Best Chef in Taos 2005 - Joseph!

I just found a wonderful review of Joseph that I though you might want to read.

http://www.taosnews.com/bestoftaos/chef_joseph.htm

Sunday, November 12 - Snow clouds in Taos

Sun peeping through the snow clouds hanging over Taos Mountain and the mountains to the southwest today. Below, snow clouds hanging over Taos Mountain, occasionally spitting snow pellets.








The Taos Campus of the University of New Mexico - complete with dorms in the old adobe pueblo style architecture.

Saturday, Nov 12 - Wandering in Taos

I love this fall weather in Taos. The thermometer says that it's 45 degrees, but it feels like 75 degrees in the sun. So I walked the 4 miles to La Loma Plaza today to Casa Yaruba, Deborah's home, located next to my former residence, Casa Cubana, and had to wear sunscreen!

Walking to Casa Yaruba at La Loma Plaza, I noticed this beautiful gate on the drive to the home on Upper Ranchitos, once owned by Tom Worrell, who built the famous El Monte Sagrado Spa here in Taos, and who restored many of the adobe homes in Taos, including Casa Yaruba and Casa Cubana.



Greetings from this amazing bear sculpture that greets all visitors to the La Loma Plaza compound!

Ginto, a well known potter in Taos as well as Deborah's husband, has completed and will fire the pots shown in these 2 photos this week. The white overlay on these pots is called a "slip" - he literally pours clay over the pot and then creates designs in it. I love the pre-fired look, looking forward to seeing them post-firing.

Wednesday, Nov 8 - Chaco Canyon, NM

Deborah and I drove the 4 hours to Chaco Canyon today - see the petroglyph in this photo, and drove the route that took us via the old road to Ojo Caliente and Abiquiu. This is the old bridge we use to cross the Rio Grande.













The ride to Chaco took us through Abiquiu, NM, famous because Georgia O'Keeffe lived here at her Ghost Ranch, and painted Pater Knoll, the flat top mesa. You can see Pater Knoll from the deck here at the Murray residence and it's in all the sunset photos if you click on the photos for a larger version. There are also gorgeous red rock canyons in the Abiquiu area, from which red "mexican" tiles are made.








Chaco Canyon is an amazing Native American community unearthed in the 1920's..... a culture that flourished in this location from 800 - 1100 A.D. - you'll see in the photos parts of the community building, known as Pueblo Bonita, that has been partially crushed/destroyed by HUGE falling boulders...... there are several photos of Deborah and another pair of hikers standing/sitting near these boulders. ENORMOUS! Pueblo Bonito was the cultural and center of commerce for this area. Trading, social events, funerals, teaching all happened here.

The hiking at Chaco was wonderful - just dangerous enough to be exciting. The first trail we took required us to climb up the rocks and then behind and through a very narrow passage inside the canyon wall to get to the top. The photo above the one of Deborah sitting on the ground in front of Pueblo Bonito is the trailhead up and into the rocks. I love that there were no "warning" signs about the danger of this trail. It's definitely a "hike at your own risk" kind of place! The remainder of the trail is a walk along the top of the canyon. Looking at a 360 degree vista of what used to be Chaco civilization, as far as we could see - beautiful. Trails were all marked by "cairns", or piles of rocks. The second trail we followed took us past beautiful petroglyphs, shown in the first photo above.

The architecture and construction of the Pueblo Bonito and other smaller pueblos was fairly incredible - each of them showcased different styles of the use of stone/bricks in the construction, representing a different time period based on the architecture.

The sunset photo was taken of Fajada Butte, located at the entrance to Chaco Canyon, as we were leaving.

Tuesday, Nov 7 - Around Taos

Some of my favorite places in Taos - Joe's Mainstreet Bakery, my daily hangout for a cup of coffe/chai/tea - owned by my friend Joseph, the chef/owner of Joseph's Table. Look at the light orb and golden rays of light in this photo.








The World Cup Cafe is on the main street in Taos - and is a magnet for all the locals, including the teens and college students. A real DIVERSE crowd!



The Apple Tree restaurant is a beautiful old home that serves fabulous food, and I love the doorway at Taos Artisans.



The Taos Inn and the Adobe Bar is wonderful. Great live music every night. I was there on Sunday, Oct 29 and was fortunate to hear 2 of the greatest guitar players EVER! No kidding, I had to get up and move to where I could see their hands, because I could not believe that human hands could move that way to create the sounds that were coming from those guitars! Edgar Cruz, from the Taos Pueblo, was one of the guitarists! FABULOUS!

I loved the grotto, on the side of a building on the main street in Taos, with the beautiful clay pots on the blue shelf above the statue.

And finally, a little more history (I love these sign posts) about Bent Street.

Tuesday, Nov 7 - Election Day Sunset

I couldn't resist this sunset (every sunset is spectacular here), but this one was unique because in the north and northwest, there were pink clouds while the sun was setting yellow/orange.

So what you see here, in vertical order rather than horizontal order, is the sunset from the mountains in the north, moving west along the horizon in time delays until you see the final blaze in the western sky. Hope you enjoy this sunset as much as I did!

Monday, Nov 6 - A blazing sunset

This is tonight's sunset from beginning to end - isnt' it spectacular???