Art and Hummingbirds

Oh, the things I've seen and the places I've been!

The last time I really did an entry was on Sunday, July 8th and then the day was only just beginning.

Sunday started with breakfast with Nancy and Mayra, the two women leading the workshop that I am attending from Tuesday, July 10th through Monday, July 16th.

I made a quick call to my friend, Vince Bell, and his wife, Sarah, and set a lunch date for Monday. Vince is a friend from the bad old days. He's a singer/songwriter. He and his wife moved here from Texas about four years ago. Texas' loss and New Mexico's gain, if you ask me.

Then I headed out for my day. I went to the local Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.

At the Museum of Fine Arts I saw the current show, How The West Was One, and then viewed the O'Keeffes they had on view. They have a couple of paintings by O'Keeffe that I hadn't seen even in reproduction.

The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum had a show of Norval Morrisseau up. He is an artist and shaman. The paintings are big and bold. They merit just sitting with them for a long time, so I did. They had an excellent video with footage of a young Norval showing. He is a fascinating man and an incredible artist.

Finally, I headed over to Museum Hill. By now it was nearing the end of the day. I could see the beginnings of the preparations being made for the huge Folk Art Fest.

I headed on over to the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Mary Cabot Wheelwright, the museum's founder with Hastiin Klah, holds a special place in my heart. When I was working at the Jung Center library in Houston I spent some time reading a book she had put out on the Navajo. In addition, she knew O'Keeffe. It's a small museum with some lovely pieces of Navajo artwork on display. In the basement of the building they have built a reproduction of a trading post to serve as their gift shop. This particular building opened in the late 1930s making it one of the first museums, if not the first, on Museum Hill.

I came back to the Ghost Ranch Santa Fe tired and ready for a good night's rest.

The sun came up Monday morning and I headed in for breakfast, where I ran into Nancy Walkup again.

I spent the early morning printing out photos with my cool little HP photo printer.

Lunch time rolled around and Sarah and Vince pulled up at the Ghost Ranch door. We headed over to La Choza for lunch away from the crowds. After good food and good conversation they dropped me off at the door of Ghost Ranch once more.

I gathered my map and a bottle of water and hit the road headed for the Tinkertown Museum.

Now the Tinkertown Museum must be seen to be believed.

Georgia O'Keeffe meets PeeWee Herman at Tinkertown.

Ross J. Ward was a man with a vision. He built his museum on New Mexico Highway 536. This is the road that goes up to Sandia Crest. His museum is truly a work of love. There is a sign on the way in that says, "We built all this while you were watching TV." Ross painted signs, carved wood, built walls out of bottles, and inlaid concrete floors with horseshoes. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and died at the age of 57. Ross J. Ward's final resting place.

His ashes reside in the place he loved, Tinkertown. Over to the side of his memorial is a sign that says, "I love ya, honey, but the season's over." I bought up postcards, took a lot of pictures and headed up to the Sandia Crest.

The road to the top of the Sandia Crest winds back and forth in some short hairpin curves that don't allow the time to oooooh and aaaaah over the scenery. The elevation at the top is 10,678 feet. Once at the top I found an honor system box for visitors to pay for the day. It only cost three dollars. I paid up and then walked up to the crest. It seemed I could see forever in all directions. There was layer after layer of mountains fading off into the distance.

I walked back down into the souvenir shop which had a lot of the same stuff that I had seen in all the other souvenir shops that I have wondered into lately. I wandered out on to a small deck with a spectacular view of mountains and sky. There were three hummingbird feeders and more hummingbirds than I had ever seen. There must have been hundreds.

A young man who was out on the deck with his children said, "You can pet them." He then walked over one of the feeders and did just that. I was incredulous. I petted a hummingbird, too. It didn't seem to give any notice to my attention. It didn't act bothered at all. I held my hand out with my finger on top of one of the perches and, lo and behold, a hummingbird landed on my finger. He didn't seem to mind me at all.

I took a picture of a ruby-throated hummingbird. I tried to catch a shot of one of the hummingbird fights that broke out occasionally, but was unsuccessful.

I took a picture of a hummingbird perched on my finger and, after a few more magical moments, I headed back to the truck.

On the road again I pulled over at every available chance to take pictures of the view. I followed the Turquoise Trail back to Santa Fe. Once fed and washed I took myself to bed and a well deserved night's sleep.

It's late now, and I need some rest. I'll catch you up to date sometime tomorrow. We'll take back up with the events of Tuesday, July 10th and my appointment at the Geogia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center.