The Hill and other snapshots

     Yesterday morning Tuesday 9 November 2010

and this morning

     I don't have anything to say for myself. I'm still recovering from all the driving and sight seeing I did whilst Johnny was visiting. When we went up to Big Lake and through Apache National Forest  to  Alpine I took only one snapshot before the camera batteries died.

     I've lived in Arizona for just over thirteen years and am only just now getting around to reading Edward Abbey

     And here's a picture of Chloë. She's just over a year old now.

Lazy (quarter) day

Chloe is growing . . . fast.

Whiled away the morning browsing Facebook and this great bellringing app. I can brush up on the blue line of methods I once knew and learn a few more useful ones.  The muscle memory for handling a bell is like bicycle riding, once learned never forgotten though it may not be quite as smooth and the listening skills will need brushing up.

Meet Chloë

     Kathy decided I need another husky . . . oh the joys to come. It has taken us two days to decide on a name. Too much like Zoë? Eh,eh. She's about seven months old . . .

Friends reunited . . .

I met with an acquaintance yesterday whom I hadn't seen for forty years. We ate lunch and chatted about our common experiences at school. About the people we remembered; the plays and musicals; the pranks and punishments. We talked about our lives since leaving school and how we came to be living in the USA. I was the only person who had responded to the emails he'd sent to various classmates on Friends Reunited.

Thursday Kathy collected this beautiful urn which contains Zoë's ashes.

Kathy's parents are visiting for the week-end as we were to have visited them in New Mexico but the events of the week disrupted those plans.

Joyful and Sad

What an eventful week-end. For the first time in too long a time I went to a music festival. The stay in England was too short and filled with friends I needed to see, and places of personal pilgrimage I needed to visit, to make time for either the Whitby folk festival or the Upton festival. My hunger to hear live music, other than that I try to make for myself, was satisfied by travelling over two-hundred miles to Edgewood, NM for the 7th Annual Wildlife West Music Festival. This is a delightful location just off Interstate 40 thirty or so miles east of Albuquerque.
I arrived in time to catch a local all female band Lady Fingers who played a relaxing eclectic set by no means all bluegrass. Quite a few local bands filled out the bill. Round the House from Tucson played traditional Irish tunes on the main stage at the amphitheatre. More bluegrass from The Badly Bent. And then the man who was the draw for me to attend this festival. A singer, songwriter and story-teller in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan . . . ; multi-instrumentalist, teacher, father, soon to be grandfather, folklorist and all round generous man John McCutcheon.

Kathy stayed home to be with Zoë our Siberian husky who was very ill

This picture is of her in her prime when she was about four years old. She died Sunday whilst I was gone and today we made arrangements for her cremation.

One More Day

The views of the distant, snow covered Rockies over Denver are spectacular, especially at sunset.
One more day in Colorado. Now I am finally relaxed and caught up with time. Kathy is thrilled with the trailer (caravan). Last night was the first opportunity we had of spending the night in the trailer together and trying to sort out the plumbing. Sassy, Kathy's cat, has taken over the bed as that is her safe place. I've been playing the dulcmer; and Steve has been entertaining us with lots of music. Zoë has been wandering about but staying well clear of the horses! Fred the llama stays aloof in his pasture. Am I any closer to finding myself? No, but . . . this sure is a beautiful place in which to lose oneself.