Over The Hills.....

 

And Far Far Away....

It Was that time of year, Dear Readers, for my Annual Trek out West to visit my Family. It is a Long Long way to Silver City, in the southwest corner of New Mexico, requiring several flight changes through several airports.... up and on the road way before dawn to get to the first airport an hour from home.... a mad dash from one flight to the next in Denver on those moving walkways.... a couple of hours waiting in Albuquerque, where I could at last grab some food... and then onto the little plane out into the desert in the late afternoon. I was lucky to be able to schedule all the flights for the same day!

We took off in the middle of the afternoon up into the clouds....

I didn't manage to get window seats in either of the long flights, 

which I usually try to get because

 I love the view from up there above the clouds!

The little plane seats only eight passengers

 and everybody gets a window seat.

The pilot is right there and you can watch the instrument panels too...

Here we are approaching the landing in the desert.

It is waaaaay out in nowhere.... 

a tiny little airport in the desert.

There are a few large towns nearby 

and a couple of Enormous open pit copper mines.

My brother met me at the airport 

and brought me to my Mom's house in Silver City.

My goodness it is a long way to go!

It was wonderful to see them....

but it wasn't the same.

My Dad died last April at age 94 and 8 months...

so everything was different....

he wasn't there anymore.

 

 I spent some time at my Dad's house with his partner... 

in the house he designed.... 

sitting at the table that was my Grandparents table...

going through his things... 

deciding what to do with his artwork, 

his sculptures.... 

his writing and his photo slides.....

I packed up boxes of stuff to ship home to my house 

(not that I have much room... but it needs careful reviewing....)

This will take time.

 

 

I spent days at my Mom's....

going through more boxes of things from Dad

 that had already been moved out of his house

 and were waiting for me to look through...

packing more boxes...

discovering some treasures....

(he wrote quite a lot.... poetry and philosophy....)

a file of ancient family photographs... 

that I had never seen before...

And I spent hours with my Mom talking about "stuff"... 

family stories from long ago....

Interesting tidbits I had discovered about some family history...

(I am the family historian in case you couldn't tell)

looking at family trees I had put together...

and helping her with paperwork that had piled up.

It was much too short and way too busy....

and then it was time to go home.....

Retracing those steps...

On a crystal clear desert morning... 

at the Tiny airport.....

Except.....

There was a problem with the airplane.

It was grounded.

They moved it away and we had to wait

 for a replacement plane to fly in from Phoenix Arizona....

which took hours.....

 

It finally arrived three hours later 

and they did all the "turn- around" as fast as they could. 

And we headed North to Albuquerque...

more than three hours late and I was sure 

I would not be able to catch my scheduled flights.

It was a bumpy flight through lots of clouds...

(a bit too bumpy for taking photos...!)

And when we arrived I needed to reschedule my flights

 for as soon as possible which turned out to be not until the next day...

so I got a hotel room near the airport....

on the seventh floor with a great view of the Sandia Crest...

(that big hummock of a mountain)

and watched the rain showers passing through.

And pulled the embroidery out of my suitcase

 which I had not even had time to do all through my visit!

Yes, it is another of Janet Granger's mini stocking kits,

this time with a girl theme... 

pink, with a doll and dollhouse

and other toys.

I was so glad I had it with me!

I started right away...

and I made some good progress before the light began to fade...

(these kits are 40 stitches to the inch and require good lighting to stitch).

The sun was setting.

And the following morning, 

up well before dawn and at the airport and through security

 and on our way at seven AM...

It was pouring rain in Chicago where I had to change planes,

but there was time to catch a snack before boarding the last flight home.

Once again I had no window seats... 

so no pictures of clouds to share...

I was going Home at last!

I arrived well before sunset, East Coast time...

but after the Autumnal Equinox....

Fall had tiptoed in while I was away.

Yes, Dear Readers, 

It's a Long long way to Silver City, 

And it just wasn't the same... 

(but it really never is...!)

I am Very glad I went.... 

over the hills and through the clouds,

 and wish it could have lasted longer...

But it sure is Wonderful to be Home again!

The Annual Trek...

 

Gifts, Rugs and Rain....

I Took a trip, Dear Readers, to visit my folks in the Southwest, a Long Long Long way from home. It takes two days to get there so the first night I stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the next morning I take the little plane (8 passengers) down to the southwest corner of the state. The above picture is coming into Albuquerque over the Manzano Mountains. I dodged rainstorms wherever I went. There was a large "Tropical Storm" headed for my part of New England on the morning I left, but it stayed just far enough off shore that my flight was not cancelled. It was pouring in Atlanta when I changed planes, but the flights were not delayed. The morning flight from Albuquerque to Silver City re-routed around large thunderstorms, but we were on time for landing in the dry desert. They have not had a good Monsoon Season this year in this region. But it rained hard on my second evening at my Mom's!

Here you can see the water pouring off her porch roof!

And it rained again at my Dad's way up in the hills. 

They have had more rain where he lives, 

probably due to the higher elevation and the steep hills.

Silver City is at something over 6000 ft. elevation

 and my Dad's place is probably another thousand over that.

(Sorry I don't have the exact elevations!)

They are in "high mountain desert" conditions and

 last spring there was a wildfire just north of my Dad's home.

Here's a picture of my Mom, (aged 92!) and her dog Daisy.

I bring small petit-point kits with me when I travel out there

 because they fit neatly into my bag.

On last year's trip I had started the stocking you see above,

 and this year I completed it!

This year I spent quite a while going through

 old family Photos with my Mom,

 trying to identify and label them.

She had an old suitcase full of them!

I found quite a few Treasures, including some "missing" artwork

 that had been done by my Great Great Aunt and her husband.

 My Grandma had showed it to me when I was a teenager,

 and I hadn't seen it since.

Mostly very fine pen and ink drawings!

 

My Dad's partner gave me a bunch of little woven "mug rugs"

she and her weaving group made.

They are the perfect size for dollhouse rugs!

I love the texture of this ribbon rug!

This one has lovely colors and is a very fine weave....

Here's the reverse side.... I am not sure which I like best!

And these two are a pair. They have subtle differences.

And here you can see the reverse side of each.

All of them are approximately 4 x 5 inches excluding the fringes.

Of course, the visit was over far too soon, 

and the long trip home, done all in one day 

because the flights leave Silver City early, 

followed a familiar theme.

 

 

The flight from Albuquerque was re-routed to avoid

 storms in the upper plains on the way to Chicago...

but arrived on time anyway. 

And my homeward leg landed late in New England

 in the middle of pouring rain

 from yet another "Tropical Storm" 

that had set it's sights on New England!

Two former Hurricanes in two weeks?!?

 

 I was very glad to get home to my familiar little worlds.

 

 The Baktiari carpet is getting close to finished!

So I took my Annual Trek, Dear Readers, 

traveling a Long way from home.

But seeing my Family is such a Gift... 

and while the challenges of Travel don't get easier,

I Treasure the Time I had with my folks, 

and perhaps I also brought them the Gift of a little rain!

 

 

There And Back Again....

 

 I've Looked at Clouds....

Yes, Dear Readers, I have been Traveling again, taking the long Journey to the Southwest to see my Family who live out there. As I mentioned last year, it is a long way, requiring three different flights, and this year they stretched over two days because the last leg "puddlehopper" out of Albuquerque had been cancelled. I had to spend the night in a hotel and take the morning flight the next day. And as you can see in the above picture I looked at clouds.... and took lots of pictures, one of my favorite things to do! I was particularly intrigued that the clouds in the above picture are forming only over the land.... not the rivers or the bays! I believe this was flying over Maryland and Chesapeake Bay, but I cannot be sure.

This is the other end of the second flight

 as we are coming in over the Sandia Crest to land in Albuquerque.

The plane approaches and flies rather close over the mountains

 and then drops precipitously into the Rio Grande Valley to land at Albuquerque.

And The following morning the "puddlehopper" prepares to take off for Silver City.

Those mountains are the Sandia Crest that we flew over on arrival.

I will try not to bore you.... 

but there were a lot of clouds over the desert too!

And beautiful sunset views from my Mother's house as well!

Up in the hills at my Dad's house the following day it poured rain...

Thunder and lightning crashing around. 

They have been having a good Monsoon this year.

It didn't rain as much in the valley....

but there were Rainbows.....

It looks fainter and smaller in the photo than it did in person.

We visited a little botanical garden near Mom's house.

The plants are mostly unfamiliar to me.

Everyone kept saying how green everything was because of the rain.

More clouds.....

Another rainbow.... a little harder to see.... but there!

And we took a field trip up into the Gila Wilderness

 which begins just north of Silver City.... 

and covers hundreds of miles of wilderness and mountains and cliffs....

To see the trees....

And the wildflowers....

 

They are a little past their best bloom... 

but beautiful nonetheless.

And rocks!

 

She didn't go far, but Mom had a short walk to see some blossoms...

And Daisy, Mom's dog, got to have a short run in the woods too!

She clearly wonders why we are not going farther.

I was glad I was not the driver... 

this is the view from the passenger seat!

This was on one of the more "civilized" roads.

The visit is never long enough.... 

seems to be done just as you are getting adjusted... 

to the time change, to the dry air... to the big sky.....

suddenly it's time to go back again...

The "puddlehopper" waiting to board...

Clouds over the desert on the way up to Albuquerque...

Flying north along the Rio Grande Valley as we leave Albuquerque...

 

Popcorn clouds flying East over Texas....

Hours later crossing the Mississippi River

 where it snakes towards the Gulf of Mexico...

And much later again,  flying through the clouds 

as we take off from Atlanta on the last leg of the trip home.

 The sun is beginning to set and it will be night when we land.

 

 Well, Dear Readers, you might wonder

 if I got anything of a mini nature done...

And I did bring a couple of little needlepoint kits with me,

 just in case I had time to stitch.

One of Janet Granger's kits, a Cat Tea Cosy, 

which I was able to start working on in the hotel.

And another of her Christmas Stocking Kits... 

which I also worked on at the hotel. 

It is stitched on 40 count silk gauze.

I did make a bit more progress on it while at my Mom's.

I apologize for the blurry photo....

 yes, it was dark out already!

It is a long trip in the Big wide World....

Not much Mini about it!

But I saw my Folks... 

Hugs and Smiles included!

And looked at clouds... from both sides....

There and back again....

It is good to be home!