mysteries and melon

atom bombs to flowers

This latest attraction in Santa Fe is a 1941 Dodge 1/2 ton pick-up. It's mounted outside the Sanbusco Center and is purportedly typical of the type used in the 1940s in NM for various deliveries. It was also the type of truck used to secretly deliver materials to Los Alamos for the Manhattan Project. Now it's shined up and filled with blooming summer flowers. We were in Santa Fe to mooch around and celebrate my b-day with a little shopping and eating. We enjoyed a very late decadent lunch at Pranzo, starting with prosciutto and melon, lime and crispy bits of roasted garlic...

and so hungry for our entrees that I forgot to take pictures. We enjoyed angel hair pasta with marinara sauce and meatballs (him) and linguini with extra clams cooked in white wine and olive oil (me). We went all the way with a delicate pinot noir wine - followed by a surprise dessert (at sneaky Ron's hint) that was named Dolce Gigante! and was. A coffee, biscuit, mocha, whipped cream, nuts, berry concoction riot of flavors big enough for a half dozen people! We barely made a dent in it with our two spoons. The waiter asked if we'd like to bring it home, but since home was many miles away and we'd end up with an unidentifiable sweet melted mess, we declined. The memory, however, lingers on.

Santa Fe was all color and pleasant busy atmosphere. I like going down there for a bit of (small) city energy and the shop-till-you-drop atmosphere (which I didn't do because #1: I'm trying to declutter and live like a minimalist and #2: I can't afford it!).

message from a friend?

Two years ago I took a sunset picture almost identical to this snapped on Wednesday night. The first was taken from high up at the SF Opera where we'd gone for my b-day. Next day, my friend Gayle remarked on the unusual orange cloud she'd seen at dusk in Taos and I drove to her house to show her the photo. We discovered were looking at the same cloud at the same moments, 85 miles apart! The sky is pretty big around here but we thought that coincidence was pretty amazing. She died the following spring and this year, after receiving dozens of greetings and messages on Facebook and by phone and emails for two days, this cloud appeared. I'm generally not a woo woo type, but it felt like a greeting from Gayle who didn't forget my b-day for almost four decades and often celebrated with us. She was an artist. Probably still is. I think she sent it my way.