the diamond

our dear jewel of a friend, the lovely meag diamond, visited wally and the rest of us last weekend. it was a relaxing time full of God's grace and it was a much welcomed reprieve from the daily routine.

meag and i were blessed to go on several outings. one of these was to bandalier national monument. it's north of santa fe near los alamos (where they built the a-bomb) and it's wonderous. hmmm... the parenthetical info. doesn't make it sound so good, but it is still a special place. don't drink the water. the chollas were in bloom against the volcanic architecture of the dramatic frijoles canyon. the canyon walls are full of holes due to something (beans? can't remember) that fell out of the ash and made for some nifty, anasazi apartment complexes. here i am climbing my way up to "ceremonial cave." it's a 180 feet of ladders and it was fun!

here is a picture of meag that i took for her new album cover. the guy in the background is her drummer, dudley. the album is called "what time is lunch?" should be pretty cool.

here are some good friends. n and meag hadn't seen each other for many moons so it was a sweet reunion. n gave meag the official tour of the house with special focus on the humidifier section (it's dry here) and the hows and whens of candlelighting for evening ambience. i think he especially enjoyed asking meag to light the livingroom candles each night since we have a giant "trick" candle. he encouraged her to be diligent.

here are two superwomen eating our usual modest portions of salad. these were accompanied by whole foods mini pizzas lavished with jalapenos, endive, garlic, olive oil, purple onions, chicken etc. they were good, but if i ever meet the man who changed the dough recipe up at corporate, he's gonna get it.

meag and i also enjoyed taking photos of each other around santa fe. here i am behind a lifesize apple jolly rancher. some call it art but i say yummmmm.

we had a blast taking photos at pecos national monument just 20 minutes from our casa. it was the largest indian pueblo in all of new mexico at one time. it's one of my favorite places in all of new mexico. it's on a little hill in between the pecos river and glorieta creek with vistas of varicolored hills on one side and a looming canyon on the other. they set up their multistoried pueblo right in the middle. these people knew real estate. it was also a huge trading center. willa cather describes it well in her novel death comes for the archbishop which i am now reading and thoroughly enjoying. when n saw these photos he said i looked like a native american. sounds great. maybe i am entrenched in my roots here. after all, those traders who camped on the field were spanish and my people live just over the mountain and still do. who knows how it all got mixed up, but i still get called gringo.

look! it's another mysterious ethnic woman!

it was a great visit and now our amiga is baking in the sun in todos santos, mexico with her dad. then she's back to the pacific northwest to say farewell to friends and family as she heads off to teach first grade in nigeria. we are grateful she stopped to see us. she is a treasure.