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What the… It’s snowing here in Albuquerque! (Don’t tell the sandhill cranes.)

Snow on Albuquerque's Sandia Mountains! Our tiny bit over here on the west side of town melted early this morning.
Snow on Albuquerque’s Sandia Mountains! Our tiny bit over here on the west side of town melted early this morning.

So, we move from Massachusetts to New Mexico for the weather. At least that was one reason. Today (tomorrow by the time I post this) it was 60 degrees back home in Franklin. And the sun was shining. In Albuquerque it started out at about 46 and went downhill from there. It’s 33 now. Rain and then, yes, then snow. Sure, it was only showers and it melted off the fake grass pretty quickly, but still. Damn El Niño.

Meet Leah the Red Tailed Hawk. She was absolutely magnificent.
Meet Leah the Red Tailed Hawk. We did. She’s not a sandhill crane, but she was absolutely magnificent. After a rescue, she couldn’t be released back into the wild because she’d lost an eye.

 

 

Saturday, though, like most here, was a beautiful fall day. The trees have been changing, the sky’s a deep blue, and the sandhill cranes have returned to their winter playground. Tom and I headed off to Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitor Center – just down the road from our new house! – to attend the Return of the Sandhill Crane Celebration. There were presentations, talks, viewings and…art!

I knew they had gallery space at the visitor center, but I hadn’t realized that there were fiber artists represented in the current exhibit. It’s called “PARCH” and promo materials described the show as:

…through fiber, ceramic, and paint, six local artists masterfully express their unique relationship with water in the desert.

“Fracture,” a quilt by Betty Busby was on display at the PARCH art exhibit in Albuquerque. One word: intricacy. Okay, and fabulous too.

 

 

 

Betty Busby is a quilt artist who had two pieces in the exhibit. Even Tom was moved by the detail and the work involved not to mention the representations themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

Joshua Willis’s “Blue Circle” also appeared in the PARCH show.

 

 

 

Joshua Willis was another artist with work in the gallery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the sandhill cranes were no-shows while Tom and I were visiting the center. We did manage to visit with experts on the birds which was good as I learned that the bird the dog and I had been hearing on our morning walks in the Bosque (forest along the Rio Grande) was none other than a…sandhill crane!

(YouTube video by Jazzrobn in Florida. Her dog Dallas makes an appearance at the end. Refer to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbn8yIq7_LM.)

Clearly, it’s got a distinctive call. In fact, the guy told me – and I’m dating myself and him here – that they used the crane’s call on the old 1960’s Johnny Quest cartoon to stand in for a pterodactyl’s cry. And believe you me, it sounds like a dinosaur.

 

Carving at Albuquerque's Open Space Visitor Center.
Carving at Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitor Center.

But we saw other things. Check out the carving in one of the outdoor spaces. Unfortunately, I couldn’t determine the artist.

Carving close-up.
Carving close-up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was another great day in our newly adopted city where there are plenty of art and critters to be seen most every day. There’s certainly no lack of inspiration for hooking, painting, writing, or whatever art anyone might be practicing.One of my goals in moving here is to get my ass out the door to explore everything the area has to offer especially now that I have some time.

Raising a family, working full-time always makes it hard to visit and easy to overlook the special attractions and places in one’s community. Do you go out of your way to see these things? Where do you find your inspirations? What’s your “sandhill crane,” as it were? 

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