Reality check..........

...I've just arrived home from an amazing experience in California......am listening to Andrea Bocelli.....while stitching 'magic feathers'.......anticpating a journey to the petroglyphs at 'Abo' in the morn......with friends.....

and it's........

SNOWING......

in the high desert of New Mexico........

And the results.......drumroll please!............

I am quite happy with this little first bit..........faint maple leaves.......even fainter oak leaves......a tiny bit of green........and to my surprise some tiny prints from a bity cherry tree that has taken buckets of water to keep alive in my front yard............alas no cherries......but I'm happy.......

always with the black of the rusty bits.....

always the printmaker.......

and don't try this at home if you have not read...

 these books............

or better yet.........

have the priviledge to study with their author............

And now after a hellacious day of last minute tax filing..........

I am off to the land of the Golden Gate where I hope to find 'hippie hill' and pray at the base of the 

giant reds............

I'll be back in about two weeks......ox

Eco Printing in New Mexico.......

Anxious to see what happens here......I tossed my bounty of Crimson Maple and Scrub Oak leaves into a stainless steel pot........leaving the walnuts to dry......

and and brought the brew to a bubble and stew.....

and then tossed in several.....

Bundles..... 

of leaves....

tightly wrapped......

 in silks of different sorts.....

around

sticks and stones and rusty bits......

and when they were 'done'....simmered more than a bit....

they were extracted from the brew.....

and left to cool.......

and unwrap...

more than overnight is best......

but who can wait that long????!!!!

most often......

not I.

Fall in New Mexico.........

Longing for nuts..........how lucky am I to find.................

Black Walnuts......

on a walk....on the 'ditch' in the 'North Valley' in Albuquerque....

and then

when I was even more 'longing' for leaves.......thinking this is impossible in the 'high desert'.....

we journeyed....

up highway 55 to Tajique

and we turned......

left......

into 'Fourth of July' canyon....

and on to the

Crimson Maple Trail.......

I prettty much should stop here........

as you know I sopped up buckets of leaves for a .......

well you know....

a 'boil up'.

What goes UP................

This morning as I journeyed home from Albuquerque I pondered the sky that seemed to be 

raining...........

Hot Air Balloons

The only thing more exciting than seeing over three hundred balloons launch en mass

 (above image from setness.com)

is seeing them come down.........!