Got the tree!

I think the earliest ever, but it will wait on a cool side of the house in a tub of water taking a long drink while we attend to other matters.

November color

first blooms of season on large camellia

Thanksgiving/Christmas cactus bloom

hickories at the bottom of the hill

Virginia Creeper on dead branch



Thanksgiving preparations seem to have superseded the birthday celebrations. Today I cleaned out the fridge, took a deep breath and struck off on a walk on our place. It is bright, sunny, cool, and a bit breezy.  A front came through with a little much needed rain. I finally got some pansies planted that my son gave me when he discovered he would be moving and unable to plant.

The hickories in the branch have turned glorious yellow and the Virginia Creeper is a glowing coral. A red-tailed hawk watched me from a pecan --I raced home to get the camera, but he was gone on my return.

Cloudcroft

 

looking back at White Sands as we climb the mountains

 

 

 

 

Cloudcroft , a skiing town
 

 

 

 

a strange fog rolling in proved to be a cold front
 

organic apples with fantastic flavor

 

the missing sandhill cranes headed to the refuge

an early birthday celebration

 

boiled shrimp with remoulade sauce!!
 

grits and grillades, duck l'orange, etc, etc
 

an outdoor patio with jazz ensemble

 

Jackson Square the center of it all
 

St. Louis Cathedral--where I do a little meditation and light a candle every birthday

 

narrow shaded streets with balconies
 

a nice little jazz band--it seems it is never the same one--but I enjoy them all!!

November is my birth month and I celebrate the entire month!

In recent years we start the month off by having a great meal at the Court of Two Sisters on Royal Street, and then walk the French Quarter listening to the street muscians. My favorites are the ones that play traditional jazz. It is hard to remain still when the music starts--the feet want to move, the hands clap and a smile is continuous. I want to second line--dance down the street.

I grew up listening to jazz--mama had it on the radio in the mornings while she worked. There were local radio stations that actually had live bands in the studio. We sometimes danced in the kitchen.
My dad could play the trumpet (and other self taught instruments). It seemed that people were  more spontaneous about making music then. He could sing well, and we often sang along with him.

I enjoyed an exhibit of Newcomb Pottery at a museum in the quarter, and then we drove along the Lake Pontchartrain waterfront.

It was a beautiful start to the birthday month!

Trinity Site (New Mexico)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Driving south in New Mexico we reached an area where we noticed heavier traffic. It turned out that this was the day (at the beginning of October) when the Trinity Site is opened to the public. There is another date in April when it is available, too. We started in, but realized it was a 15 mile drive in and then back out, and we just didn't have time.

Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was detonated. The heat of the explosion fused the desert sand into glass creating trinitite which the local rock shop was selling on this day.
Rock shops in the West are almost small museums containing fossils and ore samples from the region and usually interesting slices of the local geologic history.

Bosque del Apache

 

 

shedding gopher snake

Gambel's quail

 

 

 

Bosque del Apache or "woods of the Apache" is one of the most spectacular wildlife refuges in the United States.

Thousands of cranes, geese and waterfowl winter here each year, and  in November thousands of people flock here to participate in the Festival of the  Cranes.

Well, we were a bit early--there were a few cranes, but they evaded us--I managed  a photo of a group of cranes winging their way here after we left the park, but it seems I overlooked it in the upload.

It was such a joy to look out over the fields and mountains, and there was a lot of other wildlife to observe. We almost had the refuge to ourselves.

the Silverton train

 

 

 

 

So many warm and fun memories of the train and the C. W. Mc Call song!!!

Watching the big iron engine come whistling and puffing up the canyon would thrill my young sons so much! We played the 8 track in the truck, and we all sang along--we knew all of his songs about the mountains and trucking (2 sons).

So I jumped out and shot a few photos and remembered the days when the train was a very happy part of our life!