Frost in Eldorado

We had heavy fog last Friday night -- and in the morning everything was covered with a layer of frost. It looked surreal for a while before it quickly melted:











(Pictures by John)

La Plazuela Restaurant at La Fonda

On Friday night we went out to eat with our good friends Mary and Kent; a rare and special treat for all of us. We went to La Plazuela, the restaurant at the La Fonda Hotel on the Plaza in Santa Fe. (I forgot my camera, so the picture above come from the La Plazuela website. )

What a beautiful restaurant! It is designed to look like an outdoor cafe, and the skylights above give it an outdoor feel. I especially loved the small handpainted windows that surround the room.

The wait service was good and the food was excellent. It was fun watching the waiter prepare our guacamole right at our table. It was nice to find a treasure in Santa Fe that we had not discovered before. We will be returning, especially to bring out of town visitors to show off one of the nicest restaurants in our city.

More scarves and hats off to Zuni

I didn't get too much knitting done in the past year for my friend Bonnie who teaches out at the Zuni pueblo, but I packed up and mailed off to her the few things I got made this past year. My goal for next year is to complete at least twice as many items!

Galisteo Basin Preserve

Yesterday we went out to the Galisteo Basin Preserve for the first time, about 5 miles south of Eldorado. The Preserve is a land conservation and community development inititative of Santa Fe County that is designed to protect and restore 13,000 acres of open space. Fifty miles of public hiking, biking and equestrian trails are planned for the preserve. Approximately 14 miles have been created so far; there are three trails in the public area for hiking.

62% of the preserve will be for public use; 35% is private conservation land, and 3% will be developed into home lots.

I love the Galisteo Basin for the vast sweeping vistas, and scenic surroundings. We will definitely go back there to hike often.


The East Well trailhead:




Out on the trail:




Saw a lot of these tracks; not sure if they were dog prints or some wild animal:




View to the south - looking towards the Ortiz Mountains:










The Cowboy Shack trailhead:

Scenes from the Roundhouse

We spent quite a few hours this past week at the New Mexico state capitol building attending hearings on the Photo Voter ID bill, which Republicans felt strongly is needed in the state, but the Democrats rejected Thursday in a party line vote. I think our strong presence was noted though, and another similar bill is waiting on the schedule to be debated in the coming week.

Anyway..... while we were there, I wandered around and got some pictures of the artwork at the Roundhouse. All four floors are full of New Mexican art, and I will get more pictures in the future.


Looking down at the rotunda floor from above:



Committee Room 307 - where the hearings were held:



Some of the art work in the capitol:




Painting by R.C. Gorman, noted New Mexico artist:

February full moon

The moon has been putting on quite a show for us this week.

These pictures were taken last night from our front portal at sunset as the moon was rising in the eastern sky:

The Jemez at sunrise

John took this picture yesterday morning from our backyard.

The view is looking west towards the Jemez Mountains under a sky of low clouds.