"I'm Back," Said Sam

[dancinghorse]

From Santa Fe, that is. whitezinnia and I went up to audit a clinic with Bereiter Hausberger from the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. Neep later, when I have a slightly more functional brain. Short form: Much good stuff, much cool arcana. Also, much sightseeing, and a lovely overnight with badgermirlacca on the way home.

The house was still standing, all the aminals were alive and more or less intact, and the Fat White Crowd had been most well looked after by indefatigable farmsitter Tina. Pook was a little put out with me for going away. The rest were visibly pleased to have the hay dispenser back. They all looked extremely nice after a week of Very Fancy Warmbloods and Interesting Others (including several Lipps).

Short takes:

Nobody ever told me about Texas Canyon. I had no idea. And now one of my very most favorite landscapes is about 40 miles from here.

El Pinto in Albuquerque. Chile con carne enchiladas with blue corn tortillas. I think I prefer New Mexican Mex to Arizona Mex. The flavors suit me better.

But the landscape and presence around Tucson are Mine. New Mexico: A wonderful place to visit. Early and often, one hopes. And then one comes home again.

I found some more of the horses sold in the Beachport sale--the Lipizzan show that liquidated ca. 1999 after its organizers discovered that horses, like, require maintenance. And lots thereof. Clinic host took two, and another rider took the one I didn't even ride because he was cray-zeeeeee. He is now soft-eyed, happy, and thoroughly loved. He looks a Lot like da Pook. I got most excellent Fat White Pony fixes from Rex during the week. Rex's owner is a goner--she's properly gaga. All true Lipizzan slaves are gaga.

Seret & Sons in Santa Fe. Featured on Ground Force America this week. I oh so badly want that marvelous kilim-covered divan. And even more badly want the life-sized horse covered in plates of silver. And the Porch Swing of the Gods can go on the veranda in my palace. (Along with the amethyst-geode fountain from the bar in El Pinto.)

Georgia O'Keefe did landscape paintings. Wonderful, passionate, gorgeous landscape paintings. Her flowers are nice but do little for me. Her landscapes are marvelous. And what she said about the landscape of the Southwest is exactly how I feel about it. That it's mine and I belonged in it from the minute I saw it and no one who has not been there will truly understand it.

Corrales. Chocolate martinis.

Elephant Butte. What does the high school call its teams? whitezinnia suggests Pachyderms. I suspect the common usage is rather raunchy.

The shortcut from I-25 to I-10 via Hatch and Deming is lovely because one can renew one's chile ristra for a fraction the cost of doing it elsewhere, watch the thunder walk, and admire the dust devils.

And home feels good. Very, very good. After a most excellent escape and mental steam-cleaning.

Comments

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Welcome home. I apologize profoundly for never telling you about Texas Canyon! I thought you knew. It's, like, right there on the highway going east. A magical place, even with I-10 plowing right through it.

[larryhammer]

Surely one of us had mentioned Texas Canyon by now. I burble about it often enough, I would have thought I did it when you were around.

We had a wonderful experience once, on the road down from Chamayo towards Santa Fe — down literaly, for we were winding down a canyon. That suddenly widened and started looking familiar, even though we'd never been on this road before. "Hey, I know that hill." "And that one." "And THAT looks familiar." And just as wild surmise grew upon us, we rounded a corner, and there on the valley floor was Ghost Ranch. With even more O'Keefe landscapes surrounding it. (It is, btw, conference center now.)

The closest place to us for that good New Mexican Mexican (Chihuahuan style, instead of our Sonoran style) is Deming. (Forget Lordsburg. In fact, forget if possible that it exits.) But better still if you continue on to Hatch — there, and a couple towns up the Rio Grande from there, there's a number of small diners with that good green chili. Also over in Las Cruces, but we haven't explored there as much.

---L.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Welcome home.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Heh. We get the same feeling when returning to Tucson from New Mexico--or anywhere else. New Meixoc is lovely (and Santa Fe doubly so in summer)--but Tucson, or maybe the Sonoran desert in general, is home.

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

I had that "coming home" experience the first time I set foot in the Tucson valley. I'll never live anywhere else, if I can help it.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the welcome-homes (and the safe-journeys earlier, as well). No, nobody ever mentioned Texas Canyon. It was a revelation to me.

At the Georgia O'Keefe museum, at the beginning of the exhibition of her landscapes, there's a quotation from her about how she came to that landscape and knew it was home. That's Tucson for me. I'm with casacorona. No desire to live anywhere else, though I love to travel and will delightedly visit any number of places, some of which I'd be happy to send time in. But I'd want to come home at the end.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I didn't get it until the first time I left Tucson after moving here. Watching the plane fly over and away from the Tucson valley, I felt like I was leaving home, and felt a twinge at that, and knew I'd never really felt that way before.

I've always loved travelling. I've never also loved coming back.

I think this place either claims you (or we claim it, or both), or else never feels right, with little in between.

[starfall42.livejournal.com]

Sorry about Texas Canyon -- quite an oversight on our part. Did you stop to see The Thing?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Wow. You saw Ghost Ranch. It must be gorgeous around there--the paintings are amazing. The exhibition had photos of the sites, so we could see how the artist's eye enhanced the colors and shapes while keeping a clear sense of the original.

I do love that green chili. And the blue-corn enchiladas.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Only 40 miles away? Goodie, you can point the way (or show it to me!)

I am so pleased you had a good time, and got refreshed. Always nice to come home.

[larryhammer]

Ghost Ranch is, actually, not all that different from many other places in northern New Mexico. It is a lovely canyon valley, yes, but there are several comparable places — the Rio Grande gorge north of Espanola, the high road to Taos, the Jaimez mountains, that road over the Sangre de Cristos the name of which I'm forgetting. Ghost Ranch resonates more, though, because of the paintings. O'Keefe knew how to bring out the beauty of the ordinary, the stark, the weathered. This shows better in her New York skyline paintings, more than the (gorgeous) flowers.

All of which reminds me I'm overdue to visit my parents.

---L.

[larryhammer]

The pointing is easy: east on I-10 from Tucson, the rest stop between Benson and Wilcox.

---L.

[whitezinnia.livejournal.com]

I must go back to Texas Canyon next time I visit Tucson! Coming from the Land of the Soybean Field (also known as Minnesota), to drive through such a surreal landscape of boulders balanced on top of boulders is to risk driving off the road while gawking with mouth agape while exclaiming, "look at that! Look at that!" while taking the hands off the wheel. Pulling off the road to gape in safety would be a good idea.

We also saw all the signs for The Thing. What IS the Thing? Is this the Arizona equivilent of South Dakota's Wall Drug?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

No one will say what The Thing is. I think you have to sign a blood contract not to tell anyone.

[larryhammer]

It's a mummy. Really.

---L.