold enough to drop about 2 in of nice, light powder.

It was mostly gone by the afternoon, but we went for a walk in the morning to enjoy the hushed white world.

First snowflakes of the year!

 I like that there are seasons here, even if today’s snow isn’t sticking to the ground.

Sunset du jour

 

El Camino Real

 Back in CA, El Camino refers to a traffic-infested sewer of cars through the South Bay.  Here it is the remnant of an old route from Mexico City to a Santa Fe; we had a nice ride on a single track section of it on Saturday out to Diablo Canyon.

Changing seasons

 

There was snow on the hills in several directions this morning:

to the east on the ski hill above town, 

to the south on Sandia Peak near Albuquerque, 

and to the west on the rim of Valles Caldera (pictured).  

Good morning for a mountain bike ride!

Parental visit

 My parents came out to visit last week; naturally this meant my dad couldn’t resist a little tree work…

Sunset retaliation

 Chad is jealous of the camera on my phone…

Clearing storm

 We got a bunch of rain today; we’re in a little gap between showers right now as the sun is setting.

Rio Grande

We went exploring in the truck over the weekend, but one could also easily ride a bicycle from our house to the Rio Grande.

Chad the Elk

 

We got slightly off course at Valles Caldera last weekend and veered in to ElkLand.

Moonrise and Sandia Crest

 I can’t believe it’s almost October, where did September go?!?

We live in New Mexico now!

After a long hiatus, due to internet fatigue and general busyness with life, we are attempting to revive the blog posts. In the intervening year (nearly), we have relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The story of how that came about will be fodder for a future post. In the meantime, enjoy this scenic view from our new porch!