Horse Tail Trails

Some events go off without a hitch.  The sun shines, the seats all fill, and everything lands in perfect order, just as planned.  With other events, an array of things seem to go wrong.  Yet sometimes, as those things go “wrong,” everything falls into place better than planned in the end.

On a rainy day in the end of summer, the Espanola plaza held its final concert in the summer series hosted by the Mel Patch Art Space.  While the Mel Patch building itself is still not functional as a class space, this hasn’t slowed down the folks organizing the dream.  Every Saturday this summer, they’ve held evening concerts on the Espanola plaza, ranging in music styles from pop to punk to folk and everything in between.  On August 28th, 2010, the last concert in the series was held in the gazebo in front of the Misión Convento.

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In the fading twilight of a summer’s day, the Taos plaza was packed with all manner of people.  Small children ran about with hula-hoops, dancing along-side the adults.  The gazebo was lit up with golden stage lighting, making the lead singer’s shirt sparkle like diamonds as she swayed along with the sound of the guitar and upright bass, feet stamping in beat with the drums.  This show was a part of this year’s Taos Plaza Live series, and the band playing was Bone Orchard.

Bone Orchard is described rather poetically as, “a cruise down the Route 66 of legend, as it might have been, had it started in Appalachia and detoured through the wild streets of Deadwood.”  They are an enchanting mix of old meets new with a touch of a fantastical American history that never was.  Their folk influenced, dark western songs are absolutely enchanting.  Horse Tail Trails was granted an interview with founding members Carol Morgan-Eagle and Daniel Pretends Eagle.

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As a way of teaching me cleanliness when I was a small child, my grandparents used to say that if I didn’t take a bath, then squash would grow out my ears.  Well, I’m rather cleanly now, but in the figurative sense of the term, I have squash coming out my ears this year.  Squash grows rather well in New Mexico.  This year’s harvest is looking very promising, with our plants springing up tall and healthy.  

Squash, or as they’re more commonly in the area, calabacitas, are truly great because of the variety of things that can be made from them.  There are many different kinds that come in an array of colors, each one with its own different taste.  Of course the question arises of what to do with the abundance of squash that we harvest.  We’ve started getting pretty creative with what we make.  The following are three recipe ideas to add to breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

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In May of 2010, while in a car going down Railroad Avenue in Espanola, I spotted a big, blue structure being erected by a construction crew.  I was so excited, I immediately grabbed my cell phone to post to my personal Facebook.  “There’s an actual bus stop bench in Espanola!” I told everyone.  A few minutes later, my aunt from Albuquerque replied with, “Did someone put up a bus stop in hopes those are what bring busses?”  I laughed, but the truth is that Espanola actually does have a public transportation system, most people just don’t know about it.

Perhaps the lack of bus stop benches has made it so that very few residents realize the bus stops are even there.  Many people may have even seen the small, blue buses driving around the city, but not given much thought to them.  Some part of me had known about the blue busses, but I didn’t realize the extent of their routes or the fact it’s free to ride.

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