Got air?

Air quality in the Four Corners has been deteriorating for many years. It wasn't all that good when the left picture was taken in October 2006 ... the object in the mists in the distance is Shiprock, taken from Far View within Mesa Verde National Park. 

The picture on the right is the same view, taken yesterday. This is just the visibility factor, without consideration of the substances that are floating through the air. I commend Juliet Eilperin's April 23 Washington Post story (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/22/AR2009042203685.html) for an assessment of what we're experiencing this spring.  The associated graphic at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/04/23/GR2009042300171.html is telling. tv

Evening in Mancos

On my way to a meeting last night, I couldn't resist walking over to enjoy this view of the Mancos United Methodist Church with spring flowers in evening light ... so peaceful, so beautiful. tv

The Mancos Valley Chorus . . Fabulous and Fun!

What a mix of great talent!  Jennifer Paschal thrilled the audiance with a pristine version of  Amazing Grace.    Bob Newnam entertained us all with the trumpet and fluglehorn and Lloyd McNeil did a grand tribute to popular songs by Abba.  Wow!  Thank you to all the chorus and their energetic director Kriss Larsen.   What a show! 

Another great Chorus concert!

The ladies swoon as Ephraim McNeil channels Elvis and gets them "All Shook Up" in yesterday afternoon's Mancos Valley Chorus concert at the Mancos Methodist Church! The report from the "rear ranks" is that this quiet, serious young man is getting his moves down ... should be interesting to see him again in the last in the series of six concerts! (See the schedule and more information at www.mancosvalleychorus.org)

The twice-annual concerts by the MVC are always a joy! Started about 15 years ago with a small group of maybe 15 people who loved to sing and share their talents with the community, the chorus has grown to about 35 members (the stage is getting crowded!), led by the vital, effervescent Kris Larsen and that joy of singing and sharing is always there! 

This concert was a golden oldies concert, ranging from a 15th century madrigal and Jen Paschal's beautiful solo of Amazing Grace to master whistler Loyd McNeil's treatment of Abba tunes and a new song about the Mancos Valley, "Always in My Dreams," written by Bill Henley, set to music by chorus member Linda Bellush and sung in public for the first time by the chorus yesterday (I think).

What a lovely afternoon of music, with fresh flowers and sunshine greeting us outside the church after the performance! tv

Another young funeral

Yesterday afternoon I attended the funeral of another young Mancos man, Justin Horrocks, who turned 22 a month or so ago. It's so hard to see the wrenching effect this has on friends and family. Again, as with Enrique, some of his buds and classmates spoke about their loss and their love for this smiling, hard-working, fun-loving young man. 

Though I grew up going to more family funerals than I wanted to, they were all old folks. I guess I was spared the early loss of someone my own age. It's heart-rending! There were quite a few others, men as well as women, who had their handkerchieves out before it was done. 

The service was held in the school's performance center (the gym) and there were at least 500 people there. Justin's grandfather was a well-loved Mormon bishop, who died not many years ago after a long illness, so the lad was pretty well tied to most of the community. As several young folks commented in Facebook posts, this is one of those occasions that overrides the petty bickerings of small towns and brings everyone together.

There was a distinctly Mancos flavor to the assemblage ... cowboy boots, jeans, western shirts (the immediate family set this tone), big belt buckles, the occasional piece of Carhartt apparel, only a few suits and ties. 

In addition to the blood lines that make almost everyone in the community a relative of everyone else (Even the funeral director is a local boy!), I think our schools help cement this sense of unity and togetherness. All of our schools are on the same block, so for 12 years all the kids are with all the other kids, seeing brothers, sisters, cousins and neighbors throughout each day. That seems a big contrast with my experience of going eight years to a one-room country school and then being bused into town for high school with kids from all over the county. Even though I enjoyed my 50th reunion, I still have a feeling of being one of the "country kids" and not quite belonging (which probably wasn't helped a bit by my leaving town as early as I could and going back as seldom as I could!).

Anyway, the only nice thing about going to a funeral on a rainy day was that the sun was shining brightly, if briefly, as we came out of the performance center at the end of the service. 

Going with my sweetheart to see "Greater Tuna" at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College did a lot to chase away the blues, too. Fortunately, we came out of an ambush by a buck on the way back relatively unscathed. tv

Photo Potluck!

That's what you get when you download your backup camera after several months of limited use!

I found pictures of Tom and Webster, the cute puppy at Goodnight Gallery, in fun and frolic  on the gallery floor. (Yes, you can do that in Mancos!) Also  shots of a really good KSJD fundraiser held last winter in Cortez, plus children in costume enjoying a "Land Run" play day at my grandson's school in Oklahoma.  I have better pictures of this event, but am sensitive about posting identifiable children's picture's without permission.  Last night , at the Culture Cafe meeting in Cortez, we enjoyed a musical performance by Ranger Rick and the Swamp Thing in the flowering gardens of Let It Grow .   It's a photo potluck!  And also a reflection of our life adventures. . . 

Good morning!

Overcast, light sprinkle and 52 degrees at pre-dawn walk time. Nice to have the moisture; it could continue on in greater quantity ... we need the moisture.

There was a nice, brief meeting of the Culture Café last night at Let It Grow nursery in Cortez, followed by music by Louisiana-escapees Ranger Rick and the Swamp Thing (his wife Kathy Jane) ... Rick is a BLM river ranger I used to work with.

The music was a little different when we dropped in on Ian James' Mancos Valley Distillery on the way home. Couldn't stay long; had ice cream melting in the car. The distillery is behind the Raven House gallery, so it's kind of a speakeasy experience ... you walk down an alley to get to the entrance. (I loved the hand-lettered sign!) I'd been to a musical event in that space half a dozen years ago, didn't think there was room, now that the distillery was in there. It was cozy, but the stage was big enough and the folks crowded together along the wall and at the bar (and outside in the alley) didn't seem to mind. Young crowd, (30s and 40s is young to us!), having a good time. 

The band was The Spinning Wheels. The two guys on the left, Matt Robinson and John Toolan are teachers at SW Open School. The drummer, Peter Ortego, is general counsel for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Don't know the fourth player, behind the pole; might be Mark Strawn.

Having live music at the distillery every once in a while will liven up the downtown in the evening, providing another option besides the Columbine Bar across the street and the occasional show at the Millwood Junction two blocks away. And, as we visited the newly-opened Raven House gallery (VERY nice; Steve Sykes' photography makes me want to go home and throw my cameras away!), Marilyn Kroeker (who manages the gallery and has her pottery and painting there) said she and Steve are going to have Saturday afternoon music sessions there. 

Mancos on the Move! tv