Part two: the Burning of Zozobra

My post from earlier was getting a little bit long so I thought I'd do a two-parter. We just happened to be here during the 90th annual Burning of Zozobra. What? You say. Who? You say. Well it's quite a big festival here. Will Shuster of Santa Fe dreamed up this huge marionette that represented, or took on, all the worries and cares of the people. He is Old Man Gloom. People are supposed to put their cares and worries on pieces of paper and place them in a container close by this Zozobra. There is dancing by children dressed in white sheets called 'gloomies', a fire dancer that chases away the gloomies and sets Zozobra on fire.

It is quite a spectacle. There were over 30,000 people here for the festival. None of us wanted to be in the middle of that crowd. Lee's neighbor, Polly, up the hill kindly offered us her house to view the burning from. Lee's house had too many trees that blocked the view.

After a wonderful lasagna dinner, we walked up to Polly's house. I will try to take a picture of her house tomorrow. But her house sits at the top of the canyon overlooking Santa Fe. She must be in the artist community but I'm not sure what she does. Her house is fantastic - chock full of artwork, all of which are animals. You can imagine how I felt about that! I made friends with her two dogs, a corgi named Pippa who was not at all like Trixie, and a cairn terrier named Fezziwig. We gathered on the balcony with this incredible view. I cannot show it to you though because it was already dark!

It actually took a long time for the festival to really start. I spent the time drooling over Polly's collection. There were paintings, sculptures - metal and bronze, figurines, all sizes, some 60# and some that were jewelry boxes.... Just incredible. The music from the festivities carried right up the canyon. Eventually there were fireworks and finally, Zozobra started waving his arms and turning his head from side to side. Then the moaning starts. You can hear him all over the canyon! Zozobra is over 50 ft tall so he towers over the festivities. When he finally burns there are fireworks and a huge flame until he collapses in ashes.

To see a video of the festival, go to "burnzozobra.com". We were so lucky to be here for it and to view it from Polly's house.

 

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Off to Santa Fe!

Here it is 3:15 a.m. and I'm setting up this blog. We are off to Santa Fe, New Mexico to visit Jacky's sister Lee. May not be quite awqake but I hope the rest of Minnesot is in bed, sound asleep. Sooo quiet in the house without the dogs here. Poor puppies! Oh well, it will be a short 4 days for all of us.

Sitting in Denver Airport waiting for the next plane to Albuquerque. The last flight from Minneapolis was very smooth. Lots of small children everywhere though....You know how that can be!

Made it! The weather is beautiful today. Jacky's brother Allen and sister-in-law Carolyn picked us up and drove us the hour to Santa Fe. I must say the scenery was extremely different from what we were used to...flat with scrubs and red sand or rock. It got better the closer to Santa Fe though.

We went right to the restaurant - called la boca. Small wonderful place. A man walking by stopped and told us the food there was wonderful. It is a Spanish cuisine place, so I was not familiar with the food.

This was my appetizer- red beet soup (wonderful!) in a glass. Also you will see homemade bread that you dip in Olive oil, and a glass of Sherry (!)

I picked a seafood kind of stew which was wonderful! It had calamari - both larger and baby octopus, scallops, mussels in a chili tomato sauce. Yum!!!

 

This is dessert, just a little whipped cream with fresh berries. Not heavy! And a perfect serving size.

Lee's house, or hacienda, which is really what it makes me think of, is gorgeous. There aren't words to express this beautiful place. Where Lee's house sits are others scattered throughout the canyon. Because of the adobe structure, they all look like they belong in the landscape. Let's house could be right out of the House Beautiful. Her rooms are all decorated with a theme.

This is the patio in the back of her house.

This is the view off the side of the patio -

Another view. Jacky is checking out things with binoculars. When the sun is high, those cream colored curtains are drawn to keep sun out of the house.

This is our bedroom.

 

This is the "hat" room.

 

Bathroom for guests

 

 

Formal living/dining room facing the patio

 

There will be more pictures of the inside of the house another day. I did get to add two new birds to my life list. One was the Mexican Jay. I did not get a picture of him but I did of the other one - a spotted towhee. Who Hoo! He did not mind me in the least. See if you can find him in this picture...

Hint: look at the left end of the piece of wood at the middle of the picture...

This is the end of the first part. Part 2 will come in a little while, or tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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