Up at the college
by cheri block
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Toasty hot (like a blue corn enchilada)
Some of you have never been to New Mexico, so I thought I would include a little photo gallery of the expansive skies here, which never cease to inspire and fill me with an awe so powerful that I can offer no words, only pictures.
I spent my early years as a child here in this state at a time when I was the applet of my parents’ eyes. We explored the White Sands in Southern New Mexico, the desert, the pinion pines, the sand and its storms. All of the happiness one child could absorb, I experienced here.
So, you will understand why I love this land.
Here are some more skies that I photographed yesterday.
Ahh...the emotion of it all!
Judge Blah took this shot which I have named Abstract. It captures the stark feeling of man’s intrusion here in the high desert.
Lastly, here is the La Fonda Hotel. At this hotel, among other historic pieces, the great physicists like Enrico Fermi stayed when they first arrived in town at 109 Palace Avenue to meet with Dorothy McKibbon, Robert Oppenheimer’s secretary. After a one-night rest from their long ride up the hill from Albuquerque, they would head out for Los Alamos.
The gate closes for now.
Those are some really special photos! WOW!
Love your gravatar, Tyler.
To be at the top of Shasta!
Thank you for the photos. New Mexico is one of my favorite states and the times I visited it are special memories for me. The people, the landscape, the beauty of it impressed me. Is Santa Fe still the quiet city it was back in the late 70′s? Or has it grown and sprawled like Albuquerque did?
Yes, it is still a quiet city, for the most part. That is until this weekend (we will be getting the heck out of here) when Spanish Market is held and thousands of people come in.
But, we hear, dwarfed by Indian Market next month, when 100,000 people come to Santa Fe.
Hi Cheri, beautiful pictures you posted!
Interesting how you spent your childhood in New Mexico (I’m now fantasizing about you as a little girl eating capirotada with a whipped cream top.)
It was nice of you to pop up as soon as I came back. I need to catch up with all you people have written, which is quite a lot.
You stay cool too Cheri!
Hi G,
Hope your wife is OK and that you are able to enjoy some time off. Oh to be in Tuscany!
Fine photos of Santa Fe. We were there last week, three nights at Inn at Loretto and four nights up near Pecos Wilderness, camping.
Interested to hear you are a teacher. So am I, so is my wife. I’m at the tail end of my career teaching history.
Good cloud shots. I want to look at your writing, but wanted to get in a comment before the day is out.
Hi Jack,
Welcome to my blog.
Sounds as if our pathways coincide…I just wish I’d studied my history more sincerely. Now, I’m trying to catch up!
Your pictures were like coming home! Any spirituality I have was born in Santa Fe. Sam has great memories of the La Fonda as well.
I am certain you can find the words for the awe and inspiration the skies fill you with.
I’ll try.
When you stand before a JMW Turner you see what he paints and admire his consummate knowledge and technique. Then he takes his brush and his palette and sweeps across the canvas with such deadly accuracy that he frees it from its earthly chains, shining for all a light that only he perceives. More than this, like all true art, he discovers the viewer’s own life and deepest hopes and dreams.
So it is with your words and for the thousands blessed with you as their teacher.
Thank you.
Your kindness in spirit and encouragement means a great deal to me.
I’d love to see an exhibition of Turner’s work. His subject matter (like so many Romantics) appeals to me–the wild winds, wet fog, unrelenting rain, and warming sun–all those events in Nature that make life alive.