Solstice Cards

The list has dwindled to less than a dozen. Thus, it's a reasonable undertaking to make them by hand. Only thing is, the intensity of "making" is such that I'm exhausted after an hour. Still, we're off!! Out of the gate!!

See My Jumper Hangin' On the Line

by R.L. Burnside

Beginning

I Am Calling You

sung by Jeff Buckley

Solstice

On December 11, 2021, ten days before the Winter Solstice, I took pictures at the Red Rock exit (exit 100) on Interstate 25.

This post is to remind me to get photos from there again. 

Holding my phone compass flat and in front of me, it put the sun at 173 degress south. It was 4:39 p.m.

Coordinates where I was standing: N33.4106821 -W107.2586971

Between my pix are photos Jozien took at noon on the 12th at her home near Mendenhall Landing, Yukon Territory at: N60.764182, -W136.168218

Northwest

North

Northeast

East

Southwest

Departing ABQ

After a delightful holiday (Solstice!) celebration with Michelle capped off by an amazing session yesterday with Charey Fox (of The Source), the onliest regret wuz not havin' enough room for the accordion. Reminds me a bit of how the pie-anos got left by the roadside when the early incursionists made their way westward.

Years ago, just for ducks, I started noting what time I broke camp; it's alwayz 1:30 p.m. Today I exited the storage locker at 1:34. Of course, I had to stop for beer.

Northbound, toward Utah. It's rumored there're three book stores in Durango, Colorado. It's a busy place, sorta like Moab. I can usually last about an hour...lotsa folks jumpin' round afore jumpin' off. "Let's hike! Let's bike! I wanna hang-glide! I wanna raft! I wanna hang-glide in a raft!"

Hit shore iz nice tuh be away from Albuq.

Another Solstice Past

The Denuding of the Tree marks the end of the occasion. We have, in years of yore, managed to make it into April. But it was beginning to drop its leaves and the time seemed right. 

We had a supervisor cat keeping a close eye (upper right of photo).

And a SPLENDID Solstice It Was

The Tree

My main reason for returning to ABQ was to set up a tree. We missed out last year and at some point I realized I missed not having the event. (Motivation sometimes comes after the fact.)

You know you're olde when things seem too high-priced. Thus, reeling & clutching at my bosom, I staggered from Home Depot after encountering their Noble Firs for $59.99.

I called Dave's (where I eventually ended up) and was told the cheapest they had was $50.00....still too much. Finally, four days b4 the day, I went to Dave's to see if I could negotiate. It'd been a few years but he recognized me and we got to chatting about business.

He'd rented the empty lot where the owner had, supposedly, gotten the nod of approval from the two storefronts on either side. But the shop=owner to the north was upset when his fence blocked access to the alley. He was only going to be there 25 days, but her distress prompted him to dismantle it (50 feet of 8' chainlink) and move it back 12 feet. 

Juan Tabo Blvd is a busy street with tall, sharp curbs that can wreak havoc if you're not paying attention. The 12-foot setback meant the lot was barely visible to the hell-bent-for-leather folks going by. He still had quite a few trees when I ambled in. 

His son-in-law was coming to help load up the remaining trees to take to the dump. He told how they began cutting in October and he'd spent the last month on-site 24/7 in the 15-foot travel-trailer; he was ready to go home. 

He gestured broadly toward the front of the lot, where the five to seven foot trees stood, as he offered me my choice for $40.00. I let him pick it out and he helped stuff it ("careful now") into Phoebe; it barely fit.

Champion Cat Rescuer by Diego Piraro (link is to his fine art)

Framed by Duke City Art & Frame

The print is by Diego Piraro (link is to his blog). It was my gift to Michelle. He's the artist who does the Bizarro cartoons (link is to his website).

Link to prints.

 

Carols From Kings

Vee haf our truh-di-shunz. 

Browsing Stargoose und Hanglands'

https://bystargooseandhanglands.blogspot.com/2020/12/wishingand-hoping.html

I noticed The Weaver of Grass's post (in the list along the right on Stargoose and Hangland) from yesterday in which he mentions Carols from Kings.

Googling, I found...

https://www.classicalmpr.org/

Around about 6:00 a.m. I turned 68.

(Chocolate!)

The starfish was a gift

  from my aunt when I was three.

In The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley, he tells of walking on the beach after a storm and meeting a man throwing starfish back into the sea. The beach was covered and after watching for a bit he said to the man, "There're thousands. You'll never make any difference." The man didn't even pause as he bent to pick up another. "I did for that one," he replied. (And a kiss upon your hand for telling me.)

May you be as lucky.

Merry Solstice! (again!)

Yule is the Winter solstice

Litha is the Summer soltice.

Solstice Wheel

Somewhere near Notom Rd, Kristen remembers. It beckoned from atop a nearby butte; a feeling stronger than just "Let's go climb." We went.

In The Center

For Scale

Purple Robe & Hyacinth's Majesty

I became enamored of hyacinths when walking to school in Rolla, Missouri. At that age, when one is low to the ground and they profuse, their scent accompanied me the entire way. And the color!!


(Slow-paced Nutria's, we celebrate holidays for weeks. It was just the other day, a week or so, I discovered Michelle's presents -- purchased at the Bluff Arts Fest in October. I gave them last night.)

She found the robe online. Marketeers of yore used to predict the internet would never be commercially viable as it was impossible to accurately convey color. She lucked out royally!

Painting by Vincent Distasio

Solstice Tree and Lights

We're usually several days, if not weeks, behind. ("Better eventually than never." is what they say.)

There's a guy who brings a bunch of trees from Mora and sells them from his yard near the Nature Center. Each year, as our stamina wanes, the tree gets smaller...and with fewer decorations. This year we settled for just lights.

Bonsai, the cat, cogitating on whether it would look better in a horizontal position on the floor.

Location shot...

With the lights turned down...

Merry Solstice!!

It's interesting, isn't it, what the season evokes?

Just back from Japan and soon to leave for Germany, we went to Chicago to visit relatives. Up until then I'd known naught but classical. These two *still*  haunt.

Christmas Hippo

The Bismarck

It's a full moon. And at Cottonwood, Arizona it's about 2 degrees South from directly overhead. Wha'sitlooklike whereyouare? Prolly round...like cheese.

             🎄   Merry Solstice   🎄  

Solstice Music & Tree at Michelle's

Escaping the urban noise...

I was enroute to, we live in the Northeast Heights (Frights), the Nature Trail that parallels the Rio Grande. Just before the junction was a tree-lot with two Hispanic guys keeping watch. (What with one thing and another we've not had a tree for several years.) Their smallest was $45.00, but he let me have a foot-and-a-half one, perfect for us, for $15.00.

The tree stand can be seen in my baby pictures

Michelle did ceramics for about 15 years. This was from 1998.

Sophie, my cat, a mergers and acquisitions specialist, died in 2010. Michelle did her portrait in 1995.

Mushroom from my childhood. Pink star from Dillards Department Store back when One El and I were Marketing Executives at UNM Press (late '80s). The Wizard Cat was a gift from me to Double El; undated.

Devout agnostics, when One El and I met in '86 she was still fresh from a medieval choral group in D.C. that sang a cappella. She has a beautiful voice and unselfconsciously accompanied many of the carols on the first selection below.

All of us are ornament enthusiasts. This year we're drawing from Double El's and my collection. Donuts! Carrots!

This evening's playlist. Classics; you'll likely recognize 'em all.

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (It is a rose sprung up)

Youtube

The Most Beautiful German Christmas Songs (Youtube)