Blog Archives
Night Church
There were a lot of reasons to get away for Christmas this year. We went to Santa Fe, because it seemed like the place we needed to be, and stayed in a hotel that’s across the street from the Cathedral. From our room, we could hear the church bells chime the quarter-hour and, on Christmas Eve, a jubilant 20 minutes of ringing after Mass ended. Somehow, maybe the bells infused into our heads: without even planning to, we walked across the street on Christmas morning and went to Mass. It seemed…right.
And on Christmas night, I took my tripod to the hotel parking garage and made a few images of the night church.
Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 12.25.2015
Mud + Straw
This is one of the oldest churches in northern New Mexico; the marker in front says it was founded in 1751 and that the building was built over a sixteen year period, beginning in 1760. The adobe walls are remudded periodically, and some of them are (again, according to the sign) as much as six feet thick.
The low wall around the churchyard is also adobe, a mixture of mud and straw. When you see it up close, it is sort of amazing that the church has lasted as long as it has.
San José de la Gracia church
Las Trampas, New Mexico
photographed 12.25.2015
Art Truck
An excellent truck, parked outside a gallery on Canyon Road, caught my eye. And sparked a memory of a song, from the fabulous Terry Allen.
Also, later, I saw a small oil painting on the dashboard of the truck, which really did make it an art truck.
along Canyon Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 12.25.2015
Daytime Farolitos
The Christmas Eve tradition in Santa Fe is to walk Canyon Road, which is decorated with farolitos (“little lanterns” – paper bags with candles inside), bonfires, wandering carolers, and lots and lots of people. And the whole thing was scented with the smoke from the piñon fires.
On Christmas afternoon, we went back to Canyon Road. The magic of the night before was gone, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t things to photograph!
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 12.25.2015
You were wondering what the farolitos looked like, maybe? Here’s an iPhone image of some of them:
But this is NOTHING – check out these images from Victoria, BC, courtesy of my friend Ehpem.
UPDATE: This is funny – I had a comment from a follower who was reminded of the Paper, Rock Scissors game when he saw the photo of the farolitos. Check out the photo below of a sculpture I found only a couple of blocks away:
Crazy!
No One Passes
We took a tiny road at the turn because of the sign that said Historical Missions. We spotted the church tower easily but had to drive past it for a while to find a place to turn around: the already-narrow road was down to one lane from a recent snow.
On our way back, we saw about a dozen identical black and white cats eating from a metal bowl on a porch. We drove within a couple of feet of them; only one glanced up at us, flicked its tail, and turned back to dinner. We were of no importance.
The church, when we eventually did get there, was snowbound, and I was happy to be able to see what it looked like with no one having been there recently. The sign out front said the church was built in 1764, a reminder of just how long there’ve been European settlers in this part of New Mexico.
(On an unrelated note, today ends my 7th year of daily blogging. What started as a whim – on Blogspot! – has turned into so much more than I could have even imagined when I started. Thanks to everyone for the follows, likes, comments. And most of all, for the friendships that’ve come my way. Who even knew that was a possibility?! Here’s to an other seven, or so, years!)
Truchas, New Mexico
photographed 12.24.2015
One Day | One Image 