Sundae Sunday in Eldorado

Scenes from the annual Ice Cream Social and Auction at Eldorado yesterday, always a wonderful time:

Visitor in our front yard

We have about 6 hummingbirds that hang around our feeders outside the dining room window. They are quite fun to watch, and have been entertaining us a lot lately. They can be a devilish bunch, hogging the feeders and chasing other arrivals away, squawking at one another.

Here's one John photographed this morning.

Sunset behind the Jemez Mountains

This was our sunset tonight:

My little garden

This year was my first attempt at growing vegetables here in New Mexico. I tended to think of it as an experiment, to see what I could learn for the future.

These were my pepper and tomato plants in mid-May when I first planted them:





And this is how they look now. My little garden has for the most part been a success!




CHIVES AND BASIL PLANTS GROWN FROM SEED:



What have I learned?

1. The little irrigation system John hooked up has been great, but we have had to do quite a bit of adjusting in order not to water too little or too much.

2. Miracle Gro for Vegetables has been GREAT in producing larger and healthier plants.

3. Sometimes late in the day in the full afternoon sun, one of the tomato plants gets very wilted. We're thinking next year it will be best to use bigger pots.

Take me out to the ball game

John and I attended our first Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game last night. In Santa Fe it was raining hard when we left, but down in Albuquerque the skies were blue and there was no bad weather; in fact it was a perfect night for a baseball game - 72º.

The Isotopes are the Triple AAA Farm club of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Isotopes Park is a really great little ballpark, and appears to be a very class organization that the people of ABQ can be proud of. Parking is free, the food is good although a bit expensive, and the stadium is comfortable and clean. Very family friendly, lots of fun for watching both the game and all the activity going on. Of course the fact that we had seats two rows behind the visitors dugout was just about perfect.

We attended the game with friends, and had a wonderful time, even though the Topes lost 4-1. Looks like we will be going back frequently in the coming seasons.









THE ISOTOPES MASCOT IS NAMED ORBIT.

The Eldorado Hotel, Santa Fe

We wandered around the Eldorado Hotel on Saturday because a lot of Indian Market exhibitors/vendors were there. It is a grand hotel. We only got two pictures, though. I guess that means we will have to go back to take more!

Our Indian Market Purchases

We purchased two paintings from artists at the Santa Fe Indian Market. The most interesting thing was being able to talk to the artists at length about their work.

Roger Kull does his painting on leather, which gives it a very different look. He also works with the leather, so that the painting is not flat, but has a three dimensional look. He also incorporates real bits of turquoise into the painting. His website is at Rogerkull.50megs.com This is the painting we chose:



Sharon Brening is not Indian, but she loves the Indian culture and has great respect for the traditions, culture and language of the people. She photographs children on the Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo reservations, and then paints the images. We were captivate by this painting of Skye and her little brother Wild. This photograph was done near Farmington, New Mexico this summer, along the San Juan River, where the family lives. Sky's name means "Butterly" in Navajo; hence the butterflies on her dress. Wild is wearing a breastplate his grandfather made for him, and carrying his grandfather's spear. He told the people at the photography shoot that he was "catching fish for lunch." The family has three children and another is due this fall. Sharon has been painting Skye since she was 15 months old. Sharon's work can be found at sbrening.com

Santa Fe Indian Market

Today we spent the morning at the annual Indian Market in downtown Santa Fe.

This was the first time we have ever been to the Indian Market, and it was wonderful. Taking a shuttle from the Santa Fe Place Mall alleviated all the hassle of finding a place to park. The shuttle dumped us off at Sandoval and Alameda, just a couple of blocks from the Plaza.

The day was hot, but in the morning it was still comfortable, and the crowds were lighter than they would be later in the day.

There were hundreds of booths with approximately 1200 Indian artists from 100 tribes all across the United States, although we mainly saw Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo Indians. The best part was striking up conversations with so many interesting people who loved to talk about their culture and their art.

We bought two paintings which we absolutely fell in love with. I will post pictures of them in my next blog post.

The only thing we didn't do was get something to eat in the Market area. Long lines everywhere and I am assuming the Plaza restaurants were jammed with people.

It was a really perfect morning.




THIS WAS IN FRONT OF THE ELDORADO HOTEL.


INSIDE THE ELDORADO HOTEL.





THIS MAN WAS WORKING ON A PAINTING.


BOOTHS OUTSIDE THE SANTA FE COUNTY OFFICE BUILDING.








THESE MUSICIANS WERE FROM ECUADOR.