Around Chama

Here in Chama we are just kicking back, doing a little painting, cooking up some Green Chile Stew, and reading all the books that we purchased in the used book stores back home. The bird feeder is getting a lot of attention and we have seen Black Headed Grosbeaks, Brewers Blackbirds, White Chested Nuthatches, Stellar Jays, and Lewis'es Woodpeckers along with the usual doves and finches. The woodpecker just can't get enough of the suet and he is a constant visitor all day long. He chases off any of the other birds that might have the audacity of coming near his feeder. The little chipmunks even watch out for him.

We took a trip up to Pagosa Springs one day to check out Wolf Creek Pass and it was more daunting than we remembered. We are probably going to give Creede a pass and develop an alternate plan for the remainder of the summer. The trip up to Pagosa Springs was a beautiful drive of developed ranches covered in green grass with the Colorado Rockies in the background. (above right)

Another day we drove south to Abiquiu for lunch at the Abiquiu Inn and along the way we took some photos of the Ghost Ranch area of Georgia O'Keefe. She had purchased one of the cabins and a few acres from Arthur Pack, a naturalist who ran a dude ranch. Her cabin is not seen from the road and is not available to the public but is situated below the outcroppings of the mountains in this photo to the above left. From her cabin, Georgia could look out at the Pedernal Mountain to the south and it became one of her favorite subjects to paint.