The Tile House in Albuquerque

I'm in Albuquerque and have not been able to post to the blog as I had hoped. I don't know how this happened but I did not pack my camera and had to borrow one.

The house you're seeing in the photo above is an amazing place. If you want to see all the photos I took of the house, the album of photos is posted on my Facebook page.

This website tells the story of the house and its creation:

http://www.magennisraymosaics.net/id15.html

Today we took a full-day tour sponsored by The Glass Alliance of New Mexico and this house was one of the highlights. Every surface of the house inside and out is covered in ceramic tile.

We toured a modern glass tile studio and several homes of glass collectors in various parts of the city. It was a day filled with art-lovers and we learned more about glass collecting than we ever needed to know.

Marika arrived here two days ago and we've been having a wonderful vacation together with our friend, Terry Lee Heller, who is the best hostess imaginable!

Yesterday we went to Santa Fe for the day. We visited with a friend (Liz Kay) who works at The Andrew Smith Gallery. She was hanging a show of Annie Leibowitz' work for a fundraising event later that evening. The photos were some of her most famous images.

(One of her large format photos -- of John Lennon and Yoko Ono curled up and embracing one another naked on their bed -- was priced at $65,000.)

Leibovitz was in Santa Fe yesterday for a lecture.

Before leaving Santa Fe, we had margaritas at The Ore House which is a restaurant/bar in the plaza. We sat upstairs and finally satisfied our craving for authentic New Mexican tortilla chips and salsa and guacamole.

Tomorrow we've invited our most wonderful friend, Elsie Berry, for lunch. Elsie helped raise our kids and keep our house in order for over ten years when we were living in Albuquerque. I know we'll spend hours and hours reminiscing about all the good times and funny stories we remember about the kids growing up.

Then, late in the afternoon, we take Marika to the airport and she returns to Santa Barbara. The visit was all too short. (But we get to have her back for her Spring Break in two weeks.)

Haiku:

Keeping up with friends

So many I should contact

Not enough time here.