A Great Weekend

It's Sunday evening, we just finished a good supper, and I'm reflecting on what turned out to be a great weekend. Our friends John and Ferne Lovelace, who we knew at Grand Canyon, drove up from Santa Fe for the day, and it was a real joy to see them. We sat and reminisced about our years at Grand Canyon and got updates on our mutual friends. We then decided we would take a drive around the Enchanted Circle (http://www.newmexico.org/place/loc/bymap/page/DB-place/category/158/place/638.html) through Eagles Nest, Red River, Questa and back to Taos. John and Ferne had never been to Red River, and John had discovered through some genealogical research that he had an ancestor who had lived in Red River. It was a delightful day for a drive, and we saw some beautiful scenery along the way. Between Red River and Questa, we stopped for a picnic lunch at a campground beside a swift-flowing mountain stream. The temperature was perfect, the wind was calm, and the insects were on sabbatical. Live doesn't get much better than that.

When we got back to our cabin, I fished a watermelon out of our creek that I had cooling, and we enjoyed that before John and Ferne headed back to Santa Fe. We hope that John and Ferne will take advantage of our invitation to use this cabin like it was their own and spend as many weekends here as they would like.

After John and Ferne left, Sandy, our former caretaker, and her significant other Joe, stopped by to pick up some things that they had left when Sandy moved out of the cabin. We took advantage of the time to pump Sandy's brain more about what's growing in the yard at the cabin. Among other things, I found out that we have a patch of horseradish that is probably a sufficient supply for the entire Rocky Mountain area.

After Sandy and Joe left, we got the best rain shower that we've had since we arrived, including some spectacular lightning up on the mountain across the road. The sun was playing hide-and-seek with the dark clouds, and I tried to capture some of the contrast on camera.

This morning we went to church again at El Pueblito UMC in El Prado. We met inside this time, but it was still a delightful service a very friendly congregation, reinforcing my idea that we make this our church home while we're in Taos.

This afternoon, after listening to the Braves lose to the Marlins in extra innings, we walked up the hill to meet the couple who had bought the Zutavern's cabin. They are Zutaverns also, Fred and Vicki, cousins of John Zutavern, the former owner, who Lois has known for years. They live in Albuquerque, so they will be making the relatively short trip to Taos on a frequent basis. We had a nice chat with them and are pleased to have such pleasant folks as our closest neighbors.

More later.