[Studio window photo inspired by J. Zurier]

As a guy who likes his routines [or is, some might say, addicted to routine] this “vacation destination/ad hoc B&B” in the Huerfano is proving a little disruptive to the daily walk/work/read/nap/work/walk [with the occasional quiet meal inserted here ‘n’ there] scenario that keeps my studio practice lurching along…last Saturday our weekly trip to the Gardner dump/farmer’s market/ P.O. was immediately followed, in anticipation of inundation, by a spate of frenetic house-spiffing; by six we were in La Veta for a musical evening benefiting Dean Fleming, whose winter’s adventures in the clutches of the Medical Industrial Complex, this being America [!] had come at predictably exorbitant costs and whereat we intersected with our first visitors and their two exuberant dogs…all resulting in a latish night, a somewhat latish morning walk up creek and down, with constant chatter and various touristic detours eventually culminating in, of course, lunch…

…after which uphill again to visit Dean…with CCA curator Erin Elder and Corvas and Cole, two members of the Meow Wolf art/music collective of Santa Fe, New Mexico;

The day after those three were down the road we were in Walsenburg determining our storage to be watertight at last, thanks to heroic roof and gutter work by Luz and Liat last year. Also, the local building supply still carried D-con!

In the background behind this four-door Ford from the fifties is the Huerfano County Courthouse, on the steps of which Mother Jones proclaimed something like “if the men aren’t man enough to go on strike the women will” just before she was arrested or just after making bail around 100 years ago.  The Ludlow Massacre soon followed, and the rest is history, as they say, ongoing; meanwhile we rushed back to Libre [vacation destination]…

…in time to have Linda’s charming ex-nephew for dinner Monday night, and then a quieter day Tuesday allowed us a late afternoon evening walk to visit the local ancients…

Wednesday brought us three friends from New Mexico [two, actually, from England] by midday,  inspiring us to make it all the way to the lone pine for the first time [not shown] in the evening and all the way up the creek in the morning.  The weather conspired to make everybody happy and they were careening back south soon after Thursday lunch…

…leaving me time for a bewildered look around the studio, a re-investigation of Trigger [the battery’s charged but the opportunity to fire him up has thus far eluded us], and Linda’s sculpture “Glimpses” out by the outhouse.  Rocks, too…though, soon, onwards to the next event in the Huerfano social whirlpool!

Thursday Eve; party for “all Libre” [and more!] up at Bill and Muriel’s, celebrating a musician and family visiting for Hippy Days at the Gardner Community Center, which brought out numerous various others including the aforementioned musician’s very cute little daughter Zora…we were the first to come…and the first to leave; still enough daylight to navigate through the woods down the hill…by which time L. was feeling not at all well.

So now another Saturday; it’s the dump et al redux, though we’re skipping the dippy haze of Hippy Days [which with its mashup of motorhomes across from the Post Office is looking increasingly like the scaled-back version of its big brother Burningman], not to mention that Artwalk and garden party over in La Veta, in favor of an afternoon and evening to work and be quiet…still anticipating [as long as Linda recovers from her Some Mysterious Ailment] four for dinner tomorrow, Pueblo soon after to re-supply…

Etc.

The beat goes on…

Well.

Historic houses of Libre [maybe]!  some day…

M