Stamps of the Day: American Records

A few years ago the US Postal Service issued a series of 40 stamps highlighting the places, animals, and plants in the US that were the largest, loudest, tallest, deepest, fastest, oldest, etc., called Wonders of America.   They also made a puzzle featuring the stamps (in larger than natural size, of course), and it is one of our favorite puzzles here at home.  Tonight when I sat and looked through some of my stamp images to decide which one to pick to write about, I realized that it is actually amazing how many of these record places and organisms I have seen or been to after living in the US for nearly 20 years (yes, it has been that long, incredible).  

So, here it goes, the list of American records:

You can see these in Central Park these days, the peregrine falcons are back!  But one of the best observations I had was in Yellowstone National Park.
(FASTEST BIRD - Peregrine Falcon)

There is nothing like bumping along an old railroad track in the American west over vast sage brush areas (Colorado to be precise) after a vintage steam train and look out the window and see a couple of pronghorn staring at you.
(FASTEST LAND ANIMAL - Pronghorn)

Ancient ruins at the mesas in New Mexico, such as Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, makes me wonder what kind of threats made people live like this - with the whole village only accessible by ladders.
(LARGEST CLIFF DWELLING - Cliff Palace)

Oh, Mississippi - I love the name of that river.  4 s's, and 4 i's and 2 p's.  And a single M, alone in the beginning.  The delta at its mouth might be as large as half of Sweden, or something like that. 
And New Orleans is of course set in the middle of it.
(LARGEST DELTA - Mississippi River delta)

Just a bit south of where we live, a few hours, is a giant bay along the Atlantic coast... the funny sounding Chesapeake Bay, once full of oysters, blue crabs and fish, but now overpolluted and overnutrified. It is still gorgeous, but it needs to get healthier again. 
(LARGEST ESTUARY - Chesapeake Bay)

Oh, the bullfrog's noises in the night wakes you up in the early mornings around here on the mountain... It is like a giant toad, fat and fleshy, and rather pompous in its behavior.

(LARGEST FROG - American Bullfrog)

Buffalo, bison, same thing.  I have only seen wild bison in Yellowstone, and there we saw them really close, actually too close for comfort when they suddenly changed direction and went straight in among the parked cars where we stood photographing them crossing the road.  I had to jump into the back of a minivan.  Nobody was hurt, but it gives you a lot of respect for these animals. 

(LARGEST LAND MAMMAL - American Bison)

Alligator meat is not bad.  It is lighter-colored than beef, a little fishy in texture, but not taste, more like chicken.  They can move fast too - I have seen 8-feet alligator lay still for 20 minutes and then be gone in 3 seconds with a giant splash down the bank to the water. Never trust a reptile :)

(LARGEST REPTILE - American Alligator)

I have only visited Rocky Mountains in bits and pieces, here and there.  New Mexico (oh Taos!), Colorado (wow, it was incredible), and up in Yellowstone, of course.  But this summer I think we will see the real thing when we visit Idaho and Boise.  This is something else than the Swedish mountains called 'fjällen'. A bit taller, steeper, fiercer, and younger. 

(LONGEST MOUNTAIN CHAIN - Rocky Mountains)

Speaking about mountains, the ones on the East Coast are the sister mountains to the Swedish mountains, same age, formed at the same geological time, and even if maybe taller in the US with the same feel of a bit worn-down, eroded landscapes, and with sequences of ridges and peaks blueing in the distance.  

(OLDEST MOUNTAINS - Appalachians)

In Hawaii, the mountains are so young they don't exist yet.  They are being formed, right now, tonight and tomorrow.  I have stood and looked at the spouting lava at the Kilauea crater in Hawaii, using binoculars since you weren't allowed very close.  Magic magma, lovely lava, and deadly.  

(MOST ACTIVE VOLCANO - Kilauea)

Here is a manmade record piece, which is something you see if you arrive in New York by boat from Europe - the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connects Staten Island with Brooklyn over the narrow sound (The Narrows) that leads into New York City.  They are starting to grow oysters again under the bridge.  In the past there were lots of oysters here, more than people could eat, but then they disappeared because of pollution.  Soon we might have New York oysters again! 

(LONGEST SPAN - Verrazano-Narrows Bridge)

No records without the most amazing geysers of Yellowstone.  When I was a kid I used to look in books at my grandfather's house, and he had a book on Yellowstone.  I couldn't imagine the hot water spouts, sulfuric ponds, or bubbling mud pits, but they fascinated me, and I hoped that one day I would be able to see this crazy place.  Geology in action, of the most severe kind.  Well, volcanos might be a bit more severe, but Yellowstone is actually a giant volcano, and it is about to erupt at some point... About ten years ago I got the opportunity to visit Yellowstone during a workshop, and it was as crazy a place as I had imagined, or worse.  It is like a place out of a movie.  Moose grazing grass next to hot water springs that are deadly.  Geysers spouting giant fountains of water and steam on schedule.  Day and night. Incredibly.  I need to go back! (My grandfather's Yellowstone book is now in my house too.)

(TALLEST GEYSER - Steamboat)

When we drove up on Mount Washington in New Hampshire in June or July, they still had snow on the top.  It is the windiest place in America, this curved tip of an Appalachian mountain, and it felt like it.  It reminded me of the Swedish mountains, except our mountains in Scandinavia doesn't have giant weather stations on them.

(WINDIEST PLACE - Mount Washington)

And finally, another manmade thing, and this one is of utter impracticality and uselessness.  It just exist because someone had an idea, made it happen, and now everybody comes to see it. (Brilliant tourist marketing!)  I have never been up in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis by the Mississippi, but I have seen it from a distance.  You can take a little elevator inside to go up to the top, but if you are claustrophobic and or afraid of heights it is better to stay on the ground and look up.  

(TALLEST MAN-MADE MONUMENT - Gateway Arch)

Gorgeous: Colorado-New Mexico border

colorado view, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Sky, land and not much in between. Simply beautiful.

Christmas Day

chili lights, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

I got so many useful christmas presents this year - A french cork screw, a rain gauge for the garden, and a watering can! All extremely needed. But I also got some things for the soul, like Lynd Wards wordless novels of wood engravings, which we had seen some of during our visit to the Michener Museum of Art in Doylestown a weekend ago. Amazing things, I'll show you later on the blog.

In our kitchen PP's New Mexico heritage is showing with the glowing chili-shaped lights around the window, and outside the cats are chewing on the sharp holly leaves (who said cats were smart?). For dessert our amazing neighbor brought over the most amazing chocoloate cake with raspberry sauce - mmmmm! That has become a tradition. We fed him and his wife some homemade gravlax in return, but I have a feeling we owe them some more...

Not a snowflake in sight here in New Jersey, but it is supposed to start tomorrow... and northern Jersey might get over 20 cm. God Jul everybody!

Christmas in New Mexico

When you are at a restaurant in New Mexico they might as you if you want 'red, green, or Christmas'. This refers to the chili sauce that they slather gorgeously on top of enchiladas, burritos, or whatever fantastic Mexican dish you order. The sauce can be made with red or green chilies, and Christmas of course refers to having it both ways - red plus green sauce.

This plate of chile rellenos from High Country Restaurant in Chama, NM, has only red sauce on it, but it was fantastically delicious anyway. If you are ever in Chama, avoid Foster's Bar and Restaurant (=worst huevos rancheros I have ever had) and go to High Country instead. Foster's is the only place where I have ever seen a sign like this... and it is not that hard to refuse service when you barely have any to begin with. Foster's have great history, but it seems like it has been sliding downhill recently.

Fibers of the Earth (Tierra Wools)

In Northern New Mexico, not far from the Rockies and the Colorado border, is a small town that has seen more prosperous days, Los Ojos (it means 'the eyes').  The village is surrounded by the high-altitude plains and deserts of northern New Mexico, and is just a bit north of the area where Georgia O'Keefe used to spend a lot of her time (Abiquiu).  There isn't much to live on here, mostly cattle ranching, and it is old Indian country.

 

In this little village that now mostly consist of some older houses of varying upkeep and a strikingly white Catholic church is the cooperative Tierra Wools, a gorgeous place with gorgeous people.  

We found it by following little signs from the highway for the weaving shop, and since I have a soft spot for hand spun, natural yarn, it was a natural detour. Tierra Wools is a women-owned cooperative that keeps ancient Indian traditions alive by making handmade wool rugs from local and hand dyed yarns.  We spent maybe an hour in there, looking in the weaving room, hearing stories about when Robert Redford came by, and I bought yarn of course.  

 

It reminded me of my grandmother's, aunts' and mom's weaving, and I was thinking it is sad nobody in my generation in our family is weaving anymore.  At least we knit and embroider and sew and keep some of the handbased traditions alive.

The fantastic rugs were too expensive for us, but I walked out with two skeins of hand dyed New Mexico sheep wool dyed with the plant mullein ('kungsljus') and iron.  Recently I started to make a scarf for PP with this yarn in a pattern called kelp forest and after a while realized I wouldn't have enough for a whole scarf... so I called up Tierra Wools hoping they would have at least one skein left of that particular batch (hand dyed wool varies between batches so you need to get the same days batch if you want exactly the same color).  

 

And they did!  Incredible. See this photo?  The yarn is the gray-green yarn next to the yellow. This photo was taken before I bought what I wanted, so in August there was only one skein left, and it was still left now.  Boy, I am a lucky person.  That much-needed skein of yarn is now on its way across the United States, from one old store in New Mexico to a small house in New Jersey.  See the bottom left red skein?  That is made from cochineal-bugs that live on cacti.  All these yarns are dyed from natural dyes and are therefore more subdued in their colors than synthetic dyed ones.

 

I hope more people find this oasis of artisan work and fantastic women that carry traditional knowledge into the future.  If you can't get there, check out their website and call them. They have gorgeous hats, scarves, and mittens too. 

(There just is something special about New Mexico skies, something that just makes me melt inside...)

Fire On the Rock

Fire On the Rock, originally uploaded by Withering Dawn.

A photo by AREA - the lichens in Colorado and New Mexico are amazing....

fire slit

fire in firebox: locomotive 487, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Imagine that the only thing between you and a very hot, boiling steamy firebox that leads to a steam boiler that leads to pistons capable of hundreds, if not thousands of horse powers are two iron doors that you can open with a small handle - here it is! This is the closed doors to the firebox of steam locomotive 487 on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, the former narrow gauge part of the Denver and Rio Grande Western railroad in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The steam is still going strong, but only because of fantastic volunteers and other workers. We just happened to walk by and were invited up in the cab to see the real work environment of the engineer and fireman, thanks to some nice workers at this railroad in Chama. I have to say that I have never met such consistently nice people as in these areas. More photos from the center of the United States are coming, but I have 1500 photos or so to sort through :)

Shaking light

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!   Literally... in this case.  This is from one of the tunnels on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, which goes between Chama (in New Mexico) and Antonito (in Colorado). We rode the 65 miles at 2500+ m elevation through forests, undeveloped valleys, and along sharp bends and high lines. That is higher than the highest mountain in Sweden. Gorgeous country, this America...

Being in a tunnel pulled by a 1925 K-36 steam engine gives you smoke and cinders in your hair, ears and nose, but it is a great experience. The photo above is a color photo by the way :)
More photos from our trip will be coming soon...

Sad news from Chama, New Mexico

"Steam-powered trains on the New Mexico side of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic railroad have been cancelled after a fire destroyed ties and track structure on a high bridge in the San Juan Mountains." link to more

This is where we are going this summer to ride the old trains...

Update: The trains will still be running this summer, and the bridge will be rebuilt, yippee!

What can happen when two married people like the same things...

They, unaware of each other, buy the same present for each other. First PP opened his present from me, and then I opened mine from him, and it was the same thing! A wonderful thing - a cookbook from Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where we had a fantastic dinner on our honey moon. The title is Cooking with Cafe Pasqual's. But we only really need one cookbook :)
I was so sure he didn't even know it existed, and he thought he was so smart and had found the perfect present for me...

If you ever come to Santa Fe, this is the place to go to. Or come to our house and we will cook some for you.

Snapshot: Black hollyhocks

Black hollyhocks (stockrosor in Swedish) in Taos 2004, slightly overexposed.
What do you think - painting or photo?

Mutants (Mutanter)

A lot of the plants that you find on gardens are mutants, like this daffodil that is in our flower bed (picture). In fact, I think garden people are obsessed with mutations... white streaks on green leaves, filled flowers that can't set seed, and black tulips...

I find it fascinating that we humans are so fascinated with the abnormal, as well as the perfect. The things that just have a little flaw seems less attractive than the two opposites, either a creation of perfection or something outstandingly wrong or different. In the islamic culture it is different - in all 'perfect' mosaics and rugs there is a little mistake, just to show that perfection is what God does, not humans. I think the most perfect thing imaginable are things in nature though, like a perfectly blue sky, a spring flower, or a luna moth.

(New Mexico sky)

Abnormal things of beauty are not unusual in nature either, like old bonsai-like twisted pines, a strange rock, or a hippopotamus. I think hippos definitely are a thing of strangeness, not perfection, even if they function perfectly as animals. In fact, most things that are alive need to be close to perfection to survive through millions of years. The beauty is just in the eyes of humanity, anyway, right? Fruitsflies (bananflugor) don't care about beauty, they care about sex and food. Maybe only we humans can afford to think about beauty, all the rest of life is busy just trying to procreate and survive?

What do you think, do dolphins, butterflies, and cicadas have a sense of beauty or a sense of what is abnormal? What do you like that is perfect or abnormal?
[OK, LA, I know, A.B. Normal from the movie Young Frankenstein did not have a perfect brain :) ]