Santa Fe Winter Day

                 We’ve had snow for the last couple of days — and shoveling to go along with it.   

                            This afternoon the fog embracing the top of Sun Mountain lowered 

                            to enclose the whole neighborhood. 

                                An unusual scene — snow thick enough and vicious enough

                                to hang over the edge of a small roof.

                                      Cheers.

Always Secure Your Ladder

After a spell of cold weather, today we were blessed with a sunny mild day.  Perfect opportunity to finally get the remains a very large bag worm nest out of the top of an aspen — it came late in the summer, during a second wave of bag worms, and was too high and too hidden by leaves to get out of the tree.  

First step was to lash the ladder to the tree —especially important with a thin rather flexible trunk.  Next to the top of the ladder: the working end of a long range pruner.

             Sun Mountain in the background

  Could just reach it with the long range pruner fully extended

Seeing it close up explained why it had never fallen out of the tree on its own — the wall of the nest was so thick it probably would have remained in the tree for months.

                             Another View

All of the coming summer’s foliage is clearly visible — some of these fat buds are so advanced, the catkins are starting to show.

                                                                   A sumac, also with nice buds

Jet Frog

Here’s the sculpture I mentioned.  The base started out as a piece of ash or something like that — what ever Christopher Murphy had laying about his shop. First I stained it dark and then applied the many coats of paste wax.

Chamber Pot in Cyberdom

Over the Christmas holiday, Gavin re-configured our internal Wi-Fi network.  One result was that even more white boxes and a snuggle of white cords ended up beneath the bench in the dining room near the front door.

We stopped at The Raven (formerly Recollections), a consignment/antique store, to see if we could find something in which to hide the electronics.

Of all things, we found a small cabinet that was used originally to hold one’s chamber pot.

First I tightened up the side door hinges by the old trick of adding a section of toothpick to holes which had grown too large.  After a session with Christopher Murphy, the hinges were even better after being reset and a stop was added to the front door.  In the floor of the cabinet a hole was cut to allow wire and plug to reach a wall outlet.  Then I filled a crack and various nail holes.  The rear top decorative piece was removed and reglued to make it sit tight to the top of the cabinet. Finally I applied several coats of good paste waste.

From holding a chamber pot to holding electronics — a nice transition to the 21st century.

First Time in Santa Fe

Several decades ago when I awoke one morning at Beechfield House in Wiltshire and looked out the window, I was astounded — everything was covered with a glistening white glaze.  I learned that it was a hoar frost.  Perhaps due to the unusually dry air in Santa Fe, I have never seen one here.  

But a few mornings ago we were greeted by a Santa Fean attempt.  In these photos you can see how the frost, unlike in England, does not cover everything.  Still it was quite magical.  And gone by early morning.

Top of tree next to master bedroom porch

Looking west

Looking WNW

Front Gate