Challenges

There seems to be all kinds of challenges in the blogosphere, mostly photo challenges, and writing challenges. Here are a few challenges I recorded.

The first challenge was the song that started out as a drum track that Joel put together. He sent me the track and gave me the challenge to make a song out of it. I laid down a bass track, followed by a rhythm guitar track. I made up a vocal track on the spot, so I have not written down the lyrics, then I laid down the lead guitar track. One take for each track. I named the song  Joel’s Beat.

 

The second challenge was when I was finally able to get my car washed (car washes had been closed under the lockdown). I washed my car and what did I get? Dust and muddy kitty prints all over the lid.

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The third challenge was for Big Baby Owl who had flown over to another branch on the cottonwood tree, then decided to climb the trunk of the tree to get up where Mama Owl was perched high above her. Big Baby Owl climbed and climbed, flapped her wings over the more difficult parts, and finally got into a fork in the tree about 10 feet from Mama Owl. She looked up at Mama Owl and Mama Owl flew off. Big Baby Owl was devastated. She just stood in the fork of the tree with her head bowed (click on the photos for an enlarged slide show).

 

The fourth challenge was photographing black Irises that are bleached purple in our intense sunshine. The irises look almost black to the naked eye, but properly exposed photos show how purple black really is.

 

The fifth challenge was doing super wide-angle photos of Spunk and living to write about it and post the photos.

 

Church at Las Golondrinas

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One of the first buildings you come across at Ranchos de las Golondrinas is the church. The church is the north building of a hacienda that has a central plaza with a well in the center and hornos for baking. Note the church has a pitched, tin roof, but the other buildings have flat roofs. The church originally had a flat roof as well, and the tin roof would have been added after 1850 when New Mexico became a US territory which opened up trade and goods to come in from the Eastern US. The ceiling of the church still has the horizontal vigas (timbers) that supported the original flat, dirt roof.

The interior of the church has simple benches for pews, an artisan crafted retablo at the altar, and hand carved Stations of the Cross (the Stations of the Cross are a modern addition, according to a docent).

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France Day 8 Aix Water Bells

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We went to the service as St. Jean de Malte this morning. It was a beautiful service with two infant baptisms and other people doing their first communion. The baptisms were different from the Methodist tradition in that the babies were presented naked and immersed in a big copper caldron of water three times and then dressed with little white shirt and either water or oil put on their heads. The choral music was great and the pipe organ was wonderful.  We walked around Aix after church, talked to an Australian for a while and then went back to the house where we are staying, and I took a photo of the view from our walk to and from Aix. After we got home, I helped our hostess build a chicken coop, which looks more like a chalet than what we’ve used for chicken coops in the past. Then we went to cooking class in the evening, learned to make quiche, ate it and got home late again. We have to get up early to go to Marseille.

 

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Gathering

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I met the artist working on the installation a 2nd and Gold this morning. The installation is Jane Gordon’s MFA Thesis Exhibit called “Gathering.”  She describes it as a “Site-based art installation in a public space.”  She uses a variety of materials and processes “to explore a personal, historic, and forward-looking narrative of labor, struggle, survival, and hope in a time of ecological and social uncertainty.”  The exhibit will be officially open from February 9 — March 30, and there is an opening reception on Saturday, February 9 from 3pm to 6pm.

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