Happy New Year

First week

We arrived a few days before Katrina hit the Gulf coast. Of course, we were spared the storm and subsequent ravages, but it sure was hot and humid after the storm traveled north. Nothing like that in Santa Fe, and, being unaccustomed, we were pretty much useless.

Agnes and Boo didn't seem to mind. They were happy with their best new discovery: Squirrels.

Lunch

We probably arrived on a Wednesday or Thursday, so Saturday Farmers Market wasn't far off. In 2005, it was still on Veterans Place, a block-long street perpendicular to Main Street and adjacent to the Post Office. I understand why they moved the market to the waterfront the following year, where the train dumps tourists off and there's more space and the breeze is a relief on a hot summer's day, but it sure was nice to easily stroll to the market, chat with vendors and neighbors, and then stroll home with fresh bread, cheese and produce. This was our first Beacon Farmers Market lunch. The tomatoes were from Common Ground Farm, a CSA that we joined the next year and where we are still barter share members.

Amelanchier, waxing and waning

Photos by Naomi Sachs

The leaf

A leaf landed
on the surface of a pond.
Small waves
circled outward like a rose
unfolding.
Fish nibbled at it.
Wind, like a giant finger
moved it gently across the smooth surface
pressed between water and sky.
Slowly,
after days, it
sank
in
pieces.
Some larger,
some smaller,
drifting silently to the
muddy floor. Only a leaf
in a quiet pond
on a clear day.
The smallest change
yet still occurred
still felt
and by me
not unnoticed.

Santa Fe to Beacon, 2005

I started this blog a couple of years ago as a way to tell the story of our migration from Santa Fe, NM to Beacon, NY. I didn't get very far with that, but here's another little installment.

Literally the day we left, while we were cramming the last of our belongings into our cars, Jose came by to show us the wonders he had worked with Moby, the 1972 El Camino he had bought from me earlier in the year. Now a SuperSport (upgraded from a 350 to a 396 engine), beautifully restored (and no longer white, thus no longer befitting the name I had originally bestowed), I knew she was in good hands.

Ah, the yellow and beige food for the weary traveler...

Beacon, New York

Knowing we'd never do it after we arrived, we had the house "gutted" (awful, awful term) while we were still in Santa Fe. We pulled in to Beacon in late August, on a sunny and not too humid afternoon, unloaded the dogs, houseplants, and other essentials.

The kitchen on arrival day.

The kitchen, slightly domesticated. Can't believe I washed dishes in that sink for over 2 years.

The moving truck arrived the next day (or was it two days later?). James pores over our new surroundings.

From the Enid Haupt Glass Garden at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitative Medicine. Most of the pictures I took on this day were of the garden, but this green hose caught my eye.

I've recently learned that the Glass Garden and its wonderful horticultural therapy program are slated to be dismantled to make room for more buildings (and no, no plans to put them back somewhere else, even though there are other courtyards on the campus). This would be a true tragedy.

My friend Mike gave me a first-hand account of his experience as a patient there when he suffered a traumatic brain injury. For him, the garden offered a reason to live, a life raft for a drowning man. You can read the full story, A Life Worth Living: The Garden as Healer, on the Therapeutic Landscapes Network Blog.