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Travel Plans: FEB 4: Dep. Brisbane 12.10 pm. FEB 4: Los Angeles 7.00 am. FEB 5: Los Angeles - Albuquerque. FEB 5 - MAY 15 : Sangre de Cristo. MAY 15: Chicago to London. MAY 16: London. MAY 21-15: Lourdes. MAY 25-28: London, MAY 28:Via Paris to Issoudun. JUNE 2:Paris. JUNE 5:Paris via London to Rome. JUNE 12:Dep. Rome. JUNE 13:Hong Kong 6.45 am. - 11.15 pm. JUNE 14:Brisbane 9.40 am.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

The Trip to Santa Fe with the Camera Working

Dear All,
Another trip to Santa Fe and this time the camera, used properly, took usable photos. The first three were taken along a road we walked down near the city centre. You can see the buildings are in adobe style. I am standing in someone's gateway and snow still lies on that side of the narrow street. The fence is made of a type of brushwood, and is very common in the city. The second picture shows another typical sight: red chillies hanging out to dry, while the third picture simply shows an attractive dwelling with a little snow still on the roof.
One of the first places we called into was an art gallery and the owners didn't mind if we just looked and took photos. They even talked to us about some of the paintings. The prices were in the range of $10,000 - $25,000 so we weren't really looking to buy! However I really liked the art works. The proprietor travelled to Russia a couple of times annually and brought back wonderful works from there (I think the first one is one of these) and there was a great variey of paintings and styles - three are shown that photographed quite well.

The next triplet of photos shows a sculptured donkey (made of metal) along the street above (but further along, close to the shopping area), a Santa Fe fire truck and my compani0n, Cheryl, standing in the street along which we walked from the de Varges Centre to Shopping Mall. You can glimpse the snowed-on mountains in the background and the shopping area is at the end of this street in the direction of those mountains.
Now we went into another art shop with wonderful glassware, really cute pottery, and some fantastic metal-work walk on the wall.
A third shop we went into had different things again: 1. some crafted bronze decorative 'power-point' covers!" a 'snake' created by painting a piece of twisted mountain driftwood, and some wonderful cushions made of synthetic chamois leather, with native designs on them - they are washable.
Finally we came to St Francis Cathedral, the main Church in Santa Fe. The statue outside with me beside it is of a first local saint. I will print out the inscription below, together with a couple of other photos taken inside the Cathedral. The entrance doors are wonderful with all these bas-reliefs on their metal (brass/steel?) and the Cathedral itself looks down the shopping mall street.
Above, you can see, as well as the inscription, one of the Stations of the Cross, and the full-height-of-the-Cathedral paintings of the Saints of North America which provides the backdrop to in the Altar area. I wasn't able to use flash for the picture, so it is a little dark. I will conclude with two mosaics found on the walls of buildings beside the Cathedral:











Our Lady of Guadalupe St Francis & the Birds
I lit four candles in the Cathedral and remembered everyone before the very historic statue of Our Lady in the Chapel of the Conquistadora (I think). Hope you are all well and not wearied by my enthusiasm for Sante Fe's delights.
Love from Rita

5 comments:

Colin said...

Rita

Your pictures of the art gallery, art shop, and cathedral look amazing. In your last couple of posts you have certainly taken some really good photos. It is good that you were finally able to get out and see something after all the snow (in addition to snow, of course!). Keep enjoying yourself. It is making me look forward to visiting the States myself. I tentatively plan to visit Canada and US in July-August, once the school year here finishes.

You asked me on my blog what other holidays I am planning. I plan to go to the Dalmation Coast of Croatia and to Sarajevo at Easter, the south of France in May, and do weekend trips to Belfast/Giants Causeway and Lisbon and a couple of places in England (e.g. Cambridge). Then I hope to visit Canada and the States in July-August.

From Colin

carmelmelbourne said...

Haven't downloaded the last lot of photos. Still enjoying the photos of the snow. Last 2 days in Melbourne have been 38 degrees !!
Have you ever built a snowman.? I think it would be a great team building exercise. It needs to be as tall (or as short !) as you .. and don't forget a carrot fot the nose and a scarf. When completed make sure someone takes a photo of you next to it and I will wait anxiously for the shot on your blog. Keep having fun. Love carmel (melbourne)

Kath H said...

Santa Fe looks very interesting and I loved the artwork both in the shop and at the Cathedral. Kev sent on his e-mail and I am relieved everyone is okay. Snow and cold are something you have to learn to live with. It's very pretty, but much more dangerous as it melts! Love, Kath (and John)

Unknown said...

Hi Rita,
Your blogspot is very interesting and the photos are great also. There certainly is a lot of snow which is no doubt difficult to walk in. Congratulations on your rescue mission. It was fortunate that she was found quickly. It could have ended up being serious. We had an enjoyable weekend in Bundaberg. The boys have grown even since Christmas. There was quite a lot of rain which was good. We also went to Mon Repos to see the turtles. We saw about 90 hatching from the one nest which is about normal. The mother lays approx. 100 eggs and digs a hole about 60cm deep in the sand dunes about two hands wide at the bottom and tapering up. The babies have to dig their way up through the sand (about 30cm I think) and they climb over each other to get out. It was interesting watching them and then we used our torches to lead them down to the beach. It is quite a long night as you have to wait until something is happening and then make your way down to the beach in the dark. There is a video, talk and display while you are waiting. Also somewhere to get refreshments. We were entertained by a possum with a baby on its back which was helping itself to someone's chips. The centre is very popular with people coming from all over the world. They have been doing research there for over 30 years. There were over 100 people on Sunday night and we were divided into two groups. There were more people on Friday and Saturday nights when Helen and Mark and Shelly and Roger and children went. Shaun has a job in Gladstone for three months' contract coming back weekends. Hopefully, he will find it interesting. That is about all the news for now. Hope the course goes well. Love Gavin and Denise

Neil, Lisa, Nikki and Rob said...

G'day Rita,

To make the photos of Santa Fe complete - all you need is one of a Santa Fe Railroad engine (preferably one in the "heritage" red scheme) - the company merged a few years ago with Burlington Northern and most engines are being repainted into a orange colour!

You seem to be enjoying the experience - we hope you continue to do so.

Love Neil, Lisa & Nikki

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I am of 'mature age', active, religous and charming of course!