Christmas in Sedona

Sedona, Arizona. Land of red rock spires, ancient homes and, if you believe the loco locals, spiritual vortices. Whatever your orientation, it was absolutely beautiful there. We enjoyed hiking, running and exploring, when it wasn't snowing!



This is on the way in to Palatki ruins, which are very well protected by the National Park service.



Palatki was the only place I've ever seen "black on black" pictographs. The volunteer ranger told us these were originally white, like other pictographs, made of ground rock painted on with human hair brushes. They turned black when the soot from fires lit beneath the overhang settled into the white. He said they'll be black for the forseeable future.



The view from Jerome, a little ghost town on the side of a big hill.

Cades Cove and Abrams Falls

This is a broad view of Cades Cove, a historic area settled and farmed in the 1800's and early 1900's.

We went there to hike through the woods to Abrams Falls. Once again, evidence of water's work everywhere.
Yummy-looking white mushrooms springing out of the forest floor. Don't worry: we didn't try them!

Lichen on a big tree trunk.


The Galax plant.



Some crusty ol' tree .

And, finally, the water itself. I hate to say it, but I had to wait for just the right moment and crop the picture well to get a picture with no people in it. There were lots of folks there, from oldsters dipping their tootsies to young bucks jumping off the falls into the water below.

More puppy pics

Maya with uncle Ocho


Maya in cartoon mode


Rasta

Puppies

These are my daughter's two new pit bull puppies, playing with my 8 month old mutt. I'm trying out my new camera software. This is an effect called "cartoon."

Balloons!

It's time for the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Every October hundreds of balloonists gather here, and the skies fill with color for a week. So far this week they've been thwarted by rain or wind most days, but today the sun came out and up they went.

These pics are actually from last year, taken from my house and from the park across the street. I'm too lazy to brave the crowds at Balloon Park and besides, why should I, with views like this? If they land right in front of my nose again this year, I'll add fresh pics.

It's a fun reason to come to Albuquerque, if you ever need one!

4th of July in Small Town, America

The little town near my writing retreat lets it all hang out for their 4th of July parade.

Rocky Mountain High

Greetings once again from my mountain hideaway.





I am surrounded by beauty such as most people rarely see.




We're working hard on writing, but still have some time to smell the wild roses and take some pictures.




Yes, I was this close.

Writer's Retreat

Greetings from the Colorado Rockies! I am here for a 9 day writer's retreat with my friend and co-author, Sheila Key. She's a brilliant and funny writer who, to my endless amazement and gratitude, invited me to join her in her writing of "50 Ways to Leave Your 40's". Think we might get inspired by this view from our front porch?






Here's where we are staying. I must admit, it hasn't always been easy to stay indoors glued to our laptops, drinking green tea and coffee and being brilliantly creative.












Every so often, though, nature calls, so off we trundle to the outhouse. Kinda hard to leave this place too, though - check out that view!!



Here she is, the erstwhile author, busy at the keyboard. I guess I better get back there and join her! More pics in a few days. (deer, foxes, mountains, mountains, mountains)

Hi there. Just a quick fun post today. Pictures from my walk in the park the other day. Here's me waving at y'all:


You can see that we've been having a drought here. Some city parks have actually quit watering. (This one gets water, but clearly not enough to keep the grass all green)



















Here's my faithful companion, Neo the dog, doing what he does best.








A view of fickle skies, pretending to portend rain...and the pup, relieved of all burdens.

Los Globos race for the cure

Six o'clock on a Sunday morning. Dawn in Albuquerque and it was already 75 degrees on a cloudless day. Going to be another scorcher. But that didn't stop more than 3,000 committed citizens who flowed into the Balloon Fiesta Park for the 2006 Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure (for breast cancer). This is the registration table, with a blowup of Louis the Lobo (UNM sports mascot) behind it.



There were lots of sponsors for this event, giving away all kinds of goodies and trinkets.













The purpose of the run/walk is to raise money for breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. The guests of honor are the breast cancer survivors. Each survivor is given a pink T shirt, a pink bag of goodies, a free breakfast and a chance to stand up with other survivors and be honored by the crowd.










We have had several women on the clinic staff over the years that have struggled with breast cancer. This year, we were thrilled to have walking with us a survivor from our staff who couldn't walk last year because she was in the middle of chemo.






Here she is with her 16 year old daughter.






Our team, Los Globos, finally settled on the costume you see here: Trademark Lobo pawprints on a (home-decorated) T-shirt, and fuzzy gray wolf ears (also home-made, can ya tell?) on our hats.




There was a frankly silly pre-race warmup, led by one of those perky aerobics gals and followed by few.
The runners took off first, for a quick 5K'er in the full sun.







Once the runners were clear, the rest of us took off walking like a herd of, well, globos! The crowd wound
around the balloon fiesta park, past some volunteer high school cheerleaders, water tables and porta pots, and eventually back to the beginning.

Along the way we admired some of the other walkers.

This guy is a breast cancer survivor himself. He goes around the country doing these walks and speaking to remind men that they are not immune. This was his 170th race for the cure!

It was good congenial fun, but more than that, it was a tribute, a memorial, a walking prayer. I kept looking at the pink-shirted women and thinking, there but for the grace of God...As I walked, I held in my mind all the women I know who have suffered this disease. Some have survived. Some have not. Some are still struggling. All have known fear, and pain, loss, and gratitude.

Everyone finished, of course, in spite of the heat. It was only 5K, after all, a mere 3 mile walk. Compared to the journey the survivors have been on, it was nothing. I hope the funds we raised will help in some small way to lessen the burden of this awful cancer.

Oh, and by the way, Los Globos did win the Best Team Spirit award! Pizza party on Wednesday. You're all invited.

The End