It’s a good thing that I held on to my “Santa Fe Mother Blogger” moniker during my 11-year absence from the City Different because I’m a Santa Fe local again.

“What? You left one of the most beautiful beaches in California to live in the desert?” is the ongoing question tossed my way.

Since I first moved to Santa Fe in 1988 I’ve had to explain at least three things:

1) Santa Fe is not hot like Phoenix. The altitude is an oxygen-thin 7000 feet, and it sits just below the magnificent Sangre de Cristo mountains, “the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains.”

2) Santa Fe, like all the villages, towns, and cities in New Mexico is part of the United States and has been since 1912.

3) Most of the history here has been lost to the general history of the United States — making visits here absolutely fascinating.

When I arrived here in 1988, I left behind my career as a journalist, writer, photographer, and public relations work for a quaint little bookstore on the Alameda. So while I packed an early ancestor of Oly, I rarely put it to work.  Now in 2019, the new generation of Oly’s family, hangs from my neck and shoulder and wants to introduce readers and the curious to the nature of Santa Fe.

Under a week into residing at the 8000 foot level, Oly and I moseyed about with our eyes and lenses wide open. Here’s what we captured yesterday, one day past the summer solstice.