Monthly Archives: September 2024
planning ahead can be helpful
I’ve seen a lot of things in cemeteries, but this was the first “reserved” sign I’ve ever noticed.
I found a book called Spanish Surnames, Older Baptismal First Names and the Origins of the Spanish Language at a tiny grocery store in New Mexico earlier this month. I bought it because it seemed like the right thing to do (it’s less a book, honestly, than it is some photocopied pages stapled together) and because it seemed like the sort of thing that might come in handy. And that’s why I can tell you that the name “Rael” previously appeared “as the name of a soldier, Real de Aguilar from Lorca, Murica, Spain, at paso del norte in the lower Rio Grande in 1689.” My new book further notes that as a surname, “Rael” is of Jewish-Greek origin.
And that concludes today’s lesson. Please carry on.
Truchas, New Mexico
photographed 9.3.2024
four eyes
I’m not saying that on a four-day visit to Tesuque I ate at the Tesuque Village Market four times. But even though I am not saying it, that is precisely what I did.
Tesuque Village Market
Tesuque, New Mexico
photographed 8.31.2024
signs of a previous life
It’s been a long slide down from the time when someone used this clothesline to now, when spray-painted signs on what’s left of the stucco warn of danger and advise photographers to keep out.
El Pueblo, New Mexico
photographed 8.31.24
also sort of a shrine
Yesterday’s photo was from a shrine, and so is this one, though it presents in a different fashion than a church-on-a-hill does.
These rocks – made up of fossil-rich Niobrara chalk – rise from the Kansas plains in a way that seems unreal, yet also inevitable. No one goes there unless they mean to: it’s a long-ish drive on unpaved roads (which are unpassable if it’s rained), but of course that’s part my attraction to going there.
But, as luck with stuff like this goes, a van-load of noisy people drove up, parked exactly between me and my camera, and blocked* my view. Ack. So rude. I was about done anyway but still: a little awareness of surroundings and a dab of respect means something.
Monument Rocks Natural Landmark
Oakley, Kansas
photographed 9.5.24
*Another word to use would be “ruined.”
hilltop shrine
If you drive into town from the south, you’ll see this place high on a hill way before you see the town. And then, if you’re like us, you’ll spend kind of a long time trying to figure out how to get there. (Hint: not the way you think.)
And once you get there, you can see this chapel and also enjoy a magnificent view of the San Luis valley.
Shrine of the Stations of the Cross
San Luis, Colorado
photographed 9.3.2024
One Day | One Image 