TWO GRACES

Late last night I was up reading my favorite blogs and clicked on to Two Graces Taos.  I think you will enjoy it if you like soulful reading.  Robert took this occasion for a Q&A concerning the Rancho de Taos Mission Church

google

I have been coming to Taos since I was a young girl and we try to go at least once a year.  I used to like to ski the challenging slopes, and then I liked to shop and now I like to just go there and be.

Always try to visit the church to peek in and say a little prayer...it smells like wood

very very old wood

I have evolved, or perhaps I have mellowed into the surroundings of the mountain.  Legend says that either the mountain likes you or it doesn't.  If it does you stay, if it doesn't you go.  

I have told my loved ones, this is where I want my ashes spread.  Until then...I will be there as often as I can.  I love each season.  The smell of burning pinion in the winter, the fall aspens, the spring flowers or the piercing blue sky in the summer.

If you have never been, let me take you on my road

The drive from my house is a little less than 5 hours...one of the most relaxing and beautiful to one of the most coveted destinations.  I am lucky!

between Clayton and Springer there is nearly 2 hours of this

I have always been in awe of this buffalo's eye...it doesn't even look real but I assure you it is from my very own camera several years ago.

you know you are getting close when you see the Palisades

In town...all adobe dwellings...it's the code for building

and on past...the mountains..sage and beauty...usually snow topped even in summer

but in between

art, history, music, dining and most of all

S.O.U.L.

probably one of my favorite gifts B ever bought me while there

I do love to shop..these are some of my favorites...I know they are meaningful to me because they are in my house and not in my garage packed away

Many of them are in my chapel

because so many are santos

We bought these at Two Graces on a trip a few years ago..I have moved them all over 822 and they are draped with vintage rosaries and vintage jewelry

always art in some form..this is near my wine cabinet

The  Church at Abiquiu...where Georgia O'Keefe spent a lot of time at the Ghost Ranch

monks

 Pasqual Patron Saint of Cooking 

sits on our woodfire oven.  

He often holds a marigold in his dish

Every trip I am seduced by something and B always says "I can make that"

this time he did

Milagros are religious folk charms traditionally used for healing purposes.  B made this for me..it's a very large rosary covered with milagros...as of late I have been needing to be healed from some bad drives and short putts...Taos has a wonderful golf course!  Maybe I should hang it from the cart..that makes me laugh.

a kiss at the state line...coming or going?  BOTH!

Thanks for the post Robert...I do believe I will be headed your way very very soon!

Magic

The Land of Enchantment

PURA VIDA!

CENOTE

A bit of progress on the yard portion of 822

The sprinkler system is finally going in on the front..rain last night so perhaps a delay today?  Maybe another two good days and then sod and a few rocks and trees!

This is our pool...and no...we did not use the contractor who bid us $87K.  That was kind of out of our price range since we are probably having to purchase new golf cart batteries soon.  But he is a good and talented friend..his time for 822 will come!

We plan to use the rock we've taken off the house during reno changes and use for the pool cove

It looks small and it really kind of is...I don't want to swim...I want to float with my peeps!

aaaahhhh...nice refreshingly cool blue water...you can't see that glass of Kim Crawford in my hand

This big old tree changed everything and almost made us not get to have a pool...

It's going to be 16 x 30 and had to become a kidney shape 12' away from that tree.  Not what we started out planning but a good compromise.  If all goes well...June 1 completion...just in time to push the Bride and Groom in from behind!

I asked hubby to go get his snorkel and get in the middle of the pool for a photo op

he laughed which means 

kindly 

"no"

So...I photo shopped everyone in...hubs is the one in the hammock in the trees swaying lazily above the pool.  He's also the tiny one on the left jumping in from above.

He should have said "yes"

TILL DEATH

 Have you ever been digging around in your old stuff

and come across something that just took you by such surprise?

That it took your breath away?

My family is full of lefties...my mother, my dad, my brother and me in our immediate family.  And we all hold our pens differently.  My dad turned this bible sideways and wrote his message down toward him.  I saw him write many times, and I have seen this before...

but for some reason today when I opened this bible he gave my mother on their wedding day

it just gave me the most nostalgic and romantic feeling.

"My love is for you always"

and then they got married in Santa Fe

They divorced later and both remarried, but we had conversations before he died and I know for a fact

His love was for her always

and speaking of forever...evidently I slipped in this photo of me when I brought Grace home from the hospital...she was a tiny little thing and I have been loving her ever since!

Sometimes love is confusing, uncertain, hard and yet all the while wonderful

It takes commitment and risk and forgiveness to last always

no matter who you love

DATE NIGHT

Love must be in the air.  

I had to cover the opening game of the Amarillo Venom in...Amarillo...so invited my good sport hubby on a date.  We had such a great time.

Skulking through the rich part of town looking for inspiration yards

buying sidewalk paint at Lowes

pricing fountains at Petes

patio Mexican food

and

VIP arena football!

Get your fangs DOWN!

I think others I love had dates too:

Text to newly married couple son/daughter

silence

hehehehehehe

Heytell to engaged peep:

"Hey thanks again for the gouchos,they were a hit at the game"

silence

Text to single peep:

"Are you home?"

silence

Text from sister:

"Tim (hub of 25 years) invited me on a date and we are intoxicated  at some steak house in the middle of nowhere:

me:  I love Tim...don't text and date, it's rude

her: He loves you too

silence

I asked hubby what we would talk about if we were on a date

he said, "Your work"

ha...

we talked about

what kind of trees we were going to plant

where we would plant our vineyard in the back yard

what kind of coping would go around the pool

lavender or no?

him wearing someone else's pants to work

and what a good sport he was as he hung out in the pit while I took photos...

and that ghostly guy next to him?

He was moving so fast cheering on the team he came out in multiple frames

yep...nothing better than a date with a good sport!

I TOLD YOU SO

When hubs got his next to the next to the before last raise I asked him if I could stop ironing his shirts and send them to the cleaners.

Yes.  He said yes and I gave my iron to the Thrift Shop.

YAY!...emancipation.

There is one slight problem...they get starched really stiff...and I mean

REALLY STIFF.

He put on some khakis yesterday and could barely put his foot in, they were so stiff.  They would have been able to stand up in the room by themselves.  When he finally got them on, I looked at him and I said,

"Those aren't your pants"

He to me:..."how could they not be?"

Well, our cleaners is in Perryton and that town is 8000 population and 26 miles away.  It stands to reason that on occasion a mishap could occur and you could get the wrong pants from time to time.

He wore them anyway and struggled down the stairs and swished out the door.

Later in the day I had an email from him that said,

"I don't think these are my pants."

BOOGER!

A VERY FINE BUNNY TRAIL

There seems to be some evidence that 

I Like Rabbits!

Found this in my garage yesterday and put a little fern in it...just in the nick of time

Cute little mold...looks a bit dusty

This is "me n my 3 peeps" in rabbit life

My bff got me this for my birthday one year...love it!

Meet baby bo peep's rabbit friends..all 12 of them, one for each month (one is in my kitchen window in case you were counting) They can usually be seen on my piano keys

Remember I was digging around in my garage?

When I had my kiln at Zulu...we made some rabbits and cute little veggies for a rabbit patch, it was just really so darn cute...they were all sitting in a bed of real grass for an art show!

You are about to see a sad pattern..notice the ear?

Glued back on?  

Well...I have a little boy peep who went through a spurt of breaking stuff...even wrote a poem about him and all the stuff he broke.  It's called "The Cup Without a Handle"

He's 27 and just got married.  I'm not mad at him anymore..and it makes me laugh to think I just kept on gluing stuff back together...A. L.O.T.

These are missing some ears I do believe...did he think they were rabbit hot-wheels?

and speaking of missing

I have four of these little netsukes and when I was looking in my garage, I found the other stuff, but not them.  It will drive me crazy all day wondering where in the world I have packed them!

I have so much stuff packed away still that I bet I even have more rabbits than I can actually remember.

Hope you have a Happy Easter Season!

THE THING ABOUT WINDOWS

Can you see how this window reflects and you can't really see in?

It's very tall and my head goes just to the bottom of it.  A real perch.

But, don't let it fool you because I can see out!

I like to stand at this window in the morning and watch the moms take their kids to school...it makes me think of how many days I did that..years actually.

I like to stand here and watch folks drive by so slow you can read their tires, as they look on to see what we've been up to lately in the reno department.

I like to look across the street and see what my neighbors are doing in their gardens...makes me long for mine.

But I LOVE to watch my hubby walk up the rock path when he gets home from work.

He loves this house, maybe more than I do, and he always has a smile on his face as he's walking to the front door.

It's like he walks real slow to see what's grown or changed or maybe all the things that have stayed the same...I know just how he feels.

Seeing that smile?  Man..that makes me really happy.

TREE HUGGER

We are located on the High Plains in the top portion of the Texas Panhandle.

It's so flat that you can see the night lights of communities for miles and miles away.  In the daytime, you can see them by their groves of trees....and grain elevators.

We live in the grasslands and our trees are precious so I don't like it when

a: they die

b: folks cut them down on purpose

If you google earth 822, you can't even see the property for the trees

When we bought it, things had to change because it was just so wild and overgrown.

I have to tell you...it hurt me to cut trees down, but they will be replaced!

I keep thinking..."it's just what I get!"

(Our tree lined street is lovely!)

Last year was considered to be THE WORST DROUGHT in our history.  I didn't realize that an 80 year old tree could really die from that.  I kept thinking, they have been through droughts before.  Maybe so, but I fear I have trees that are not slow coming out...but trees, OLD trees, BIG trees, ESTABLISHED trees

PRECIOUS TREES

that really might be gone

This has really been on my mind.  I am not a Catholic, but I have friends who are and so have tinkered with the fun part of their ways.  I have some Holy Water that was blessed by the Pope that my bff brought me back from the Vatican.  So...I got to thinking...

Yesterday, I called bo peep and baby bo peep and we hugged our trees

I gave the Holy Water to her and told her to tell the trees please not to die and to ask God if he could please let them get well.

So...she in her four year old preciousness, put her hands on every tree, dabbed them with some water, told them to please be well and asked God to help them be ok.

I know I know I know...it's a tree(s)

but they are living, they have a place on this property and have been there for nearly 90 years

I think that precious little prayer is worth a shot!