Serendipity – My Third Summer in Santa Fe
And just like that … my summer in Santa Fe is coming to an end. I will miss the beautiful sunsets, the buzz of the hummingbirds and the good times with friends I have met over the past few summers. One of my best friends since high school came to visit, as did a friend from our New Jersey days who lives just up the road in Angel Fire, near Taos. A visit from my sisters Eloise and Elaine is capping off my stay here. They have been camping for two months in their 17-foot Casita trailer. We all had to adapt when our summer of cruising Europe ended before it started.
I spent more time organizing my paints than painting this summer. I am fascinated by the properties of different watercolors, whether they are transparent or opaque, how much they stain or granulate. So I keep trying different pigments and debating which I prefer. I’m a big fan of Joan Blundell and her watercolor research. In the past few days, I have packed away my Santa Fe palette and prepared another one more suited to my fall cruise to the South Pacific.
This year I tried a different sketchbook layout – a “ZigZag” book that opens like an accordion. I don’t think I took full advantage of the design, but at least I have something to show.
I do love the various blues and aquas of the Santa Fe architectural style, so I finished up with a panorama of various doors and entries along Canyon Drive, the mile-long street of art galleries.
I also love the glorious sunsets from my western condo view, and the evening clouds make them more interesting. For the first time in three summers here, we’ve had a true monsoon season, with rain many afternoons and evenings during July.
Recently I posted one of the better sunset pictures to the Facebook group “View from My Window.” If you are on Facebook, you should follow it. People from around the world post their views. It’s the next best thing to traveling.
As a result of my post (more than 10,000 likes and nearly 1,000 comments to date), a number of people have subscribed to this blog. Welcome to all of you! I will post more this fall when I’ll actually be a writer on a ship deck.
From here I’m hitting the road, stopping to see the aliens in Roswell, NM, and going on to Brownsville, the most southern point in Texas. My cruising friends Barbara and Richard live there, and I haven’t seen them since I visited last December. We had planned to cruise together through Northern Europe and the Mediterranean this summer, but we’ve put that off a year.
As I drive east, I’ll spend a couple of days in New Orleans and then head to Largo, Fla., where my good friend Daisy is living with my two Siamese cats, Cooper and Callie.
In September I’ll return to Fort Smith, Ark., to prepare for my 51-day fall cruise. My to-do- list includes selling my Subaru Outback rather than leave it sitting for months on end. Fingers crossed — I’ll sail from Seattle on Holland America’s Westerdam to Hawaii, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. As always, the itinerary could change, as at least two of those countries have yet to open to cruise ship stops. But after 923 days on land, I’ll just be happy to be on a ship.
Love this post! Looking forward to more posts from your upcoming cruises.
Really enjoyed seeing your Santa Fe watercolors. Miss you and wish I could have looked at your book at New Wave.
Susan
You’re the much more frequent cruiser, but I’ve already done five weeks this year.
Have a good trip “home.”
Jo good to hear from you and love your sketches and the view from your window! I subscribe to that also but haven’t posted. We are in NE Az with our Rv for four months. We have enjoyed a fantastic monsoon season here. We leave Oct 10 with another couple to do the Grand Africa. We have all our shots and tours arranged. I have been the arranger and made our calendars and narratives of tours. I hope we actually get to go!!! Keep posting
Beth Davis
Fantastic that you’re going to be cruising the world again!!! You’re living my dream of being unencumbered and free to do as I please!
Have a wonderful trip, and I hope all goes according to itinerary. Keep us posted so we can live vicariously through your travels. I’m planning on Antarctica next February, but because of my health, i’m going to be flying down to Santiago, then Ushwaya, And spending about 10 or 12 days going to and visiting Antarctica. Looking forward to that!!! Hope to feel comfortable doing other cruises soon! Perhaps we’ll run into each other again! Pam
Love your blog, as always. Don’t know if you remember me but we met on a South Pacfic HAL cruise in 2019. We boarded in Auckland and sailed back to the U.S. but think you were already onboard. My niece may be interested in your car if you plan to sell it in September when you are in Ft. Smith. I live in Van Buren now but used to be a school principal in Ft. Smith.
Doris Wortham
Reading Jo’s comment about her ‘good friend Daisy’ I wanted to correct her sentence to say the cats are living with me, the person who pays the mortgage. Then I thought about the care I put into preparing their meals on their special china, cleaning the litter box, wiping up hork, scratching their chins and generally loving on them….and I realized, “Yep, I’m living with them.”
I always look forward to your blog entries! Wishing you good upcoming travel, especially your 51-day South Pacific. We are still crossing our fingers that the GWV 2023 will sail, and are ready and flexible for any itinerary changes that will undoubtedly occur. (Thanks for your comments/advice on shipping luggage via HAL partners; we are looking into it.) I too, enjoy Jane Bundell’s blog and extensive research on watercolor paints; what a great resource. Thanks too, for the “View from my Window”; I’ve just joined. Maybe some good reference photos to paint! Safe travels and happy painting to you, my friend!
Monika
So good to hear from you again, with, hopefully good news. We, too are looking forward to travel. Don is recovering, slowly from his broken arm and elbow replacement. We will keep fingers crossed for all of us.