Stories of Chili and clay in the city of silver and art
The beginning of the month I found myself in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the first time in my life. I had heard many good things about the city before; that it was a progressive oasis in that state, that it was full of art and creative people and good food, but I was still surprised at how much I found myself loving it.
Santa Fe is a very organic town, for being in the US. The city core is free of strip malls and the kind of architectural randomness that has made many places hard for me to aesthetically love in this country. Most streets are extremely walking friendly with tons of little shops and even more galleries and street fairs with arts and crafts. Little cafes and bistros litter the sidewalks and have outdoor tables, many green spots, parks and flowers, and well, just *walking friendly* in a way that is far from certain in bigger cities anymore.
It is hard to explain the ambiance, but a huge artist colony comes to mind.
We roamed around quite a bit, ate Mexican food at least once every day (a requirement from E, who was our guide and the Santa Fe veteran), although I have to admit that I'm a wuss when it comes to chili heat, even though I adore green chili.
I liked the city so much that I even decided to maybe have parts of my novel set there, we'll see...
There were some beautiful painted glass in the many churches of Santa Fe, also the oldest church in the US is here, the San Miguel Mission from 1610 (not the church with these glass windows)
The first native American saint Kateri Tekakwitha, living 1656-1680
The building style in Santa Fe is called Adobe, and is very old, traditionally made from organic materials such as sand, clay, water and other fibers. While Santa Fe has a very comprehensive and harmonious architectural layout in the adobe style, many of the houses nowadays are in fake modern materials, while still emulating the style of the older houses.
Cute lizard in the flowerbed by the sidewalk
Donkey statue on sidewalk and Tia Sofia's - a restaurant among the galleries, known for its fantastic green chili
E went into a hat store where all things were hand made and pretty phenomenal (and the prices set accordingly), our favorite was this wonderful steam punk hat, notice the detail of the skull ornament.
Some really cool steampunk birds were shown off at a big Halloween display
The birds were a little too pricey, but I bought a Goth Halloween Fairy instead
The art of braiding chillies into lovely colorful strings to hang in your kitchen or porch is prevalent all over Santa Fe. These artful wreaths are called Ristras and are often very beautiful. Below are the traditional shapes, but many Ristra artists made hearts, crosses, circles and other shapes.
A nice lady showing the art of making Ristras and a basket of blue corn
Because Santa Fe is situated on a plateau, it is not nearly as hot as the rest of the state, so the weather is pleasant and cool, yet sunny, and they do get proper winters with snow. E told us that winters in Santa Fe can be pretty magical, since people put out colored little lamps all over town. One day I'll go there in the winter to witness this for myself.
In the mean time...lying on your back in one of the parks and looking into the crowns of the fall trees is a good way to for a few minutes forget the troubles of this harsh world.
ETA: It has been a summer and part of a fall without much personal writing in here, mainly about travels and projects. That will change soon, as I long to just go into personal musings in posts again. This will include more details about the novel, which I have talked about with only a few yet.
ETA II: Some people have asked about the steampunk birds, and I found the artist's home page (be sure to check out the jewelry too). The store in Santa Fe where we saw them was "Things Finer" and the webpage with birds can be found here.
Santa Fe is a very organic town, for being in the US. The city core is free of strip malls and the kind of architectural randomness that has made many places hard for me to aesthetically love in this country. Most streets are extremely walking friendly with tons of little shops and even more galleries and street fairs with arts and crafts. Little cafes and bistros litter the sidewalks and have outdoor tables, many green spots, parks and flowers, and well, just *walking friendly* in a way that is far from certain in bigger cities anymore.
It is hard to explain the ambiance, but a huge artist colony comes to mind.
We roamed around quite a bit, ate Mexican food at least once every day (a requirement from E, who was our guide and the Santa Fe veteran), although I have to admit that I'm a wuss when it comes to chili heat, even though I adore green chili.
I liked the city so much that I even decided to maybe have parts of my novel set there, we'll see...
There were some beautiful painted glass in the many churches of Santa Fe, also the oldest church in the US is here, the San Miguel Mission from 1610 (not the church with these glass windows)
The first native American saint Kateri Tekakwitha, living 1656-1680
The building style in Santa Fe is called Adobe, and is very old, traditionally made from organic materials such as sand, clay, water and other fibers. While Santa Fe has a very comprehensive and harmonious architectural layout in the adobe style, many of the houses nowadays are in fake modern materials, while still emulating the style of the older houses.
Cute lizard in the flowerbed by the sidewalk
Donkey statue on sidewalk and Tia Sofia's - a restaurant among the galleries, known for its fantastic green chili
E went into a hat store where all things were hand made and pretty phenomenal (and the prices set accordingly), our favorite was this wonderful steam punk hat, notice the detail of the skull ornament.
Some really cool steampunk birds were shown off at a big Halloween display
The birds were a little too pricey, but I bought a Goth Halloween Fairy instead
The art of braiding chillies into lovely colorful strings to hang in your kitchen or porch is prevalent all over Santa Fe. These artful wreaths are called Ristras and are often very beautiful. Below are the traditional shapes, but many Ristra artists made hearts, crosses, circles and other shapes.
A nice lady showing the art of making Ristras and a basket of blue corn
Because Santa Fe is situated on a plateau, it is not nearly as hot as the rest of the state, so the weather is pleasant and cool, yet sunny, and they do get proper winters with snow. E told us that winters in Santa Fe can be pretty magical, since people put out colored little lamps all over town. One day I'll go there in the winter to witness this for myself.
In the mean time...lying on your back in one of the parks and looking into the crowns of the fall trees is a good way to for a few minutes forget the troubles of this harsh world.
ETA: It has been a summer and part of a fall without much personal writing in here, mainly about travels and projects. That will change soon, as I long to just go into personal musings in posts again. This will include more details about the novel, which I have talked about with only a few yet.
ETA II: Some people have asked about the steampunk birds, and I found the artist's home page (be sure to check out the jewelry too). The store in Santa Fe where we saw them was "Things Finer" and the webpage with birds can be found here.