a bit of the green
March 17, 2024
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3 Comments
Given that St. Patrick's Day celebrations have been going on all weekend, Major League Baseball games begin mid-week in Seoul, South Korea, spring breakers are headed in hordes to warmer and greener parts of the country, and the vernal or spring equinox is Tuesday, 19 March this year, it only seemed appropriate to show some green in this week's blo...
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signs of spring
March 11, 2024
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Signs of spring are everywhere in this second week of March. The amount of daylight is becoming longer at an ever increasing rate as the Vernal Equinox - this year on 19 March - approaches. Although there are no flowers in evidence just yet, in the early morning hours, a trip out the door ushers in a chorus of glorious noise from the bushes and tre...
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walls talking
March 03, 2024
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Since the beginning of our existence on Planet Earth, humans have sought and developed the shelter they needed to stay alive and store necessities for that same purpose. The structures vary in construction, but most have one thing in common - walls. Whether they are solid or flexible, walls provide safety from the elements and predators. When Homo...
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new reflecting old
February 26, 2024
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Since the first railroad train pulled into the city of Santa Fe in February of 1880, change and development and how to deal with them have been major issues for the City Different. They are for any city. But because Santa Fe was originally built and connected by wagon and burro trails, fairly narrow in scope, winding down to the river and up into t...
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turn, turn, turn
February 19, 2024
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As I long as I can remember, the month of February always offered a spring thaw, sometimes brief, sometimes a week or two, but it happened without fail. The trend proved true regardless of where we lived in New Mexico - in the western, northern or central part of the state - and it was always a treat. Then March arrives, dashing hopes of an early s...
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a week of love
February 12, 2024
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If one starts a week with Sunday, this week has something for everyone to love. For American football and sports fans (not to mention gamblers), the Superbowl was the biggest event all year. For those who like a grand party, Mardi Gras and Carnival are in full swing, culminating on Fat Tuesday. And Wednesday is for lovers - Valentine's Day. What be...
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milestones
February 05, 2024
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This week was a milestone, of sorts, for Fred. He completed Rug # 400, which means that, to date, he has woven 468 pieces since he began learning to weave at Tierra Wools in the summer of 2003. Obviously, the class work stuck and he never looked back. I'll talk more about 400 in a moment, but first, I need to talk about Rug # 399.
Woven of 100%...
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eyes and colors
January 28, 2024
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This week had me wishing, once again, that I had taken physics in high school and college. It seems everything with which people deal on a daily basis involves three subjects that many students tend to avoid in school - math, chemistry, and physics. Particularly in photography, all these subjects come into play. Today's subject, once again, has to...
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humble yet essential
January 21, 2024
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I would be hard-pressed to find someone staring at the onions in a grocery store. Unlike shoppers gazing at the cheese cases as if they were at the Guggenheim taking in a Monet or van Gogh, people just grab the humble onion, and lob it into their basket or cart, not giving it another thought. Not me. I look deeply at the onions, as if part of my so...
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aged roses and new snow
January 15, 2024
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We have been lucky this week. Snow has fallen during the night and throughout the day on several occasions. Almost any location in the Southwestern United States can use moisture in whatever form it presents itself. This time, it happened to be snow rather than rain, either in a powder skiers dream of, or wet and solid, worthy of an igloo or snowma...
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of plaids and tartans
January 07, 2024
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Perhaps it is because a blanket of grey skies has hung over us for more days than is normal in the sunny Land of Enchantment, leaving us feeling very Scottish. Or it could be due to a text message asking about what would be an appropriate tartan to wear. Or due to a recent gift of a wool muffler made of the official New Mexico tartan. Regardless, t...
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The New Year
December 31, 2023
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The New York Times online had a wonderful feature yesterday titled "Your Best Advice for 2023". Many of us make lists - both mental and written - of things we are going to do in the new year. Statistics may prove that some of those goals fall by the wayside as early as February, while quite a few people are serious about trying to achieve specific...
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Christmas 2023
December 25, 2023
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5 Comments
A bright blue sky is greeting us this Christmas morning, as crows and ravens circle the sky to the accompaniment of "The Bells of Dublin" by the Chieftains. Ice remains on the landscape after a most welcome warm rain fell on Saturday, followed by graupel and snow. The chill will be with us for several days but the brightness of the day will not be...
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all about the light
December 18, 2023
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In photography, light (or lack thereof) is everything. Humans and all animals recognize, on some level, the effect of light on their lives and behavior. It must have been horrifying for our early ancestors when the daylight disappeared. Did they wonder whether it would return, and if so, when? It was probably a relatively short period of time befor...
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left over right and under, right over left and under
December 10, 2023
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The words in today's blog title were the ones we were always taught in Girl Scouts, as far as tying a square knot is concerned. It is the same knot that Fred uses to produce the Damascus edge on select rugs. But first, here is an image of Rug 397 in progress on the loom.
To secure the ends of the weaving, he ties 366 knots on the top and bot...
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© Daryl A. Black