feast for the eyes and soul
April 06, 2025
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When a person has and shares her talent with others, I feel it should be acknowledged. In addition to a forty plus year career as a physical therapist, our friend Ingrid, is an extremely creative person. As another friend, Jim, said "Not every artist is a painter". So true. In addition to her many other skills, Ingrid has become a master tart desig...
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breaking through
March 31, 2025
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Spring and March presented themselves in earnest last week with warm winds and sunshine. And all of nature knows this is the time for action. Vegetative growth from bulbs that wait patiently throughout the winter miraculously pushed through the hard, dry soil, and the blooms have arrived. Flowering shrubs and fruit trees are gradually joining the p...
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skills I do not have
March 23, 2025
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During our many adventures in home building, my husband, Fred (primarily Fred) and I have built homes of wood, stone, and adobe, that were accomplished courtesy of his architectural, engineering, and design skills, along with my organizational and mud and mortar mixing skills. Darn good with a shovel, water, concrete, clay, and sand, and although t...
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the wild wind
March 16, 2025
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It is perpetual, breathing life into every entity on this planet. The wind - whether we appreciate it or not, whether it destroys what humans and other living entities build, causing tragic loss of life, whether it contributes to deadly fires, whether it peppers our faces or legs, or whether it drives us mad - is a necessary part of life. The sprin...
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spring gifts
March 09, 2025
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The vernal or spring equinox arrives on 20 March this year, but meteorological spring arrived officially on the 1st of March. If there was no record keeping or calendars, humans would count on the sky, weather, and other animals to tell when spring was coming. In the Rocky Mountain west last week, the full gamut of weather - including graupel, rain...
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art for art's sake
March 03, 2025
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In 1818, Victor Cousin wrote in Cours de Philosophie "We need religion for religion's sake, morality for morality's sake, art for art's sake." Whether it came from someone lambasting art as a dodge or modern art as an aberration, I can remember hearing the phrase "art for art's sake" from a fairly early age. The fact of the matter is that art seems...
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signs of the times
February 23, 2025
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Last Monday, 17 February, was Presidents' Day in America. Rallies were held around the country, including in Santa Fe. From government workers who had been suddenly and unceremoniously fired or "asked to clean out their desks", to those protesting Russia's war on Ukraine, in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, and of women's and LGBTQ rights, and...
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thinking white
February 16, 2025
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A long-time friend and professor for whom I worked at the University of New Mexico (do not ask how long ago that was) emailed some weeks ago about the possibility of having a print made of one of my photographs. It was a group of double white lilies we had been gifted and which I proceeded to use as a photographic subject. The request sent me into...
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Rail Trail "Generations" mural
February 09, 2025
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Fred and I first walked to this particular section of the Santa Fe Rail Trail near Santa Fe High School (between Siringo Road and St. Michael's Drive) in late October of 2022. Our friend and avid cyclist, Robert, had ridden by the mosaic mural under construction numerous times, and thought it would be a good idea to photograph the mosaic in progres...
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of viento, chile colorado, Sangre de Cristo, and Brazos cliffs
February 02, 2025
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I committed the original sin of photographers and writers this week. Actually, I have been for some time. In the digital age, any photographer or writer's mantra should be "Save, backup, save, backup." A task that, for some reason, has escaped my attention in the last couple of years. It caught up with me last week. Not in the photography side of m...
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further adventures from the Albuquerque Botanic Garden
January 26, 2025
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Bright and colorful bulbs, flowering fruit trees, and deciduous trees and shrubs in full leaf are not prominent during winter at the Albuquerque Botanic Garden. That is the season when the evergreen trees shine, and architecture and sculptures are much more visible. The vision and planning of the people who have worked on the garden over the last n...
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a long time coming
January 19, 2025
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In 1998, I wrote an article for Rocky Mountain Gardener magazine titled "Garden Jewel of the Rio Grande - Rio Grande Botanic Garden". The Botanic Garden and Aquarium opened in 1996. When I saw it two years later, the most prominent element of the Garden was the Conservatory designed by architect Edward Mazria and his associates. The 9,000 square fo...
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the mighty acorn
January 12, 2025
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Given the massive, very nearly unstoppable fires burning in California, my guess is that some of you have been directly affected by the fires, or have friends or family who have been. It is a tragedy of epic proportions considering the loss of human life, property, and infrastructure. The destruction caused will change the area's landscape for deca...
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renewal
January 06, 2025
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Today is the first Monday of a new year - 2025 - a time of emergence, renewal and reflection, hope, and sometimes apprehension - about what lies ahead. In the early morning hours, I look out the bedroom window and see Jupiter, seemingly dancing around as I drift in and out of sleep. The planets and stars are with us regardless of what happens on ea...
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new year, new hope
December 30, 2024
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5 Comments
Wednesday is the beginning of a new year, 2025 to be exact. Cultures around the globe celebrate the new year in many ways and on different dates but the idea is the same. It is a time humans set aside for rebirth and renewal, and to evaluate our lives. White lilies, such as the ones below, are said to represent rebirth. The idea of many petals maki...
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© Daryl A. Black