On Christmas morning, which was at the end of our trip to Albuquerque, I felt well enough to go on our annual Christmas morning snow hike in the Sandia Mountains. I was still coughing a bit, and we kept the hike short, but it was good to be out. We went first thing in the morning while everyone was still opening presents.
We caught this guy by surprise.
He was like, “Whaaat? Why are there humans out? It’s Christmas morning!”
Last year there was tons of fresh snow and were glad for our snowshoes.
This year there wasn’t as much snow, and what snow was there was iced over.
Luckily, I brought my Yaktrax, which are metal coils wrapped around rubber which pull over the bottom of your boots. They are amazing on ice. If you have to regularly, or even occasionally, walk on crusted snow, wet snow, ice or water on ice, you need a pair of these.
And they are so amazing. They totally take the worry out of hiking on ice. In general I am much more likely to slip and fall than John is, but I never even slid once. John, who wasn’t wearing them, slid a few times during the hike and nearly fell once. They are a total game changer.
After being amazed by the beautiful bamboo lights the night before, we came back in the morning to get a closer look in daylight.
But first, on a funny note, I thought this poster next to a new construction area was great!
Now let’s check out those bamboo lights. Maybe Laura can tell us what this means.
The light poles are every bit as beautiful in the daylight.
A few of them were not actually real bamboo.
We couldn’t figure out which situations they would use real ones, and which not. It did not seem to be related to size or location.
It seemed like most of them were real bamboo.
It’s fun to see the park grow over time.
Another thing that caught my eye that morning is this large fresco. It’s not new, it’s been there since before I moved to Albuquerque, but it spoke to me on that day. If you look closely, you can see the story. (This one’s for you, Emily.)
If you just glance at it from the left, or even look at it straight on, it’s hard to immediately see what’s going on, because the elderly man lying in the bedroom is obscured.
Once you see him, you understand the washcloth in the woman’s hand.
Suddenly it becomes apparent that the bundle in the central woman’s hands contains herbs. She’s the medicine woman, being shown to the bedroom.
The young girl on the left must have raced to the door to open it when they heard the knock.
Last you notice the men of the family, waiting and worrying in the background. They are not the major personalities in this drama.
It was a beautiful morning at the end of a good year.
We made it to River of Lights, which is the Albuquerque Botanical Garden light show. Every year it is bigger. Albuquerque’s botanical garden is many times larger than the one I volunteer at in Tucson, and is supported by the city, so they can do much more.
I’ve posted River of Lights photos on this blog many times before, so I won’t post very many photos of the exhibits we’ve seen before. Here’s just a few from the older sections of the park.
The new big thing this year was lights in the Japanese Garden. John and I remember years ago when they were first building the Japanese Garden. After it was complete, it was always my favorite part of the garden. But for years it was closed off during the light show. We were quite excited to see it open with lights this year.
In particular we were impressed with all the new bamboo lights.
We were so impressed that we went back the next morning to look at it in the daylight. That’s up next.
John and I went to Albuquerque for Christmas. Unfortunately we were sick, so we didn’t get out much. In particular, when we first got there I was coughing like I had some sort of plague, so I avoided people. We didn’t go to Old Town, or Jackalope, and didn’t see any of our friends.
We rented Mark and Steve’s casita like we always do. It has become almost a home away from home for us. Unfortunately because I was sick, we didn’t accept their generous invitation to Christmas dinner.
Toward the end of our stay I was feeling better and we did a few outdoor activities. We walked the local ditches (that is, we walked the trails alongside the acequias), that are just a block away from the casita.
When I was there in October the ditches were still running, but in December they were dry. I forgot to take a photo of the acequias, but it was pretty. By Christmastime the cottonwood leaves have turned a light golden bronze color, but they are mostly still on the trees. It’s quite beautiful. Here is a picture of one on our walk from the casita towards the acequias, which are just there at the end of the street where it makes a right turn.
This next photo is of a beautiful metal and stained glass gate along the acequia trail. I want that!
Next up, more photos from Christmas in Albuquerque.
Here’s some flowers growing at our local botanical garden, where I volunteer on most Monday mornings. December flowers! I still can’t believe how lucky I am to live in Tucson.
Every Christmas the gardens has a light show. Here I am at the end of October, helping get some lights in place.
And here are those lights during the show.
I also helped put together this tunnel of lights.
This crescent moon is a new exhibit, made specifically for selfies and family shots.
I’m sure some people will use this for their Christmas cards. But not John and I. We never look good in selfies, although we seem to be able to successfully take photos of each other individually. What’s with that?
This train exhibit is also new.
It includes miniature replicas of real places; famous old lodges and churches in the southwest. Unfortunately the photos didn’t turn out very well – it takes patience and good equipment to take great night shots. But hopefully you get the idea.
One of these days I’ll take pictures of this exhibit in the daylight. It’s really quite nice.
Here are some more photos from this year’s Tucson Botanical Garden’s “Lights Up” show.
This year Lights Up runs from November 29th – January 12th, so there’s still time to go see it if you’re in Tucson. And if you want to come see it next year, and don’t want to travel with the holiday crowds, just come visit me in early December or early January. Here’s the info, https://tucsonbotanical.org/lightsup/
I’ve never particularly liked pecan pies; they seem to heavy and sweet. I prefer a tart fruit pie, especially a smooth, strong lemon. But I was determined to learn how to make a good pecan pie, because John likes them. Every so often I’d try another recipe, and every time I’d strike out. John was polite, but I could detect a certain glumness. Those pies just weren’t that good.
Have you ever tried to learn how to make something that you don’t actually like? I found it hard because I didn’t have a vision in my mind to guide me. All I had was John’s cautious comments. It needed to be more “caramelized”, he said. Caramelized? As in onions?
After a few half-hearted attempts over the years, I finally decided this was the year to figure this mystery out. I looked at dozens of recipes, until I understood the main ways in which they differed. I learned why corn syrup is often used – aside from being cheaper than maple syrup, it also thickens better. I thought about what John tends to like and not like. (Bourbon? No.) And I realized that the caramel flavor he was talking about is browned butter. Not just lightly browned, but decidedly browned, just shy of almost burnt.
To get that caramelization, I was going to need to use one of the recipes that included cooking some of the ingredients in a pan on the stove prior to putting them into the pie shell. What a nuisance! Although to be fair, my favorite lemon pie also involves a lot of stirring in a saucepan prior to putting it into the pie shell. You can’t always just dump some raw chopped fruit and sugar into a pie crust and call it good! This lemon pie is an older picture from a couple of Christmases ago. Mmmm, now I want to make a lemon pie.
I ended up writing my own pecan pie recipe, borrowing ideas from multiple other recipes. And hallelujah, it worked! I made two 7″ tarts and they were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately I didn’t take a close-up of the amazing pecan tarts, but you can see one of them hiding behind the turkey next to the sweet potatoes.
This year we bought a lot of our meal already prepared from Whole Foods. I really liked not having to deal with a raw bird. But we tended to prefer our own side dishes. Maybe next year I can look into getting just the roasted turkey and doing the rest of it myself.
Here’s Biska, lying down in “begging” mode. I can’t blame her for wanting some of all that!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Maple Pecan Pie
For two 7” tarts or one 10” pie
FILLING INGREDIENTS:
⅓ cup butter
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup dark corn syrup
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cup pecans
CRUST INGREDIENTS:
10” crust (or two 7” crusts)
1 ½ cup flour
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup shortening
½ cup cold water
INSTRUCTIONS:
Pre-cook the butter and syrup: In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook until the foam subsides and the butter solids turn brown. Add the maple syrup to the pan and continue to cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture is somewhat reduced. Remove from heat, and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
Crust: to make the pie crust, cut the shortening into the flour and salt with a pastry blender. Add cold water until it is just wet enough to form a ball.
Roll crust out on a floured board, and wrapping the crust partially around the rolling pin, gently lift and lower the crust into the tart pans or pie pan. Flute the edges.
Pre-cook the pie crusts with something set on top of them so they don’t puff up while cooking ( I set cookie cutters on the crust; anything fairly light that can handle the oven heat will work). Pre-cook crusts until set but not yet browning, about 15 minutes.
Make rest of the filling: Whisk eggs, add vanilla, salt, dark corn syrup and brown sugar.
Add the whisked eggs mixture to the cooled syrup mixture and stir.
Assembly: Layer the pecans on top of the pre-cooked crust(s). Carefully pour the filling mixture on top of the pecans.
Bake at 350º for 40 minutes for 2 tarts, 50 minutes for a full sized pie, or until the top is brown and the filling doesn’t jiggle.
Originally we were going to go backpacking in early October. When our trip was delayed until early November, we decided to go camping instead. It was cold at night and I wanted my camper van!
We stayed at Sunny Flats campground, which is only a short distance from the trail I had chosen for backpacking; the South Fork trail in the eastern Chiricahuas, near the border of Arizona and New Mexico. It was a beautiful campground.
Pro tip: If you’re coming from the west, do not follow Google maps and do not take the Hwy 10 exit to Portal. Both Google maps and the freeway signs direct you onto an interminably long, gravel road towards Portal that is heavily washboarded and absolutely bone rattling and miserable. It’s completely unnecessary. Just go a few miles farther east on the freeway, cross the New Mexico border and then exit going south on Hwy 80 towards Rodeo. Then take Portal Hwy west to Portal. It’s faster, and paved all the way!
We figured that out last time we went, and I can’t believe I forgot and made the same mistake twice. My old mind is letting me down. I won’t forget again. Even though I’m going to Portal, don’t take the Portal exit!!!
Instead of backpacking the South Fork trail, we went for a day hike. The weather was perfect and the fall color was beautiful.
We brought our lunch and a couple decks of cards on our hike. We found a nice stopping point about an hour in, and enjoyed the afternoon playing an epic game of canasta.
We were eating lunch and playing canasta within sight of the trail, and when people went by they would peer at us. What are those people doing sitting over there? LOL. Playing cards in the woods, why not? Luckily there were only a few other people on the trail.
The nights did get cold, but Callan was fine in the tent. Callan doesn’t get cold very easily and had plenty of gear. Biska and I were toasty warm in the van.
Here’s a funny story. Biska’s dog food contains two different sizes and colors of kibble. It’s mostly regular light brown kibbles, but there are also small round kibbles that are almost dark green in color. She tends to pick around the little dark green round ones, so we jokingly call them spinach balls.
Shortly before our hike, I spilled some of her dog food on the cement. I picked most of it up, but I didn’t bother with every little bit. I figured the squirrels would clean it up. Well, when we got back from the hike, sure enough, the squirrels had eaten all the spilled dog food – except they left the little spinach balls! Apparently even squirrels don’t like them.
One final funny thing from Callan’s trip. You don’t have to know anything about the game of canasta to see that this was one darn close game. The hands varied wildly, but the final score was so close it could have been a counting error.
The only part of Halloween that I like is the trick-or-treaters coming to the door. I didn’t used to even like that part, back in the days when there were tons of kids and I was always so busy and so tired. But nowadays I rarely see kids, so it is fun to see them all dressed up and excitedly traipsing from door to door. I also feel more a part of this neighborhood than I have with other neighborhoods in the past.
We get just the right amount of kids trick-or-treating. Enough to be fun, but not overwhelming. In addition to putting up decorations, I also answer the door in costume. And I hand out the good stuff – chocolates of course!
For Día de Muertos this year I put up an ofrenda, which I’ve never done before. An ofrenda is an offering for our ancestors. It’s a way to honor our loved ones who have died. The story is that the dead can come back and visit earth once a year on Día de Muertos if their photo is on an ofrenda. Also placed on ofrendas are flowers (especially marigolds), favorite foods and other things meant to be enticing.
Here is a picture of an ofrenda at the botanical garden:
This is not a tradition in my family or in John’s family, but it is very common here in the southwest, where John and I have lived for most of our adult lives. And it is a tradition that seems more meaningful that our “scary halloween” tradition, which just seems silly to me. In my opinion, our culture has a very poor attitude towards death. Mostly we ignore it, but when we do deal with it, it is with a lot of fear. Ignoring it is meant to make it easier, but I think it just makes it harder. We will all die. The people we love will all die. No, it’s not fun to think about it, but I believe we will be more prepared for the inevitable if our culture handles it more directly.
I have several people to honor, most notably John’s dad, Tom, as well as all our grandparents. I don’t have pictures all my grandparents yet. I’m hoping my mom can send me scans of the rest of them before next year.
I also included the photos of a few close friends who are no longer alive, including my ex-boyfriend Jack, whom some of you may remember. He proposed to me on a tiny sailboat in Glacier Bay in Alaska, but I didn’t end up marrying him. I gave him the ring back after I got home. I’ll have to tell you that story someday. I recently found a log of that Alaska trip all those years ago, and I have a few photos as well. It was quite an adventure and it’ll make a good story.
Jack passed away this summer, from a rare, degenerative neurological illness that he had for most of his adult life. Initially he wasn’t expected to live as long as he did. So although it’s sad, it is also good that he lived into his 60’s. It seems like he had a good life, sailing with his long-term partner Debbie, in the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands.
Photos are, from left to right: Jack; my grandma Opal; John’s dad Tom; and my friend, coach and mentor Phil, who died in April 2020 of cancer. The treats are: chocolate, apricot jam because Grandma loved apricots, and limes, chilies and cinnamon to represent all the yummy spices in life.
You can put anything on the ofrenda table, not only food but also other things that represent hobbies, etc. All the goodness of life. I should get a little toy sailboat for next year, because both Jack and Phil loved to sail. I also have a signed copy of a life coaching book that Phil wrote, but I’m not sure how enticing that would be. Do we miss our work in the afterlife? Maybe not.
Seven days until Christmas! And 13 days to finish writing about October, November and December if I want to be caught up by the end of the year.
In October we got to see Barack Obama, who was campaigning for Kamala Harris. I am less political than a lot of my friends, but I felt lucky to get tickets to this event, and was determined to go. I knew the large crowd would be intimidating, but I have never actually seen a president before.
Even the long line to get in was intimidating. The people walking away on the right are heading towards the back of the line (as were we, when I took that photo). You can’t even see the end of the line in this photo. Luckily it moved relatively quickly. Still, an hour or more in line is well beyond what I’m usually willing to wait for anything.
Once inside, we were packed, standing shoulder to shoulder. Luckily it was a friendly, happy crowd, or I think I would have bolted. As it was, John held on to my shoulders to ground me, and that helped.
We were very far from the speakers. This photo that John took is zoomed in quite a bit.
We stood forever, and listened to various speeches. I particularly liked the one by Tucson’s Mayor, Regina Romero. Finally it was time for Obama to speak. He’s an excellent speaker, very convincing, and we were all inspired to do what we could to help Kamala’s campaign.
As if we didn’t have enough of crowds for one weekend, the next day we went to a local car show. At least it was outdoors, and much more lightly attended.
The car show was right along the Loop trail, a bike path that goes all the way around Tucson, so we were able to ride our bikes there. Being near the Loop was one of my top criteria when we were house hunting. I like riding, but I’m not comfortable riding my bike out in traffic. Thanks to the trail, I can get to several great places on my bike: one of my favorite plant nurseries, several parks, a good farmer’s market, our local community center, several coffee shops, and even the local Lowes and Costco. Just don’t buy anything large!
It was just by chance that the car show was along the Loop. It was held on the grounds of a private school. Ironically, almost no one else rode their bikes to the car show. Huh, wonder why?
Political swag was not allowed at the car show, probably so we wouldn’t start shooting each other, this being late October. But there were some people who did more subtle things, like wear Trump hair wigs. I’d say it was a very different crowd than the day before at Obama’s rally.
I ignored all that and took pictures of the cars. Of course I liked the small cute ones the best.
This next one says it’s the first place winner in the category of “Rat Rod”. I get it. I’ve had days like that.
Here’s an adorable little old Mini Cooper.
These next ones are kit cars.
And my favorite Mini Cooper of all! A baby truck, awwww.
And a camper van! With lots of matching plaid things. Spiffy.
The next noteworthy event after our trip to Albuquerque at the end of September was another trip to Albuquerque! My big event in early October was the wedding of two dear friends of mine. I knew both Miriam and Casey before they started dating, so it was fun to watch their courtship unfold.
John wasn’t able to go, and I was reluctant to make the drive by myself in one day. Google says it’s a 6.5 hour drive, but it takes me 7.5 or 8 hours with stops, and it’s a long day for me by myself. My back hurts! Although I discovered that a low-volt electric massager that can plug into a car outlet is a life saver. But still, I splurged on an Airbnb on the way over. I drove most of the way, and stayed south of Albuquerque in Truth or Consequences, a small and weirdly named town along Hwy. I-25 in southern New Mexico. There’s a story behind the name, you can google it.
I drove John’s 4Runner because my new-to-me, older electric BMW i3 has very poor range. On the way out the door, I sneakily stuck 2 election magnets onto the back of the 4Runner. This was, you remember, back in October.
I had originally bought the magnets for my i3, but turns out my i3 is made of some sort of lightweight composite material that isn’t magnetic! So I couldn’t use my election magnets on my car.
I like to get into the spirit of the election. But John doesn’t like us to display bumper stickers or yard signs. He and I generally agree about politics, but I’m guessing he just wants to avoid the public controversy. It’s not polite to have a public fight with your neighbors with competing yard signs! I understand how he feels, because it’s gotten extremely contentious in the last several years, which has taken all the fun out of it.
I have always had a somewhat more a blasé attitude than many of my friends. I prefer to treat the election more like a fun and healthy community event than a life-or-death battle. Although I do agree that we need to protect our democratic form of government. We need to keep having free and fair elections. Unfortunately, an inevitable consequence of democracy is that we will sometimes elect total freaking idiots, and it will have genuinely harmful consequences.
Anyway, enough of that. Back to my story. I had slapped on those election magnets and then sort of forgotten about them, because I’m not used to having bumper stickers. So when people in other cars on the freeway would wave and pump their fists in solidarity, I would just frown at them in puzzlement! I would figure it out a moment too late, and smile or wave the instant after they turned back to the road. It was hilarious. I’m such a dork sometimes, just too slow on the uptake!
It wasn’t long before I had made it to Truth or Consequences. It was a quirky Airbnb to match the quirky town. The decor was quite fun, and I got there early enough to enjoy it.
This is the interior taken from the front door. The full kitchen is in the back, through the open door.
Living room:
There were many cool and quirky handmade things. On the lower right of this next photo, you can see what looks like a lamp perched on old suitcases, but it was actually a lamp made out of old suitcases; the suitcases were part of the base of the lamp.
Dining area:
I was traveling with food on ice packs and the instructions said to use the freezer in the barn. This sounded dubious. But it turned out to be fine. The barn is that quaint wooden building as seen through the back door out of the kitchen in this next photo. Inside it was like a modern garage, clean and well-lit. No hale bales, pitch forks or manure.
This is the beautifully sunny retro kitchen.
It was genuine retro, with all the quirks and nuisances of old things. It was completely clean, but the drawers didn’t slide smoothly, and the gas stove didn’t have an electric sparker and need lit with a lighter.
This is the genuine retro refrigerator.
There actually is a little icebox inside it that would have worked fine to refreeze my blue ice packets, but it was frosted shut. In my opinion, all they needed was a little sign instructing people to close the refrigerator door fully, by pushing firmly near the handle rather than up on the corner. That would keep the ice box from frosting up. Instead, they had a little sign saying not to use the freezer and to use the one in the barn.
Making sure the door sealed when you closed it seemed like a no-brainer to me, but sure enough, the previous occupants had closed the refrigerator door wrong, so there was no seal, so frost built up around the ice box. Maybe only old people know these things.
Here’s the back side of the casita, taken from standing near the barn-garage:
The “barn” is actually a nice garage. The overhead garage doors on the other side, not shown in this photo. Sorry about that camera lens light scatter, I didn’t realize it at the time and didn’t take a second photo.
There was also a large front yard with a friendly resident cat to keep me company.
Screenshot
The next morning I drove the rest of the way to Albuquerque in plenty of time for the early-afternoon wedding. Miriam and Casey had a Quaker wedding, and those are the best weddings! You would imagine a Quaker wedding would be stuffy and boring, but it’s the opposite. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a more genuine, heartfelt, REAL wedding. There was laughing and weeping and candor all kinds of joyful closeness.
They also managed to successfully do a hybrid Zoom and in-person gathering, and still keep it real and spontaneous and wonderful. The hybrid part almost didn’t go off as planned because, when the volunteers arrived earlier in the morning to get set up, they discovered there was no internet! It was out for some unknown reason. The internet company was just about exactly as non-helpful as you would imagine. They had no estimate of when the internet would be working again.
What to do now? Half the wedding attendees were planning on attending by Zoom! Then one of the volunteers thought to call a young member of the meeting who had been helpful once before with a technical issue. He told her not to worry, he’d get it working.
The young guy (whose name I don’t remember) went out and purchased a subscription to a cellular hot spot line, purchased the hardware, set it up at the meetinghouse, and made sure all the computers and devices could connect to it. Problem solved.
The hot spot was more than adequate, and everything worked great. I continue to wonder (as I’ve mentioned before) why any of us (including John and I) are still dealing with internet companies – at least those of us with good local cell coverage, which is most people nowadays. It’s cheaper to add a hot spot line to your existing cell phone coverage. Just saying. Not that John and I have bothered yet, but we will, one of these days.
Anyway, technicalities aside, it was a beautiful wedding, and I’m so glad I went out to Albuquerque to be there. Here is Casey in the bow tie on the left and Miriam in a dress on the right. Their joy was inspirational!
After the wedding I stayed with my friend Tara and her three cats, which was very nice and I was quite grateful. Her guest room has a fun Florida theme.
Mark and Steve’s casita wasn’t available on my first night because it was the last day of the balloon fiesta. During the balloon fiesta everyone’s casita (and guest room, basement, attic, barn, garage, shed, RV, couch, tent-in-the-backyard) fills up during the fiesta, when the population approximately doubles for two weeks. I was lucky to be able to stay with Tara, and we had a lot of fun. Sleepover!
The next morning Tara and I went to the Rio Grande Art Show, which happens twice a year, both times in the fall, once during the balloon fiesta and once later in the fall for holiday shopping. I’ve gone many times in years past, and it’s where I get a lot of my artwork. It’s the biggest art show I’ve ever attended (maybe that’s not saying much) but it is truly huge without being impossibly crowded.
There’s hundreds of vendors, but still plenty of room to move around and actually get a good look at all the art for sale. I always buy something. It’s a great way to purchase quality regional art directly from the artists. There’s so much to choose from that I’m always exhausted by the time I’m done.
I took a lot of pictures of the art in order to send them to John, to get his opinion. I figure if it’s going to hang on the walls, we should both like it. We bought the small painting in the lower right of this next photo.
I liked this movable wire art, which would have been great in the Truth of Consequences Airbnb, but didn’t match our own house, so I didn’t buy any. If you turn the crank, the bow goes back and forth on the fiddle.
Fun but they definitely would be dust collectors.
After the art show, Tara and I took a break for lunch and then headed down for an afternoon show at Popejoy, the UNM campus theater. The show was called Sugar Skull and it was quite cute. The intent was to explain the tradition of having an ofrenda for Día de Muertos.
The main character was a resentful teenager who initially thought the old traditions were stupid. This simple plot allowed the audience to learn about the tradition themselves and also be won over, right along with the protagonist, without the show being patronizing. It was a lot of fun and I learned more about Dia de Muertos and the importance of having an ofrenda, which I’ve always thought was a meaningful tradition. Certainly more meaningful than our Halloween tradition of trying to scare each other.
After hanging out with Tara, I went to stay in Mark and Steve’s casita, which was now available, with the balloon fiesta having finished up the day before. That next morning, I met my friend, Debbie, for a walk and lunch. The casita is just a short walk to the acequias, which are beautiful for walking. I’ve posted pictures of them before. The locals mostly just call them ditches. So Debbie came over to walk the ditches with me. The very beautiful ditches.
Next up: Halloween and Día de Muertos, and the election, and Callan’s visit, and a car show, and Thanksgiving…I’m pretty far behind, aren’t I? You can all take bets. Will Kristina finish the year’s posts before the end of the year, or will it be Christmas in February? Stay tuned to find out!
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