Wild Flowers – Santa Fe
The Bus Stop
Taos Pueblo Street
Taos Dog
Taos Cemetery
Chimayo
Santuario de Chimayo
Beyond Santa Fe
Courtyard – Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Santa Fe, NM — October 17, 2016 Early morning light in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum courtyard created a geometry of abstractions — a perfect time to photo shadows and angles. I was grateful for Santa Fe’s ever-bright blue sky. As I took photos, I saw that each element worked in harmony. I knew that what I saw through my lens would change within minutes. For those few minutes I was in sync with light and camera. In my click-click, snap-snap world I totally enjoyed a Santa Fe experience.
Sand in My Shoes
Cape May shines after Labor Day. When the beach vacation people fold their umbrellas and take the kids home, that’s a good time to head for the shore. In St. Mark’s Square tourists feed the pigeons. In Cape May tourists feed parking meters that could work until 10 p.m. Bring a bag of quarters or risk a $35 ticket. A line of parked cars, including our rental, were ticketed late one night next to Congress Hall. Parking meter money and parking tickets bring in half of Cape May’s annual budget of $2 million. Happy to contribute to historic and ever-beautiful Cape May.
Richard and I flew in from Tucson to hang out with two cousins for a few days. We visited an alpaca farm (www.jerseyshorealpacas.com), the Cape May lighthouse, and the sunken concrete ship. We drove over to Villas to see my Aunt Dot’s old house and to walk on the bay-side beach. Memories of past summer trips came roaring back. Everything seemed perfectly in place — the dead horseshoe crabs, the men fishing, and the beach dotted with hundreds of shiny pebbles.
A Friday highlight – we attended the graduation ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center. Between college and grad school, Richard completed his training at Cape May and was assigned to Search & Rescue, Governors Island (N.Y.C.) Semper Paratus 1790.
When the trip was almost over, we drove north and stopped in Wildwood. A fireman’s convention packed the town and No Vacancy signs were everywhere. Ocean City was our destination for a final night at the shore. Another boardwalk with arcades, salt water taffy shops, and food stands. I had a yearning for one nostalgic treat, a waffle ice cream sandwich. Just the thought brought me back to teenage summers at Seaside Heights and the flavor of vanilla and the crunch of waffle. Now, I’m in Ocean City and the year is 2016. My eyes opened wide when the vendor asked for six dollars and seventy-five cents for a waffle ice cream sandwich. What??!! Are you kidding me? Nope, she wasn’t kidding.
֎
After the Rains . . .
Tucson, AZ – When two inches of June rain drenched our parched landscape, flowers bloomed everywhere. My favorites — pin cushions – tough out life among the stones and crown themselves with a halo of pink flowers. On hot, sunny afternoons quail and rabbits give up the desert. The barrier to lush, cool grass is easy to breach. They hop right in and settle on the lawn as if relaxing at a 4-star resort.
Meet Abby
When Abby swiped her Get Out of Jail Free card, she began a happy, new life. At the end of April, a Pima County dog catcher picked her up as a stray — no collar, no tag, no chip, no name. A staff volunteer approved her adoption since I’ve owned dogs and have a fenced yard. Best yet, she said all dogs over six months old went to new homes for free.
Abby’s muzzle and ears say German Shepherd mix. She seems to be a reincarnation of Amber, our beautiful girl that died six years ago. Abby does show separation anxiety. Unless I close doors she gets into unrolling toilet tissue. She likes shoes, boxes of Kleenex, and wicker. Yesterday she chased and killed two quail chicks. Abby’s instincts took over — chase, capture, and bye-bye birdies.
Next Sunday she graduates from the Petsmart beginner’s obedience class. We’re going right on to the intermediate class and, eventually, if she’s smart enough, to a therapy dog program. Abby has lots of love to give. I wish she could tell me her life story . . . .
Memories of First Grade
How many of us remember our First Grade? Luckily, I have newspaper clippings, report cards, and letters. I decided to post a photo and text from the Winfield Park (NJ) annual school report. The school is gone. Destroyed in a fire years ago. Where am I in the photo? I’m in the second row from the top – bows and braids atop my head. I’m standing next to Carol Simon. The cute kid behind me is Robert Peters. Marie Lupo is in front of me. I loved school and, amazingly, I remember the names of so many kids.
Miss Beck
How exciting First Grade has been. At first we studied about the dairy farm. We made a large frieze with cows, chickens, ducks, and other farm animals. One day we visited the Walker-Gordon farm. We saw real baby calves and big cows. Miss Pietrowski and Mrs. Lulic ( Mary, my mother) took pictures of us at the farm.
We enjoyed very nice parties at Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. Miss Holton helped us make Jell-O for one of our parties.
Playing in our grocery store was fun, too! Our own churned butter made a big hit and was pictured in the Newark News. We had real cans, all kinds of groceries, a register for money, and a telephone in our store. Each day two children were storekeepers.
In March we studied about the wind and airplanes. Our kites and windmills were very gay. In April, we took a trip to the Newark Airport. It was thrilling to see the big airplanes land and take off.
Spring came and we studied about the circus and the zoo. Our frieze of lions, monkeys, tigers, and giraffes made our room look like a real zoo.
Our best trip was to the Bronx Zoo. We talked about this trip for days and days. Then along came the great day for our May Festival. Will you ever forget our Tom Thumb Wedding with Miss Pietrowski’s First Grade?
It’s been lots of fun this year! We hope that Second Grade will be just as exciting next September.
Miss Pietrowski
This was the very first year we attended school both in the morning and in the afternoon. This was the first year we became such good actors and actresses. Just read on and you shall see what many different roles we played.
First of all, we were farmers who took good care of their farm animals. And since we like farms so much we went all the way down to the Walker and Gordon Milk Farm to see the cows and calves as well as the Rotolactor machine.
Next we were Indians who lived in wigwams and beat upon tom-toms. We made feather headdresses and painted our faces for our program.
Right before Christmas we decided to stop acting for awhile and be as good as we could –for Santa Claus was coming.
Santa was very good to us and so we decided to resume our acting. This time we were Eskimos who made igloos and loved the Northern Lights.
Last of all we were animal keepers at the zoo. We got to know all these strange animals quite well, especially when we visited the Bronx Zoo.
For the May Festival we helped Miss Beck’s first grade with a Tom Thumb Wedding but no one really got married.
Actors and actresses must be kept busy. We learned to read, to write, to count, and to work together cooperatively.
We are really very good at our play-acting and since school must go on, we are ready now for Second Grade.
♥
Society Islands
In March I had a week of travel around French Polynesia’s Society Islands. I didn’t get into island or ship life, certainly not the way Capt. Cook or Marlon Brando did. More perplexing, I came up short on photo ops. Too many possibilities looked like calendar shots. That said, here are mine.
Consider Writing 