Can’t resist a Price is Right reference and a handsome driver, especially since both are true. In January, I got to thinking about our environmental footprint and started researching cars. I’d heard too many horror stories from friends about hellish searches for charging stations on trips or cars simply shutting down, despite what looked to be ample battery life, and thusly eliminated any fully electric vehicle. That’s when I learned about plug-in electric hybrids. After reading all I could, we chose the KIA Sportage, as it was the highest rated in our price range and liked the look of it. We, coincidentally, bought it on Valentine’s Day, because enviro-friendly cars are for lovers!

It is a 34-mile electric vehicle (which sounds horrible) and a regular combustion engine, two cars in one. In defense of the low-mile electric, the vast majority of our driving, since Greg works from home, and I am retired (I landed on this kindness rather than continuing to say I gave up after so many rejections), is very local, maybe twenty miles, tops. On our big driving day, we do a loop to a favorite lunch place, the library, and the grocery store, and come home. The car is efficient, y’all, plus it has a cool Blade Runner sound in electric mode for the sci-fi nerds in us. The beauty is that we charge it in a regular three-prong, with a cord made special, all in the comfort of our garage, powered by our solar panels. I mean, seriously! So awesome.

In the event that we visit our parents or New Mexico or anywhere else we fancy, we use hybrid mode, and it does some special calculations to decide what engine is best and when. A cool feature, that I watch like a hawk, is the MPG. Before we went to the Pecos, since, as I mentioned, most of our trips are local and fully electric, it topped out at 999! We’re back at 45, but I am very keen to watch it tick up before our next adventure.

Welcome to Raton Pass in deep fog.

Wagon Mound

Las Vegas, New Mexico

Short people worshipped here.

Pecos National Historic Park

Texas Horned Lizard is my best guess.

Glorieta Mesa

wild flower bouquet

Frankie’s – get the red chile.

Are you eating?

view from bed

It’s a loop.

It’s also mutual.

Three sunrises, one river: the Pecos. Our original plan included Michael and Mary, but their puppers got worryingly ill, so they had to stay home.

We made the best of our solitude and kept in the same vein of less is more, gazing for hours at the view, listening to the river and chirp of birds, cooking very little.

Our first day, the skies opened, and the arroyo came alive, thundering melted chocolate milkshake, flowing wildly, only to flame out in this glorious riot of sensual texture and delicate pools.

We did much snacking and kombucha drinking, paired with puzzling and music listening, late into the evening, hoping for a glimpse of brilliant stars, but being outshined by the moon, in the end.

We arose before the sun and took jaunts: about the property, to Frankie’s in Pecos for wonderful food, to Santa Fe, for yet more.

The highlight, discovering the Pecos Historical Park on foot to kill time before check-in. We wandered without any expectation, rounding the corner with literal gasps at the wonder of the structure, standing for hundreds of years. Marvel at what LASTS!

Tags:

Broccoli

Nothing heals the soul like chocolate … It’s God’s apology for broccoli.

Richard Paul Evans

Tags:

Nature abhors a vacuum…

Thankfully, it wasn’t long (two hours) before our vacuum was filled with this spectacularly studded sofa! Only eleven months in the making, but them’s the breaks when you order a custom, made in the USA, couch from Roger & Chris. It is called Howdy (in case you are both looking and patient), quite firm and equally comfortable, with, super bonus, leather not viciously subject to Juniper claws. I love it. We love it. It complements the room and has since acquired a nice wool blanket to prevent drool stains, Juniper’s not ours. Picking the battles.

Now is the time we dance…well, not really, but feel free. I was simply in need of a segue way to the food portion of our program.

I shared some rhubarb with our neighbor, Nancy, and she shared two slices of delicious custard pie made with it. I, in turn, made scones (dried blueberry and gouda & green onion) in order to avoid returning an empty plate. A marvelously tasty circle, dear reader.

We bought a couple of ridiculously sour grapefruits and decided they would be better served in margaritas. I substituted the lime juice in my recipe for 1.5 grapefruits – membranes, seeds, and pith removed, 1/2 cup tequila, 1/4 cup Grand Gala, 2 tablespoons agave nectar, and a generous pinch of salt, whirred in the Vitamix, before adding one 12 oz can of bubbly water, which just so happened to be pink grapefruit. So very good.

Finally, this is a tiny teaser for a future blog post. We went to New Mexico, mostly lazing about in a house overlooking the Pecos River. Anyhoo, if you’ve ever driven south on I-25 from Colorado Springs over the past decade, you’ve probably spied the white panel van on the side of the road advertising Ringo’s Grocery. My Grandma Esquipula Maes (1827-1905) is buried in Aguilar, so we first popped in for a hello at her grave before ambling to Ringo’s. It is a surprise of a market for such a small town, with a very nice deli and house made sausage. We bought a green chile and spicy Italian links. You’ll never guess which I used here, LOL. Since I had no hankering for pasta, I made a quickety-quick flatbread. Boy, was it tasty!

Teeny tiny wild rose: blossoms 1.5 inches across with crazy fragrant flowers. So cute!

iris

serviceberry

ladybug interlude

orange horned poppy after the rain

snowball

Teeny tiny mushroom – can you tell the rain has been abundant, as of late?

Juniper interlude

coral charm peony

sage

sculpit

evening primrose

ninebark

Oregon grape

pavement rose

callirhoe

Jupiter’s beard

orange horned poppy

bartzella peony

And that, my friends is everything currently blooming in the garden! Oh, wait, I just glanced out the window to marvel and realized I missed a purple penstemon. Picture it in your beautiful brain. I’m off…

Crabapple

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

Henry David Thoreau

crababpples, in this case…

Tags:

« Older entries