Photo of a Creek bed in our friends neighborhood.
On March 17 through the 25th, of this year (2025) we traveled to Sante Fe, New Mexico to visit long time and dears friend of Chuck. Richard Sullivan and his wife Melody Bostik, have lived in Sante Fe for over twenty five years. They have been inviting us for some time to visit. Then in December of 2024, Richard called again and invited us. Chuck had not seen Richard since he left Los Angeles in 1989 to move up to the Pacific North West. Although my father was born in Thomas, New Mexico, and I was born in Dalhart, Texas, I had never been to the regions of the Southwest of the US before our visit in March.
Chuck and I went on walks together in their neighborhood and witnessed the very dry landscaape and dusty creek beds lined with sage brush and cactus of various kinds. We had wonderful evening conversations throughout our visit with Richard and Melody. The four of us took turns cooking our favorite meals for each other. They have two adult sons and both were able to join us for a meal the Sunday before we left. It was lovely to meet these two beautiful souls who have been working together for many years. They were excellent hosts and I made new friends!
Here is link to their web site where you can learn all about their extraordinary work..
https://www.bostick-sullivan.com/about/
Melody gave us her pass to all of the wonderful museums in and around the Sante Fe Plaza. We had such a wonderful time visiting together in their home that we never actually went into a museum, as wonderful as it would have been, although we did get close. One week was definitely not enough time.
While in the Plaza we stopped by a wonderful jewelry booth. We had gone to visit Richard and Melody's son, who works in the Plaza. The jewelry maker, Ben Chavez, has been making jewelry and presenting it at that particular booth for many, many years. His son James, also a jewelry maker in his own right, was manning their booth, El Platero Silversmith. He noticed that the earrings that I had on were made by his father over 40 years ago. He was adamant about the fact. As noted, I had never been in Sante Fe before and had actually bought the earrings in Mount Vernon, WA. at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op many years ago. His son told me the earrings I had on were his father's signature design, which is the black stairs of the Navajo. They are sold all over the world he said, on consignment. He asked us to come back the next day to meet his father and show him my earrings. I've attached photo of me and the young man.
His web site is www.elplaterosfplaza.com. On the Sante Fe Plaza since 1984.
The rest of the photos are from a drive we took into Jemez Pueblo country outside of Albuquerque at the tail end of our visit. Walatowa is the ancient name of the Jemez Pueblo. This is the land where Scott Momaday grew up as a child. It is the backdrop of his novel, "House Made of Dawn", which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969. At the time I did not connect our visit to the Jemez Pueblo with his novel or his childhood home, even though I had recently been listening to his book on audible. I was listening to the wonderful preface again this afternoon, which is narrated my Momaday. I finally connected his Jemez Pueblo homeland and the novel with the same area we visited in March. So…I needed to revisit my photos I had down loaded onto my computer. In doing so I find myself writing and revisiting my memories of our trip.
Photos I took of some the Jemez Pueblo sites are below.
"The Pueblo of Jemez (pronounced “Hay-mess” or traditionally as “He-mish”) is one of the 19 pueblos located in New Mexico. It is a federally recognized American Indian tribe with 3,400 tribal members, most of whom reside in a puebloan village that is known as “‘Walatowa” (a Towa word meaning “this is the place”). Walatowa is located in North-Central New Mexico, within the southern end of the majestic Canon de Don Diego. It is located on State Road 4 approximately one hour northwest of Albuquerque (55 miles) and approximately one hour and twenty minutes southwest of Santa Fe."
https://www.jemezpueblo.org/about/history-and-culture/
Photos below were taken in the Jemez Pueblo area.
