Amazing, Beautiful Fall Saturday

Today was an amazing, beautiful fall Saturday!
Our temperatures have cooled down, and the trees

in Albuquerque are finally actively in their fall colors.

Autumn looked at me with a sweet face,

begging to get out and see fall. After all, with a name like Autumn,

this is her season! We went to the Open Space Visitor Center.

An area with temporary exhibits had an exhibit

of rocks stacked and balancing on each other.

Fascinating! 

Ella wanted to climb and sit on the rocks

that seemed to be just her size.
I allowed her to stand on the edge near a larger rock.

The next room we visited had some artifacts of New Mexico history,

and information about the west side of Albuquerque.

New Mexico has a history with the Pueblo people as

original people. Spaniards then arrived. They started out

seeking wealth, but ended up bringing their culture,

beliefs, goods, and lifestyle to New Mexico.

The west side of Albuquerque has a history

that includes the petroglyphs on the mesa.

New Mexico, including Albuquerque,
 is geologically formed by volcanoes.
It is known as the "Volcano State".

http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/volcanoes-of-nm.html

These qualities were considered in the preservation,

archaeological exploration, and development of the region.

The pottery created by the Pueblo people

can be purchased, but it is also a part of the cultural

history of New Mexico. Pottery and pieces of pottery

were found in archaeological excavations.

Autumn saw a low tray to the side of the room.

It looked like a place for supervised children to

touch broken pottery pieces. I thought about it.
I have the book When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor.
It also captured my interest as an inviting space.

There were no signs indicating that people could touch the pieces,

but then, why would they be so accessible if they could not be touched?
So, I figured that I am adult, and we would be very careful!

Today's ADAD theme is "in the past", and the pottery pieces

are a good representation of our past history here.

The room next the pieces of pottery

showed other items that have been found in parks

or other earth based places.

An old horse shoe? A broken bottle?

So we have gone from the original Pueblo people,

valuable artifacts such as pottery, the contributions of the
Spaniards, and how the land needed to be preserved

and protected from more recent populations through

the development of the region.

After viewing the inside,
we went outside to view the open space on the property.
It is migration season for the cranes and geese.

The fields had both geese and cranes on them.
It was a peaceful place to be.

The trees along the bosque are turning a golden yellow.

They are beautiful!

After we finished with our time overlooking the field

we walked around to the garden on the side, which Ella

had seen in full bloom this summer.

The wall of the garden is made from adobe.

It was used in the past for building homes here.

Variations of the southwestern style are used to build homes,

but they are built with stucco and not real adobe.

Of course the flowers and the corn of summer

were gone, but it was an opportunity to focus

more on the lava rocks bordering the garden areas
where plants grew during the summer.
The lava rocks are a part of our geological past.

We were just about ready to leave from our visit

to the Open Space Visitor Center, but Autumn

became particularly excited about a fall tree in the small garden that was

losing yellow leaves and was just her size.

So, a girl named Autumn had some time

to enjoy one of the best aspects of the changes

during the season of autumn!

We hope that our friends are also finding it

to be a season of joy worth noticing!

ADAD In the Past