Autumn in northern New Mexico

Taos Mountain as seen through the side wall of Rebecca's house.
Wolfgang's new home--looks like it's right on top of ours.
Fortunately, it's really not that close.
Steeje worked hard helping to build Wolfgang's house.
Adobes up close--no wonder the houses here are so well insulated.
These cliffs in northwestern NM are known as Los Brazos.
Fall colors are spectacular here.
It's too beautiful here--please don't make me go back to Minnesota!
One of many male tarantulas hoping to find a mate.
Maybe Mr. Tarantula can find his mate here.
Spidey was everyone's favorite ballominaria.
Another bloomin' balloominaria.
The littlest alpacas, Buster Brown and Elise, join their mamas to check out the photographer.
Bailey (left) and Spuds enjoying breakfast in their new home.
We had a delicious lunch at the Texas BBQ.

The sun sets on another beautiful fall day.

Tarantulas and Balloominarias

It turns out that fall is tarantula season on the mesa. We saw one furry-legged arachnid at the side of the road during our morning walk yesterday and another one in our courtyard. According to our knowledgeable neighbors, it's the mating season, and the males are now out in force looking for a significant other. Our neighbors also assure us that they're not really harmful to humans since they can't sting or bite like a black widow or a brown recluse. Nevertheless, we wouldn't want one in our house. Karen told us that she woke up one morning to find a tarantula on the pillow next to her; she thought it was a rubber spider left by her grandchildren as a joke--until it moved.

Our visit happened to coincide with the Taos Mountain Balloon Festival, and since we went to last year's mass ascension at dawn (when fifty to sixty hot air balloons rise and float above the town), we decided to sleep in this time and go to the Balloominarias instead. This event takes place at dusk, which means that it fits much more easily into our daily routine. The balloonists assemble in the same field where the morning ascension takes place, only this time they remain on the ground and light up their balloons as the sun is setting. There were only about six of these balloominarias, but they were very impressive (photos to follow).

We'll take a break from blogging until we return in December. Meanwhile, que vivan Taos y los taosenos!

We're Back

We've just come from lunch at Sushi Hattori, where we met Jim and Rebecca and ordered the daily special of sesame chicken, miso soup, California roll, and salad--all for the low, low price of $6.50. Our table faced the snow-capped Taos Mountain, and we had lovely views of golden cottonwoods on the ranchland surrounding the restaurant. We arrived back at Las Mananitas on Wednesday night and will be here for a few more days before driving back to Denver and catching a flight back to St. Paul.

Yesterday we toured some of the new construction in our neighborhood, including Wolfgang's house next door and Maggie's home a few doors down. Both are a few months from completion, but now that the outer walls and windows are in, we can get a pretty good idea of what the finished product will look like. Wolfgang's home is very nicely sited, with three big windows facing east toward the Taos range, and two facing west toward Tres Orejas. His home may be quite warm when the summer sun hits the west side, but at least he'll have stunning sunset views.

It's wonderful to see our neighbors again--we are lucky to be in the midst of such a friendly community. After walking through Maggie's house with her, we all went to Karen's to meet the latest addition, little brown-eyed Elise. Her coat is mostly white with a some caramel coloring mixed in, and she loves to frisk around the corral with her playmate Buster Brown. Rebecca's horse, Spuds, has returned to his former home across from the alpaca herd (we're sure he was happy to get away from the hay-stealing Chagall), and now has a new companion named Bailey. Jim and Rebecca bought two-year-old Bailey from a Navajo couple who could no longer afford to keep him. Rebecca says that Bailey is "green broke", which means that he's worn a saddle a couple of times but has yet to be ridden. She hopes to break him in during the coming months so that he'll be ready for riding next summer--when she says we'll be able to go riding together! I'm not sure that I want to risk being thrown by a newly-minted cowgirl vehicle, so we'll just have to see...