It has been a difficult few days since Pat, Jean’s sister, died. Days are filled with phone calls to friends and family as well as exchanges on the internet with people who knew Pat. We still do not have specific plans for the service in Colorado Springs. Therefore, we don’t yet know when we will be driving up there. However, we have changed our route to return home through there so we can help deal with Pat’s condo and things in storage.

Despite sitting close by the phone and computer these last few days, we did manage an evening walk nearby. The adobe house we are renting is part of an of 5 acre lots, some of which have houses. It sits on a high mesa overlooking Abiquiu Lake to the East. We have ravens, elk, hummingbirds, and swallows for neighbors. It is sunny, very windy, and remote on a 2 mile dirt road.

One of the side “roads” leads to what is called the boat launch. Our house’s guest book describes a walk through some red rock formations at the end of the road. The term road is used rather loosely out here in the wilds. We drove as far as we were comfortable with our 4 wheel drive, then parked at the top of a steep rock gully and walked. We never found the red rocks or the boat launch, but the scenery was fantastic.

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Tomorrow I will report on my continuing experiments with painting if we aren’t traveling to Colorado Springs.

Paul