Snow proof!

Definitely couldn't resist; we just had to have a little taste of the first snow of the season.... on the Borrego trail of course!

I love ordinary days!!

Breakfast with freshly brewed Tanzanian pea bean coffee,
Catching up by phone, email and skype,
A town bike ride that included some ignoring of fences and walking up an arroyo (even on the bike, Doug likes to busch-whack!!!),
Cooking Belgian beef stew whilst Doug tackles another home improvement project,
Home cooked mouth watering dinner,
Watching a movie with the wood burning in the fireplace (first time -but definitely not the last!!!- this season).

First Santa Fe snow!!!!

Proof that winter has arrived, and with it the first snow....

In town we had just rain and the few snowflakes that did come down, didn't stick. The mountains are still covered a few days later... COLD but beautiful and fun!!

View of the mountains from the front porch (SF Baldy!)

Spanish update

I'm sure there is a reason I'm giving you an update on my Spanish course BEFORE the mid term grades come out ;-)...!!!

I'm doing well on the tests and homework part of the course (memorizing vocabulary, doing little word searches,....) but the minute some spontaneous utterances, or worse even conversation, is required, I'm totally lost... looking like I've just been dropped into a meeting with a bunch of aliens....

Our mid term exam was a doctor-patient-role-play. Doug was the MD, I was the patient coming in for a physical.... I think it could have been worse. The teacher says I'm good at the pronunciation and facial expression parts of role play. I think it's a very polite way of saying I really suck at the real dialogue part.... Oh well, there are worse things.... ;-)!

Still, hanging in there and learning....

another fall hike

This time not through the aspen forests but through the ponderosa trees...




We hiked up Atalaya trail and a little beyond into the Pecos wilderness. After a yummy sandwich in a super lunch spot


we had a nap on a perfectly level bed of pine needles (who needs a sleep number bed if you can have this?!?!?!).


All this adjacent to an ideal meditation location....


No wonder I felt this energized afterwards...


A great dinner at Harry's Roadhouse and some good phone conversations to finish of the day.....
Night-night........

Balloon fiesta NOT!!!!

We had big plans..... Saturday night I drove down to Albuquerque to visit Lisa and we made plans to get up early Sunday morning to see the mass take off of the hot air balloons on the final day of the fiesta. This yearly fall event is world famous with balloonists and visitors from all over the country and abroad. I have visited before when I was out here on a trip but was never quite this prepared and eager (in preparation to add plenty of pictures to the blog!!!).

It wasn't to be: yes, we did get up before 5 o'clock, yes, we did brave the cold with hats and gloves and scarves, yes, we did get there in time to get parking fairly close by and yes, we did have spare camera batteries.... But the weather didn't cooperate and the event was first delayed and than cancelled because of gusting winds... In a way it was familiar and reminded me of the endless hours we would hang out at the drop zone; talking, playing back gammon, staring at the clouds, checking the weather radar online,..... waiting for a change to get at least one jump in for the day...

So we left (or tried to leave the park together with the 1000's of other cars), went for breakfast and spent some good time just talking and visiting...

Better luck next year I hope....

Here's a picture of what we DIDN'T get to see... ;-(...

Fall colors...

Fall is definitely here... Temperatures are dropping below freezing at night and the days are getting shorter. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the cold winter but the positives are the beautiful fall colors of the aspen trees...

Trying to decide on which hike to do yesterday -a long good exercise walk versus a stroll to get some good views of the fall colors- we ended up doing both! Starting at Aspen Vista, we followed the trail (can you believe it, no bushwhacking!?!?!), hiked up to deception peak and scrambled to Lake Peak (the 3rd time this year!). The lower sections were loaded with people carrying their camera's and tripods, but we lost most of them half way up the mountain. I took 189 pictures; you'll be glad to see I'm not posting all of them and managed to narrow it down to just 8, not an easy job!