Some say life is a cabaret, but I see it more as a moving photo foray. Life through the lens fascinates me and on this cold fall day it led me to the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque Del Apache, a wildlife reserve in south central New Mexico.
Wildlife photography is new to me. And it is challenging! Cranes fly at 40 mph and you have to focus, frame the shot, pan (i.e., follow the bird!) and get the shot.
This is not easy.
But thanks to some excellent instruction, I came away with more photos than I’d anticipated. I’m trying desperately not to look at the photos of the professionals, because there is no comparison. But for now, for this photo newbie, I’m fairly happy with my results. Next year, should I attend, they’ll hopefully be even better.
Look out below! There’s a great pilot saying: “Flying is the second greatest thrill known to man. Landing is the first!” Photo from Bosque del Apache. Visit the full Photo Gallery for more.
If you’re interested in learning more about photography (or cooking or film or any number of topics) check out MasterClass All-Access Pass for on-line excellence:
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What is #CancerRoadTrip and how did it come to be? Read this post to get the backstory!
Thanksgiving is a holiday associated with gratitude, but I would suggest that giving thanks should become a daily routine.
Gratitude first became a part of my life twenty some years ago. I’d just moved from New Orleans to Pennsylvania with my ex-husband who promptly decided his life was not with me. There’s much more to the story (lawsuits from patients, a pregnant nurse, an elderly, dying dog and more) but it’s really irrelevant.
What is relevant is that I discovered gratitude.
I’d wake up every morning and find something, anything to be grateful for. And somehow this focus helped to pull me through some truly difficult times.
And now, with cancer, gratitude is so important. It reminds me to bring joy into my daily life. I’ve left behind most of the material aspects of my former world and I focus on what resonates with my heart. I’ve gotten better about identifying similar souls, similar travelers, and these are the people I want to explore with.
They are explorers of experience.
Of the soul.
And of gratitude.
This past week at Bosque del Apache I enjoyed a connection to the patterns of the natural world. Bosque is a wilderness habitat for migrating birds, and thousands of them appear each year, to pause in their travels to warmer weather. With the seasons, they move in the pattern of their ancestors, answering some deep primal call for survival.
Or perhaps they too simply enjoy a change of pace and a bit of adventure!
Whatever the motivation, that connection to the earth and her rhythms offers a soulful feeling of gratitude.
Gratitude for a warm shelter from the coming winter.
Gratitude for food.
Gratitude for others.
My gratitude list, which I visit first thing each morning before I meditate, need not be long. Somedays it’s simply a recognition of a beautiful sunrise.
Others it may be gratitude for the excitement of building CancerRoadTrip.
Gratitude for the New Mexico Women in Film who have provided a network into a most interesting group of people. Gratitude for the quirkiness of New Mexico where leading scientists and world class artists come together in creativity. The list goes on.
So this Thanksgiving I hope you find the time to pause and be grateful. Who knows, it could turn into a habit!
If you’re interested in learning more about photography (or cooking or film or any number of topics) check out MasterClass All-Access Pass for on-line excellence:
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What is #CancerRoadTrip and how did it come to be? Read this post to get the backstory!
The final leg of this foray is from Mesilla to Bosque del Apache then back to Santa Fe. I stayed overnight in Socorro so that I could spend a bit of time scoping out Bosque del Apache, where I’ll be spending some time later this month for the Festival of the Cranes.
My route for a southern New Mexico Road Trip
Mesilla to Bosque del Apache: First Stop–Hatch, NM
Hatch is named after the famous Hatch chile. It’s self proclaimed title is “Chile Capital of the World” with an annual Labor Day celebration to share joy in all things chile. Located just 37 miles north of Las Cruces along Route 25, it’s a logical stop.
Hatch is a small village with just 1,648 people. Agriculture is the major industry, and it is dominated by the chile. As is the town.
The town has a very south of the border feel to it. Lunch at a recommended restaurant was frankly not very good. And not all that inexpensive. Should you stop, wander a bit and visit with people. May you have a better lunch than I did!
But I do have a very fond memory of a lunch about all things chile, where I learned about the various chile, how to cook them and why the red vs. green discussion is so New Mexico. Click here to read the full post.
Chile preferences are a topic of passionate discussion in New Mexico.
How hot. How to prepare, store them and cook them. Ultimately the discussion comes to a pivotal question:
Red or Green?
Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash
This is a serious topic of debate.
Some say green chile is for chicken and pork. Some prefer red. Or red chile with meat, but certainly not green.
The difficulty of deciding has led to a compromise solution that everyone seems to accept:
Both Red and Green
AKA, Christmas style. That way everyday is a holiday in your mouth.
Why all the brouhaha? What’s the difference? Is it just heat? Flavor? Preference? Or perhaps a combination of all the above?
Let me see if I can summarize the dissertation of red versus green chile.
There are several cultivars of chile including New Mexico 6-4′, ‘Big Jim’, ‘Sandia’, and ‘No. 6’ and ‘No. 9’ . All chile start off green. When they’re allowed to ripen further they become red.
Same pepper, but two different products.
The Green Chile
The green chile is often eaten as a pepper. They may be layered with eggs, on burgers and made into sauces. Some say that the green chile tends to be a bit hotter, although I am inclined to believe it really depends on the preparation. I can’t eat anything too hot, but I adore green chile.
The skin of either the red or green chile isn’t digestible, so the pepper has to be roasted then peeled.
In Carlos’ house, his mother would purchase fifty pound bags of fresh green chile. They were roasted and sweated in large plastic bags. The sweating helps the skins slide off easily.
There are several methods to preparing chile. They can be roasted, peeled and frozen. They can be frozen with the skin in place. (The skins then pull off easily when defrosted.) One cook claims this leads to superior flavor.
Green chile can also be freeze dried, made into a powder, packaged and shipped. Green chile is often associated with chicken or pork, although there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to chile preferences.
The Red Chile
Red chile is a slightly different animal. Here is where the techniques start to differ. It is usually dried for storage. It then needs to be reconstituted.
The Santa Fe chile hangs outside at the Farmers Market
Carlos explained that his mother would buy an edible (not lacquered) chile rista. The individual chile would be boiled in water, the water and stems discarded. Then she would fill the blender with garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano; blend it; strain it to catch seeds and skin; and pour the mixture into a pot and let it simmer. It would then be reduced or thickened with a cornstarch roux and served as a gravy. Some people sauté onions or garlic separately. There would appear to be as many variations as there are cooks.
The flavor of the New Mexican red chile can also be found in powder form, but to bring out the flavor, it needs to be bloomed, much like curry powder, by sautéing it first in oil.
Hatch chile have gained renown largely through a marketing program sponsored by the State of New Mexico. Why Hatch, New Mexico when chile are grown all along the Rio Grande? Hatch simply had a lot of land available!
The fame of the Hatch chile is what most people are most familiar with. The success of the New Mexican pepper has led to wannabe competitors. One town, Hatch, Colorado has tried to cash in on the growing popularity of Hatch chile by (legally) marketing peppers grown in Colorado as “Hatch Chile”. But only chile grown in New Mexico, and particularly the Rio Grande Valley, have the authentic flavor profile so prized.
Mesilla to Bosque del Apache: Next StopTruth or Consequences, NM
Truth or Consequences, formerly named Hot Springs, NM, is named after the famous quiz show from the fifties. Ralph Edwards, the original host, announced that he would air the program on its 10th anniversary from the first town that renamed itself after the show. Hot Springs, NM won the honor. Every year thereafter, the show returned for the town’s fiesta, bringing with it Hollywood stars. Thus Truth or Consequences came to be named.
The show was hysterical, and the humor is timeless. Here is one old clip from the show Truth or Consequences (sit down and be ready for a good old fashioned belly laugh!):
Should you visit Truth or Consequences, the hot springs are the draw. Here is an excellent link with information on the mineral waters.
Bosque Del Apache
Bosque Del Apache is the final stop of the day. For me, its a reconnaissance trip. The Festival of the Cranes, a 5 day event that brings together major camera and lens manufacturers and photography enthusiasts to view the spectacular migration of tens of thousands of birds. I am signed up for a variety of courses (starting at 5:30 am!) and look forward to mingling with fellow photo enthusiasts.
I’ll have a separate post (with I hope some good photos!) but in the meantime, here is a quick look at this spectacular wild life preserve:
If you’re interested in learning more about photography (or cooking or film or any number of topics) check out MasterClass All-Access Pass for on-line excellence:
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What is #CancerRoadTrip and how did it come to be? Read this post to get the backstory!
From Carrizozo, it is off to White Sands and then to the quaint town of Mesilla, just west of Las Cruces.
My route for a southern New Mexico Road Trip
White Sands is the largest gypsum sand dune area in the world. Two hundred and seventy five square miles of endless pure white powder, mounded into shifting dunes. Here are just a few photos from dawn to dusk at this remarkable site. Check out the Photo Gallery for much more on White Sands.
Hurricane Willa is working its way across the region. That means rain, rain and more rain. “Frog strangler rain storms”, as they say in Texas. The rain started just as we were departing White Sands, and it never stopped. Torrential downpours paused intermittently only to continue with a renewed vengeance. It would be a wet day.
And what better way to spend a rainy afternoon than investigating Mesilla and some of its haunts.
Haunted haunts included.
The Village of Mesilla was incorporated in 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo moved the border south, placing Mesilla firmly in the U. S. In 1853, after some years of dispute, the Gadsden Purchase finally and officially made Mesilla part of the U. S.
Mesilla has always been a western town, known for its festivals and attracting a few outlaws like Billy the Kid, Pancho Villa and Pat Garrett. By 1881, it had become the most important city in the region and it was assumed that the Santa Fe railway would go through the town.
But it didn’t.
Mesilla demanded too high a price, and a rancher from Las Cruces, a much smaller village at the time, won the bid. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Nevertheless, Mesilla was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Like most Spanish towns, Mesilla is organized around a Plaza. There is a church at one end, a green area where people can gather, and the plaza is ringed by adobe buildings sheltering stores and restaurants. It is a delightful village, with the surrounding fields planted with cotton and pecan. Shops carry a range of things, from Ken Edwards pottery to leather items and clothes.
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Mesilla is located along the Rio Grande, and with the water from the river and the periodic rains, the immediate countryside is quite lush. Which was quite unexpected in the middle of the southern New Mexico desert.
On this day, rain made picture taking nearly impossible, so a quest for a respite from the rain led to the bar at La Posta de Mesilla.
La Posta de Mesilla is an integral part of the history of this National Register town. This territorial style adobe building started life as the Corn Exchange Hotel. It was a critical stop on the mail route to California.
The route took 25 dangerous days to cross the country. Weather, distance (2,795 miles) and Indian raids made it a grueling trip. A writer for the New York Herald said of the trip:
“Had I not just come out over the route, I would be perfectly willing to go back, but I now know what Hell is like. I’ve just had 24 days of it.”
Needless to say, the route was not for the faint of heart. So arrival at Mesilla, complete with blacksmith and food for all, was a most welcome respite.
The building today is comprised of numerous rooms, each with its own history. But it wasn’t the history of the bar that beckoned on this blustery, rainy day, but the 100 tequilas and a bartender most adept at mixing them appropriately.
When you can no longer decipher the letters, your tequila is cut off!
So it was, nestled in a dry bar, with a friendly bartender and an absolutely perfect margarita, a rainy afternoon was passed.
The solution to an afternoon of torrential downpours.
Dinner was at the Double Eagle de Mesilla. This place is out of a movie set, with a story to match.
The entry to the Double Eagle, Mesilla, NM
First, as you enter, there is the Imperial bar.
It’s a 30 foot hand-carved bar, “supported” by four gold leafed columns. The foot rail was originally from the Billy the Kid Saloon (now the Billy the Kid Giftshop, where in 1881, Billy the Kid stood trial for the assassination of Sheriff William Brady. He was found guilty but the hanging never occurred; Billy escaped to live a bit longer, rustling cattle and generally creating a bit of havoc until his death later that year.)
Massive (and valuable) antique French Baccarat crystal chandeliers hang above the mahogany hand carved bar.
The bar is certainly eclectic. Renaissance paintings hang on the walls. A Louis XV style mirror, French Baccarat chandeliers and a tin ceiling create a most atmosphere for just hanging out.
But even more fascinating than the Imperial Bar is the story behind the Double Eagle itself. It makes Romeo and Juliet look like a childs play.
From the Double Eagle website (you can read the complete story here):
The first owner of the house that is now the Double Eagle Restaurant, was the Maes family.
The family was in the import-export business. .. From the grand size of the house the Maes family built, one can see the family had big plans for the future–especially the mother.
…Her grand plans centered around her eldest son, a teenager named Armando…
Such a big house required many servants. One of the servants was a teenage girl named Inez, who is said to have been very beautiful, with long black hair reaching her waist. Armando fell in love…
Armando confessed his love for Inez, but the Senora refused to listen…Then, one day, the Senora returned early from a trip…she found beautiful Inez — in Armando’s arms.
Enraged , the Senora plunged her shears into Inez’s breast. Armando rushed to shield his beloved Inez. The Senora, unseeing, drove the shears into her own son’s back…Armando never regained consciousness and died three days later.
Armando’s former bedroom is now the Carlotta Salon and it is here that the young ghosts break wine glasses, move tables, and generally create a bit of kind, ghostly havoc. If you’d like to read more about some of the ghosts at the Double Eagle, check out this ghostly list at the bottom of the page!
Dinner was munchies at the bar, which included a Chile Relleno in tempura batter. After Carrizozo, I am on a chile relleno quest. But so far, there is no competition with the 4 Winds.
If you’re interested in learning more about photography (or cooking or film or any number of topics) check out MasterClass All-Access Pass for on-line excellence:
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Inspiration, joy & discovery through travel. Oh, did I mention with supposedly incurable cancer?
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CancerRoadTrip is about making lemonade out of lemons.
As you read my story, you may want to start at the beginning to "grok" how CancerRoadTrip came to be. You can click here to start at the end (which is actually the beginning) and read forward! The posts are chronological, with the most recent posts appearing on the front page.
