My 8th year participating in the October’s “Inktober” is complete, and I’m excited to share all 31 days of official prompts, as interpreted by moi (that’s Flambé speak for “me”). Every year, as I near day 31, keeping up with the daily prompts becomes a challenge. This year was no exception! But I was determined to finish close to the deadline. And Ta! Da! Each 9×6” page of my accordion book are chock full of inked and painted illustrations with touches of humor, drama, realism, mystery, whimsy and a touch of fantasy. It was great fun stretching my imagination, but I’m happy to be finished (at least until Inktober 2024).
If you missed my October 16th post displaying the first 15 days of illustrations, have no fear! I’ve included them in this post. However, if you’re aching to learn more about Inktober and want to play along next year, all the background info can be found in my Inktober2023 post on the 16th.
So here they all are, beginning with images of each long side of my accordion book. Enjoy!
First halfFirst half, continuedFirst half, continued some moreSecond halfSecond half, continuedSecond half to the end
Hope you enjoyed the tour through my accordion book. Let me know if you also played along, and if you’ll be taking on the challenge during Inktober 2024.
Keep on reading to learn more about the October 28th Full Hunter’s Moon, some interesting facts about a top oceanic predator, and a near Misadventure triggered by Flambé. Luckily, Kat still has 6 of her 9 lives, and lives to take on the world tomorrow!
Wow! Time is flying. Here we are already well into the beautiful month of October, and realized my journal pages from our late September road trip fell asleep in the back seat of the car! But I felt my record of this day trip was worth sharing, especially since Halloween is fast approaching, and ghost towns are all the rage!
New Mexico always surprises and delights, and our trip to explore the pseudo ghost town of Cuervo, became two destinations. While in route to Cuervo, we found a curious notation on the highway map referencing the historic village of Puerto de Luna. Only a short, 9.5 mile detour south of Santa Rosa, we decided to check it out.
Puerto de Luna, NM The village of Puerto de Luna, Gateway of the Moon, is still inhabited, mostly on the West side of the Pecos River. However there are many wrecked and ruined buildings east of the river; enough to merit the label “Pseudo Ghost Town.” After a scenic ride through country used primarily to grow wheat and for livestock grazing, travelers first encounter the well maintained Church of Nuestra Senora del Refugio. Built in 1882, the church is still in use today. Just SE of the church sits the remains of the original Guadalupe County Courthouse. Constructed in 1891 of sandstone brick and blocks, it was only used for a few years. . Before the county seat was moved to Santa Rosa in 1903, a second, much larger building was constructed on the west side of the Pecos, which today is being used as the senior center. Not much remains of the original courthouse; the roof and half of the walls are piles of rubble lying inside the structure. The photos below show the changes from then to now.
Guadalupe County Courthouse, Puerto de Luna, 1891
Remains of Guadalupe Co Courthouse, Puerto de Luna, 2023
Looking inside the remains of Guadalupe Co Courthouse, 2023
Our brief visit to Puerto de Luna was fun. We learned about some of the pre-village history, like the Spanish explorer Coronado was said to have passed this location in 1541, naming the site Puerto de Luna after seeing a spectacular moon rise. And then there’s the more recent account from 1880, involving Billy the Kid and his last dinner here before being escorted by Pat Garret to Las Vegas, NM to stand trial for murder. After a hour of poking about a few more abandoned buildings, we headed back north to Santa Rosa and east 17 miles to our next pseudo ghost town.
Cuervo, NM ….. don’t blink or you’ll miss it!
If you zoom along on I-40 at 75-80 mph, heading east or west, and happen to blink, you’ll surely miss what remains of the old trading post and railroad town of Cuervo. Spanish for “crow,” Cuervo was officially established in 1902 as a watering stop for the CRI&P railroad. When the trains stopped running in 1910, the population declined, and businesses closed. But things took a turn for the better, when in 1926, Route 66 came through town, and Cuervo boomed again. By the 1940s, the population grew to 300, and had 2 of everything ….. schools, gas stations, hotels, churches, doctors, etc. All was just peachy for Cuervo until the late 1960s when the highway department decided to build I-40 right through town, slicing it in two and causing its rapid demise. Although the post office officially closed in 2011, the 58 permanent residents calling Cuervo home still have and use the old zip code, where they get their mail is anyone’s guess. Oh, and if you exit the highway hoping to fill up your tank, think again. Even though there’s a gas station sign that looks like it’s inviting you to stop, there’s no gas, or snacks …. nothing. Just a bunch of dusty roads, crumbled and weathered buildings, and tumbleweeds blowing in the wind.
We spent a few hours poking about the old town grid, exploring a handful of abandoned properties. The old 1915 Catholic Church is padlocked, but opened on Sundays for service. The 1930s schoolhouse appears to be undergoing some renovation. And signs of more prosperous times exist when the old steam engines used to run into town to resupply. Actually there’s been very minimal vandalism considering how close Cuervo is to the interstate, but there’s one serious blemish that made headline news a few years back. The Baptist church was the site of some pretty scary satanic rituals; and it’s thought these practices conducted in the church by the perpetrator resulted in the disappearance and murder of a number of people. We chose not to investigate.
The 1930s Schoolhouse, Cuervo, NM
Early 1900s Schoolhouse and abandoned sedan, Cuervo, NM
Old wooden home and water storage bldg, Cuervo, NM
Boxcars, then and now …. which do you prefer? Cuervo, NM
And that concludes my post. Hope you enjoyed reading a bit about life as it was and is today in and around two interesting pseudo ghost towns located in central in New Mexico. I’d be very interested in knowing if you explore ghostly history where you live! Have an awesome day, and remember to be curious!
This is my 8th year participating in the annual October “Inktober” challenge, and yesterday I finished up the first 15 days of prompts. Right on schedule! Like last year, I’m following the official daily word prompts (the full list is at the end of this post), creating ink images representing each word. I made an 9”x6” 33 page accordion book that will eventually display each illustrated prompt, giving myself much more space for sketching. Each of the first 15 sketches was done in ink, and I’ve decided to permit myself the use of watercolor pencil to add liveliness.
Flambé wanted to play too, and we both had fun! Here’s what I came up with for days 1-15.
So what exactly is Inktober?
Inktober is an annual art challenge lasting for all 31 days of October. It was created by artist Jake Parker, with the purpose of improving art skills and developing daily drawing habits. Inktober.com posts an official list of word prompts to help guide this journey, from which participants create a daily ink drawing.
Even though there’s an official list of words to follow, “Inktober is just a framework to get yourself to draw better, flex a little, and/or have some fun with your art. Inktober is a challenge NOT a contest to see who the best artist is. It’s a challenge to see how much you can improve your art in a month, and to be inspired or to help inspire other artists to do the same.”
Here’s the official Inktober list for 2023
Anyone can participate, in any way imaginable. You can come up with your own list or search for the numerous lists created by many others, like the one of patterns posted annually by Zentangle. And you can use ink, pencil, paint or crayon. There’s really no rules, no wrong approach. Just make art every day in October!
Even though Inktober 2023 is well underway, you can still take on the challenge beginning now and into the the following months. Or anticipate and participate in the event in October 2024.
For more information, search the web for Inktober.com. I’d love to know if you go for it!
It’s hard now to imagine how extremely hot and dry the summer was this year. Without even a spittle of rain, the 100+ degree temps for weeks effectively suppressed the usual mid-season bloomers in and around the Albuquerque foothills/East Mountains. Even invasive plants, like goathead and tumbleweed, remained dormant or failed to germinate all together. It looked like winter browns had arrived early.
Then in less than a week, a small rain followed by several long downpours flooded the parched landscape, transforming browns to greens. You’ve heard this from me in a few earlier posts, but it was magical, and a reminder about the resiliency of desert vegetation.
Here’s a few pages highlighting a handful of the Late Bloomers I recorded in only 2 days. More than 2 dozen species had sprung back to life, setting flowers at all stages of accelerated vegetative growth. The landscape seemed wide awake. If plants could talk, I imagined them laughing while excitedly chanting, “hurry, hurry, hurry!” Only their roots prevented them from dancing!
In addition to the species on these journal pages, there are many (more) composites, native grasses, shrubs and sub shrubs, small forbs from Spring and early Summer actively growing and blooming right now, and (of course) the weedy invasives are growing and blooming with wild abandon.
Random thoughts and wonderings ….. are pollinators still hanging around …… or ….. how many of today’s bloomers are self fertile …… are local birds, insects, reptiles and mammals that depend on earlier summer pollen and/or fruit and seed production stressed with this timing change/availability of food sources … will there be noticeable shifts in species composition, including plants, insects, reptiles and animals (including birds) ….. what species can and will adapt to changes, and how quickly ….. etc. The answers to these and many more questions are probably best answered in coming years, if it’s even possible to answer them at all.
Have you observed vegetation anomalies that may be influenced by changes in climate? If so, please share your observations and where these changes are taking place. Meanwhile, keep your eyes wide open.
“Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. ……….. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.” – Haruki Murakami.
Keep on reading to learn more about the September 29th Full Harvest Moon, Flambé’s interesting and delicious suggestion for an alternate Full Moon name, and New Mexico’s green chile harvest. It’s a spicy hot treat!
Ahhhh, September! The month of slowing down, hints of crisp morning air, tree leaves turning ever so slightly from green to golden, a bit of wanderlust satisfied.
Instead of creating “Little” paintings of a month of highlights, and there have been many, I decided to focus on a single “Little” road-trip down the east side of the Manzano Mountains. My goal was to take a fresh look at, well, everything …….. and watch as the story of rural life unfolded.
As we wound our way along scenic backroads, I mentally sketched out our route map to depict some of the historic and present day highlights across the landscape. My imagination envisioned the full, prosperous and peaceful village life of the Tiwa Indians, and their conquest and struggle to survive Spanish occupation. There was evidence of the optimistic outlook of early settlers who came west to build a life centered around dryland farming and ranching. And today, modern day ranchers live on the land adjacent to land grants where indigenous peoples live a rural lifestyle on their native lands. I hope you enjoy my route map with some of these highlights, ranging from serious to funny, natural to commercial.
I’d love to know what story unfolds for you as you travel along on this September “Littles” Road-trip. Be sure to pack a lunch!
Once again, a big shout-out to “Made by Fay” for the inspiring “Littles” idea! These pages are fun to create, and remind me of monthly highlights and the random road-trip as I revisit my previous “Littles” posts. Hope you’re enjoying them too, along with the ending days of the season. Stay tuned for the next installment of “Littles.”
This is a little story about a fascinating discovery I made over 2-1/2 years ago, when in the second winter of the pandemic and in dire need of a belly laugh, our usually drab brown landscape appeared dotted with little reddish colored orbs. An insatiable curiosity sprinkled with a smidge of fantasy led me to some surprising answers to many questions, which continue to pop up to this day.
Open my full blog post and take a small detour with me into the recent past. Learn how observations, connections and similarities in nature ensure there’s always dots to connect and mysteries to solve, no matter how many times you travel the same path.
August was a busy month, filled with high elevation camping in Colorado, and a lot of cool mountain hiking back home. Even though the lower elevations took on a hot and parched look, at 9,000 feet and higher the wildflower season was far from over as evidenced along roadways and trails, where fresh, colorful blooms could still be found.
The highlight of the month was a 3-1/2 day visit from my brother Bob and grandniece Livi. At 15 years of age, Livi is already a fine artist, and took to nature journaling like a pro! It was great fun discovering and sketching nature on our daily hikes. She even got a chance to hold one of the adult ornate short-horned lizards we see frequently along various trails, and then found a baby lizard on her own, hiding nearly motionless under a small plant. Her smiles were priceless!
Despite the high temps, it was a month of good days and nights, ending perfectly with the rising of a rare Super Full Blue Moon! If you missed it, there’s plenty of time to prepare for the next …… which occurs in March 2037.
Once again, a big shout-out to “Made by Fay” for the inspiring “Littles” idea! These pages are fun to create, and remind me of monthly highlights as I revisit my previous “Littles” posts. Hope you’re enjoying them too, along with the ending days of the season. Stay tuned for the next installment of “Littles.”
June’s hot, dry weather slipped stealthily into July as we became mired in one of those infamous heat domes for weeks. Our rabbitbrush shrubs, usually late summer bloomers, burst into piles of brilliant yellow flowers a full month before normal, and for the first week of their premature bloom, not a single pollinator was in sight. I was so concerned the over abundance of nectar would dry up, pollen would blow haphazardly away, and seeds wouldn’t form. Then one morning I woke to find hundreds of butterflies, weevils, flies and bees flitting, crawling and buzzing about, nearly covering the shrubs completely in a pollination frenzy! How did they know? Where did they come from? What a relief for me, but it must’ve been an unimaginable relief for all of those pollinators that happened upon our oasis in the desert.
And so it went, all month…. bursts of early blooms rapidly completing their floral life cycles, thanks to urgently feeding pollinators.
This is how I remember July, with everything in bloom at once, the air full of pollen and pollinators. It was quite a sight!
Once again, a big shout-out to “Made by Fay” for the inspiring “Littles” idea! Stay tuned for the next installment of “Littles.”
a curious nature 