New Mexico Archives - Reflections of Place

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”

-John Muir

I found you hidden in this place. A garden spot. This garden in the desert. Thirsty and dry. The desert attracts people. Draws people.

I’ve always felt a power in the desert. It’s sun charging everything with its brilliance and warmth. It naturally conserves its resources and quenches its thirst at night. It fills me with joy.

Brad said the desert is boring and only brown, but the colors of the desert do go beyond brown. Beyond the tones of umber and chestnut. There are greens. Greens in the colors of spring grasses and dried sages. The purples sometimes will stretch themselves to bloom in blue. The dead heads of blooms will fade from dirty white to a luminous shade of wheat grass. A speck of yellow always jumps from gold when lit by the sun. Rarer hues of crimson and apricot offer their faces in the smallest of weeds. A silver twinkles when moonlight plays in the desert dirt.

The beauty of a garden offers comfort, it whispers softly, gently.

Suzanne painted it once. The desert. She called it the Colors of Love. She used the same artist’s palette as in the desert here.

I’ll meet you in the desert garden at the end of this day and we will drink awhile. Sleep awhile. Tomorrow, after coffee we will recharge in its sun and then we will continue our way home. Safe Journey.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
-Lao Tzu

Be Well. Stay Safe. Much Love.

It is late afternoon in early July.
Lightning bolt streaks through the sky, thunder claps.
Large drops of rain blow in from the windows and the doorway.
Hail, larger than a pea, smaller than a marble- smack the windows,
Hail, bounces off the roof and the ground.

The rain slows and then begins again forcefully, but now only the rain falls.
Steam rises off the ground, like grey clouds trying to return to the sky.
Gutters spill over and out, rain turns into waterfalls.
Ripened apricots are shaken and fall freely to the ground.
The rain slows; the once booming thunder now only rumbles.

Fifteen minutes have passed since it began.
Rain ends nearly as abruptly as it started.
The sky brightens and returns to its brilliant blue.
The apricot tree, now drenched, is heavy with wet foliage and wet fruit.
Its limbs lowered, offering its ripened fruit at its feet and in its arms.

To Bake:
16 Fresh Apricots – pitted and halved
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/3 box Club Crackers (about 40 crackers)
Grease the bottom of a small baking pan. (8” x 8”)
Line ½ the apricots in pan. Sprinkle ½ of sugar and ½ of crackers.
Dot top with butter
Repeat layers ending with butter.

Bake uncovered -325* F – about 40 minutes. Serve warm plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Tag: New Mexico

Safe Journey

Santa Fe, NM-Baked Apricots