Saturday encore ~ The 9:03 to Santa Fe

I'm off to Santa Fe today, but this time I'm driving my truck because what I'm going to pick up won't fit on the train. It doesn't breathe...yet...so don't get too excited, but it will mark the beginning of a new adventure here at the 7MSN. Here's an encore from March 2009 to whet your appetite for all the free ranging that's about to commence.

It's been a long time since I've shopped in a real store (Walmart doesn't count), or since I've been to Santa Fe. Now that there's a commuter train between Belen and Santa Fe, on Saturday I decided to do both. I boarded the 9:03 northbound, welcomed my friend J. aboard in Albuquerque at 10:01, and arrived in Santa Fe at 11:15. Train schedules are the only things in New Mexico that are precise. We're really much more laid back.



Travel time is about the same by rail or by car, but had I driven, I would still be driving around Santa Fe looking for a place to park.

Did you know that "Santa Fe" is also known as "The City Different"? Truer words were never spoken.

Our first stop was the Farmer's Market, just down the block from the train station. It is a bustling indoor mercantile featuring free-range, organic, grass-fed everything.


Whatever I would buy here would have to be lugged around all day, so I had to be very selective.


As lovely as these sprouts were, I didn't think they'd survive a day at the bottom of my bag. I'm not really a sprout kind of gal anyway. But they sure were fresh and green and organic.


I was dazzled by this display of radishes, so artfully arranged on darling $4 mini bales of hay. Sort of makes the $7.50 I've been paying for a 60-pound bale seem like a real bargain. Yep, things are always a little pricey in Santa Fe. But I'll bet those little bales were organic and grown on a free range.


Here we have some grass-fed singers. They were singing in a language other than English - I never could figure out what it was. The important thing to note in the photo above is the yellow sign that says Shepherd's Lamb. Can you hear it? Lin-da, come over here.


It was hard to hear over all the certified free-range singing, but that sign kept calling me and I obeyed.


And here we are at the Shepherd's Lamb booth. There are several things I must bring to your attention.
1. Skeins of organic lamb's wool - $12 each
2. Fresh lamb
3. Weird guy buying fresh lamb who must have thought I was taking a picture of him. (To take this overview, I aimlessly raised the camera high above my head and clicked the shutter. I had no idea that Weird Guy was looking at me until I downloaded the picture. Eww.)
4. Lamb pelts

Now which one of these things spoke to me so loudly that I bought it?



Why, the lamb pelt, of course. It was so luxurious and warm and wooly and wonderful. I had no idea what I would do with it once I got it home; all I knew was that I had to have it. So I bought the darned thing and lugged it all over Santa Fe all stinkin' day. What a p.i.t.a. But it was worth it.

I'm sitting on it right now as I type this. It has turned my desk chair into a warm cloud. The trick will be to keep my beautiful, white, clean (but machine washable) lamb pelt for myself. If I get careless and leave it unattended, someone else is likely to lay claim to it.


Here is Smooch, looking a little sheepish, don't you think?


Here is part two of my personal attempt to stimulate the economy. Sadly, it does not feature a new hat, but does include a little bling I can wear under it.