They have SEASONS!! Here's Fall!

It's funny how people think that the high desert is all sand & rock. Well, one day we headed up to the Jemez mountains to see some of the foliage & to prove that there really are trees here!

This picture below was of an old adobe building.

Here's a beautiful bunch of cottonwoods in gorgeous fall bloom...as well as my honey checking out the view of the valley down below him.

And here are a couple more views of the gorgeous forests!

I'll have to write more later and show the leaves & then the snow!!!

Petroglyph National Monument

Some peeps have asked how we've been doing. Well, while we were waiting to close, we went to one of my favorite places in NM. It's the Petroglyph National Monument & you can hike for miles & see all the Rock Art that Native Americans did in this area years ago. Some things we have no clue what they pecked, but others are obviously animals, birds, people, etc. I wish I knew what they were trying to say. Here's just a few of the gazillion pics I took:

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

A trip to ABQ wouldn't be complete for me without a trip to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Ron had never been, so we took a tour yesterday. It had been about 10 years since I'd last been here & some things sure have changed. But the dance remains the same.

This time they had a group that came in from Arizona. You can see the drummers below:

These dances are mountain spirit dances for healing. The dancers are painted in black & white symbols with large jingle bells, ribbons & feathers as part of their outfits. But the main thing that amazed me were the incredible headdresses! Wooden with some mirrors & paint...and they'd dance with these heavy things on their head, even bowing clear to the ground! Just amazing!

Below is a closer picture of one of the headdresses!

Balloon Fiesta

The Balloon Fiesta! Wow! We were several miles away from the field but were still able to see so many hot air balloons! Sometimes the wind caught 'em & flew 'em toward the city! Some even landed in very odd places. Like this one below:

Somehow it landed in a field near an industrial area near our suites!

But it eventually got some fuel goin' to it & started back up all safe & sound.

Up, up and away!!!

Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival

So, while we're waiting for all the paperwork & inspections to get finished, we decided to see a few things that were happening around here. One was the Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival that was held in this tent. It's a 3 story high tent! It had lots of painters, potters, glass workers, stone carvers, wood carvers & even one person with an Oshibana booth! They came from so many states! Lots of pretty stuff inside, so we got lots of ideas. And even tried some free range goat cheese that was so yummy! Gonna love this place!