Snapshots of the Everyday

My blog posts tend to be centered on hikes or on summarizing activities, such as building houses somewhere or a visiting a particular area, but there’s a whole lot of everyday life that gets left out. This becomes even more apparent when I’m behind in writing blog posts and am flipping through literally a thousand pictures, many of which aren’t easily categorized. As I’ve been doing that the past few weeks while preparing to write about our few months in Las Cruces I’ve been left with a large segment of the everyday that doesn’t show up on the blog often.

Dogwalks for example are a significant source of these extra photos. Abby and I both require multiple miles a day of walking and sometimes these excursions occur in some pretty places. Sometimes there are some really pretty sunrises or sunsets. Sometimes my dog looks adorable so I take pictures – though I’ll spare you most of these. The point being, I spend a good amount of normal life walking with Abby and sometimes these moments are picture-worthy. A couple examples of this would be be the 2 occasions when we all finished grouting a house early, enabling Abby and I to get in 6 or 7 miles in the afternoon. The first occasion we went out to Soledad Canyon; the second we hiked up to Baylor Pass from the west trailhead. Neither place was new to us, but there were some pretty things to see regardless. There were also some colorful sunrises and sunsets on our walks around the neighborhood that are so characteristic of southern New Mexico.

Soledad Canyon:

Baylor Canyon:

Neighborhood walks:

There’s also the occasional roadtrip, such as the one Tom and I took through Gila National Forest and high plains to the west of Las Cruces.

A whole lot of my time this winter has been spent with friends too. Happy hours, often extended into the evening, are a staple of Care-a-vanner builds at Mesilla Valley. Drinks and snacks around the picnic table, evenings around the fire, potluck dinners, Taco Tuesdays at Picacho Peak Brewing, and game nights are an almost-everyday occurrence and have resulted in countless hours of laughing and relaxing. If anything, these times have been underrepresented since I tend to not take my phone out much when I’m with a group of people. But spending time with friends old and new have been some of the best parts of the past few months, and should be noted as a significant part of my everyday.

Finally, there’s baking. I love to bake, both the concocting of new recipes and whipping up my tested favorites. I like making things, working with my hands, mixing stuff together, and, of course, eating the results. I’ve said it before, but puttering in the kitchen is one of my favorite things and can sometimes be profoundly meditative. However, I also like baking for other people – and I’ve had quite a few care-a-vanners living in RVs next to ours the past few months who graciously accepted deliveries of cookies and such.