My friend Maria came from L.A. for the Thanksgiving weekend, and it was like a fresh wind blowing through town. First discovery: our fabulous Santa Fe Airport (http://www.santafenm.gov/index.aspx?NID=177), where she flew in. It’s an old-fashioned, beautifully tiled, sleepy little airport with just one line for security check-in, mere steps from the restaurant and lone boarding gate. Parking is just outside the only terminal. So convenient! Second discovery: Maria’s little red Fujitsu Lifebook P Series computer—under two pounds.
We hiked every day on trails near Old Las Vegas Highway and Glorieta with Maria’s friend Peter Weiss, a terrific tour guide and photographer (http://www.peterweiss.com/), as they caught up on mutual friends in Bhutan, including one described by a Buddhist as having “expired,” which seems a gentler word than “died.” Peter drove us to Chimayo, where Maria gathered dirt from the Santuario, we bought heirloom chile from El Potrero Trading Post, and Peter showed us an ancient walled village. We visited retablo artist Roger Montoya, who painted a retablo in his studio as Warren Zevon’s final CD blasted away and we all pondered life’s passing. On Black Saturday, we hit the sales at Simply Santa Fe. Lunch was turkey chile at the popular Café Pasqual’s (http://www.pasquals.com/). We roamed Border’s, buying “Shantaram” and “Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, 2011.”
Airplane boarding at left, restaurant ahead
Our final dinner was at Vinaigrette (https://vinaigretteonline.com/), where I had White Bean and Andouille Soup, Maria raved about her Italian pino white wine, and Peter told us where Cormac McCarthy and Murray Gell-Man have breakfast. On Sunday, just after Maria took off in her 44-seat small jet returning to L.A., it got super windy. Wish those planes were a bit bigger.
I went to the New Mexico Book Awards last Friday, carpooling to Albuquerque with mystery writer Sandi Ault (http://www.sandiault.com/) and her husband Tracy, who had driven down from Colorado. At our banquet table, the dinner conversation consensus was that for mystery-thriller writers, the most prestigious conference is the Edgars (http://www.theedgars.com/), followed by International Thriller Writers (http://thrillerwriters.org/), then the fan-filled Bouchercon (http://www.bouchercon.info/) and Left Coast Crime (http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/). All run awards competitions. At the NM Book Awards, winners included Melanie Sumner for her superbly crafted “The Ghost of Milagro Creek” and Mike Orenduff for his humorous mystery “The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras.” Ault was up against Orenduff for best mystery/suspense novel for her engrossing “Wild Penance,” so I bet that was a tough category to judge.
In Santa Fe’s restaurant world: recently shuttered are The Pink Adobe, Railyard Restaurant, A La Mesa, and Café Paris. Also closing: upscale clothing/interiors store Simply Santa Fe. On a happier note, talented chef Joseph Wrede, formerly of Joseph’s Table, has joined the Edelweiss Lodge in Taos Ski Valley.
Valerie Plame Wilson gave a fabulous keynote speech at the Hillerman Weekend, where she recalled writing her book “Fair Game” at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 words each day, then her travails with the CIA Publications Review Board which led to her suing them (with a lot less money to pay her attorney than they were paying theirs), and then publishing the book with the censor’s marks visible as blacked-out words.
A curious Arabian
My favorite conversation was with mystery writer Judith Van Gieson, now running ABQ Press (http://www.abqpress.com/). She said she’s in a phase where she’s opening herself up to what the universe brings her, instead of trying to make things happen. I’ve always been a big proponent of making things happen instead of relying on fate (although fate did slow me down when I was looking to buy a new horse and I ended up glad it did—not that my equine attraction has faded, but the time wasn’t right). Fate deals the cards, but we play the game. What do you think? Are our life paths determined more by free will or fate?
Dixon is a very cool village in northern New Mexico, about halfway between Santa Fe and Taos. I was there this weekend for the 29th annual Dixon Studio Tour. Great stuff! You’ve got to see Siri Hollander’s welded-steel monumental horse sculptures, which I found her loading off her pickup truck and bringing into her gallery (http://www.sirihollander.com/).
With a population of just 1,500, Dixon is home to artists, authors like Stanley Crawford (his “Mayordomo” is a classic), a museum director who just moved in from Los Angeles, former New Yorkers, hippie types, and Hispanic families who’ve been here for generations. The median resident age is 42, the median household income is $36,000 (there’s a lot of trading going on in Dixon), and the median house value is about $200,000.
Zuly's Cafe is worth the drive
Dixon has its own radio station and at the library sale I spotted books by Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and poet Tess Gallagher. We’re talking a certain strain of intelligentsia, no? I had two awesome lattes at Dixon’s higher-consciousness new restaurant, Zuly’s Café (http://www.zulyscafe.org/Dixonrestaurant.html). The green-chile Dixeño burger made with hormone and antibiotic-free beef that was grilled outside by Chris was fabulous. I’ll be back for the Zuly Salad with cranberries, nuts, and feta. I’m fascinated by Dixon—it seems like an enlightened place with a real sense of community. And by the way, caramel-colored cottonwoods are still draping SR 75 here.
When Daylight Savings Time ends this coming weekend, we’ll be plunged into darkness earlier at 5:30pm… although it’ll be light at 6am instead of 7am. It’s always jarring when this happens. Then again, we have it easier than the birds that have to migrate each winter, and the bears and groundhogs that have to hibernate. Canadian geese began heading south in October, and are expected to stay until February. They say there are a lot of young geese on the move this year because the nesting season in Canada had ideal moisture and weather.
At the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, it’s the end of the season for tomatoes, apples, marigolds, and roasted green chiles. This week, dried apples and dried apricots appeared. I bought some great Hickory Almond Mustard from Glorieta (www.oldpecosfoods.com), and a wonderful moisturizing lotion bar made from local beeswax and almond oil infused with calendula flowers (www.MilkandHoneyLotion.com). The Saturday market is continuing into winter. Some crops are still going strong—carrots, grapes, broccoli, and escarole.
If you’re having lunch this winter in Santa Fe, you’ll want to consider Back Street Bistro (505.982.3500), with six homemade soups each day. I just had the pumpkin soup: it’s a gorgeous yellow-orange, with tiny, diced onions and I think some sprinkled nutmeg.
Above: My mustang Ryo. Our barn owner in Malibu described him as Ghandi-esque because Ryo didn't fight for the best feed bin like the other horses. When Ryo died in Tesuque, I turned on my car radio to hear John Lennon singing "Imagine"... that was Ryo "living life in peace."
