My Version of Religion
So I ran away from home and worries this weekend to the mountains around Cuba, NM. A friend owns this jewel of a ranch nestled at the foot of the moutains. To get there I drive north and then west across the top of the Abique dam, and then through meadows and forests until I reach a tiny town called Regina. On the drive I enjoyed slashes of sun, snow, rain and hail. In other words a typical spring storm in NM. Oh, and the temperature was hovered around 33 degrees farenheit.
My friend Sage Walker, goes to the ranch and stays in a small cabin she has renovated. In addition to being a brilliant writer, Sage is also an incredible cook. So, after I brought in arm loads of wood, and got the stove going in the big house, and took a walk when the sun peeked out, I returned to the house to find she had set out a proper british tea. We had scones and rhubarb and strawberry jam, mock clotted cream, fruit, and these delicious little meat pastries. Sage take left over pie dough, rolls it out, spreads on dijon mustard mixed with brown sugar and cloves then lays on a few slices of proscuitto, rolls it up, slices the roll and bakes the little rounds. Delicious. (One tends to rave about food when you’ve been with Sage.)
I had taken my laptop computer, but I never turned it on. Instead I watched the play of clouds and sun over the mountain, and the way the light in the valley changed and affected the shades of green of the grass and the pines. Saturday night all the clouds rolled away. I stood on the porch and listened to a coyote give a couple of dogs what for, and gazed up at the stars. There was no moon so the stars held center stage. It’s interesting, but as you stare at them it’s like more layers keep getting added. It’s just your eyes becoming adjusted to the dark, but the effect is as if someone is secretly flinging out another hundred million stars every few seconds.
I built up the fire, crawled into bed, and around 2:00 am the rain came. It was wonderful. You’ll notice that any of us New Mexico folks will wax rhapsodic about rain. We want our snow in the winter to build up the snow pack so the farmers can irrigate through the summer, and the forests won’t burn, and we get to go camping, but we _love_ rain. It rained off and on all night, and through much of Easter Sunday. I got up at 5:30, and hoped the elk had returned to the valley, but some moron had been firing off shots at random the day before, (another NM tradition, you celebrate major holidays with gunfire) and the elk stayed up in the mountains. Sage and I baked apple muffins, and then I got her talking about Taos in the late 1960’s. It was fascinating. We talked about the choices career women had to and have to make. (Sage was a a doctor and I was a lawyer).
Then, reluctantly, in the late afternoon I headed back to Santa Fe. I met Carl in town at Maria’s, a famous Mexican resataurant that opened in the late 1940’s, and we shared a plate of fajitas. (Those are not traditionally New Mexican, but when you want protein they are great.) That was my weekend, and I couldn’t post because there is no internet service at the ranch, and my cell phone doens’t work, and that makes it all the more perfect. So, now I’m rested and ready to face a medical test tomorrow, and the never ending battle with the evil contractor.
Melinda
April 9th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Thanks Melinda! Your postings keep me informed and reading. Because of your posting a few days back I just ordered Daniel Abraham’s book from Amazon.
Make sure he kicks you back your 10%
Keep on scribing
SV
April 9th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
You are a good man, Scottie Vegas.
Since my 10% will be in the form of an imaginary gold star I officially pass one on to you.
BTW you are in for a treat with Daniel’s book. This is a quartet, and I’ve read the next two books at Critical Mass, and we’re just starting to read the final volume now. They just get better and better. Book two is coming out in August.
Summer is going to be wonderful. The Spiderman movie, the Harry Potter movie, the 7th Harry Potter book, Daniel’s book, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bubonicon (our local SF convention which is great, and the ratio of writers is _huge_. Let me give a little taste of who attends — Walter Jon William, Steve Stirling, Daniel Abraham, Suzy Charnas, Fred Saberhagen, Vic Milan, Bob Vardeman, Carrie Vaughn, George, if he isn’t in Japan, Steve Donaldson, Jane Lindskold, me, and I’m sure I’m forgetting people.
Anyway, it’s fun, and folks ought to think about adding it to their list of conventions.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Sounds like you had the perfect Easter holiday.
We (that is my father who lives in the same town and I) met with my brother and family, had a nice lunch and a long walk in the Harz national park.
Else I fought a plotbunny. Sword and Sorcery, no less.
Why do they always come when I have enough projects to work on?
Come weekend I’ll participate in a symposium about Drama and Mythos in Scandinavian Literature which means reading a few books I missed during my studies. But I’ll find the time to write that post about Maria Padilla.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:24 am
I know the night.
We made the sudden decision to drive the six hours down from Edmonton to Medicine Hat. We started out at 10:30pm so by the time we escaped the city’s masking glow, the stars came out in a rich tapestry of ancient light.
After Camrose, we stopped the car on Driedmeat Hill Road and got out to look at the pulsating galaxy, fresh midnight snow beneath our feet and the wind whispering of warm weather ahead. As we passed Drumheller, the moon began to rise a bloody red, just starting to wane. Out on the prairies, you can see it come up over the horizon, something that the city obscures, and the slow, steady inevitability of it threw me into a deep quiet.
if I could just capture even one moment of that drive in my paintings, I’d be a happy man.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:06 am
I had been thinking about hitting Bubonicon this year, but since I ended up taking an unexpected trip to NM in March, I think I will probably wait for next year.
April 24th, 2007 at 7:50 am
I enjoyed your description of your weekend. I too believe rain is a marvelous experience, lately, too rare for my taste.
It would have been a mistake to turn your laptop computer on, in such a place.
Greetings from Barcelona.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Barcelona! I would love to visit Spain. My friend George Martin was a guest at a writer’s conference, and his travel stories were magical. The pace of life, the warmth of the people, the history, the way he grazed from cafe to cafe until late into the night, the seafood ….
I want to go travelling again, but I’ve had a very tough year on a lot of fronts, and I’ve got to get back some reserves before I can venture very far from home.
Right now I’m writing and finding great solace in my work.
Melinda