new mexico august 31, 2026

Today we drove highway 4 from Bernalillo, NM going to Bandelier National Monument. Some of the pictures below are of the trip and some of them are of the monument.

We had been to the monument in 2010, in the winter. It was snowing while we were there. We were in a rental car and were very lucky to make it back to the valley as the snow piled up.

Today was the opposite. It was hot. It was dry. And we are 16 years older. So we didn't walk as far or climb as many ladders.

More images will appear here as I process those taken today (August 31).

As always most or all of these will eventually be on www.davidarment.photos.

On my Facebook page I will post pictures from 2010 and contrast them with these.

Thanks for taking a look around.

Ladder into cliff dwelling at Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

Horses under a tree in the rain. I got caught out in the rain and was able to see these horses taking shelter under this tree.

Log building in a vast valley. There were elk in the valley very far away.

Mountain stream with yellow flower.

Bench at the Bandelier Visitors Center.

Log bench.

Village in the valley at Bandelier National Monument.

In a picture above you can see a ladder going up to the cliff dwelling. This is a picture from that dwelling. Two ladies went up before Pam and me. It was pretty crowded in the space. It was out of the sun and a bit cooler.

 

for fun

 

New Mexico August 28 and 29 2026

These are some of the pictures from the last two days. I may add more as I process the photographs so maybe you should check back if you like these. The new ones will go at the bottom.

And, as always, all of these will end up on www.davidarment.photos, but that will take a while for me to get done.

I hope you enjoy the images and some of the information.

If you have any questions, please get let me know.

 This is the Clear Light Opera House as found in Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. 

As you can see, there's a white plaque off to the right side of the building. Here's what the plaque says:

Built in 1881, the opera house was built by Stephen B. Elkins to encourage the development of his new town. It was acquired prior to 1884 by William C. Hurt, an ex-Confederate soldier from Tennessee who had come to New Mexico for his health. Many famous traveling entertainers performed in Hurt's hall. W. C. Hurt operated a general store in Cerrillos until his death in 1889. The Cerrillos Masonic Lodge, which had been using the hall for meetings, purchased this building for $305 from widow Maude L. Hurt on September 21st, 1903. The sign shows that it was placed by the Cerrillos Historical Society. 

There is another post on these doors that I created today, so I won't say more about these doors here.

Antique Nighty Eight in Old Town Albuquerque. August 28,

Old sign on a building in Madrid, NM. Pam thinks it says "Sears Robuck Co". Maybe it does? I think there is a paint can at the bottom. What do you think?

Old house Madrid, NM August 29, 2026

Doors to Artist's house in Los Cerrillos, NM August 29, 2026

Door and Walls, Los Cerrillos, NM August 29, 2026

Steeple at the Catholic Church, Los Cerrillos, NM, August 29, 2026 

In the garden, Catholic Church, Los Cerrillos, NM August 29, 2026.

Chevrolet Bel Aire, Madrid, NM, August 29, 2026

doors at Los Cerrillos

Today we drove "The Turquoise Trail" which is described as a 50-65 mile scenic drive along New Mexico Highway 14 that connects Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

And as usual we re-visited places we'd been to before and we traveled some roads we had never seen before.

One of the places we revisited was the town of Los Cerrillos. When we entered the town I remembered taking pictures of two doors in a salmon colored wall. I found those doors and took their picture... again. Both pictures are below.

One picture is from today August 29, 2026 and the other from January 15, 2018. Today the high temperature was about 95 (F). I expect the temp in January 2018 was much cooler

The door has changed. What changes to you see.

And I have changed. What differences do you see in how the pictures were composed? How has the processing changed?

In 2018 there were stones leading from the door. These stones no longer exist. Given the stones I expect that I wanted them included in the shot so I "went vertical" an the composition was "portrait". Today there were no stones that begged to be in the picture and I "went horizontal" or what is called "landscape".

In 2018 I boosted the color. Today, not so much. 

Which do you like best?

As usual, eventually the new door will be added to the website www.davidarment.photos

 Today Saturday August 29, 2026

January 15, 2018

olds 98

 Old cars parked in Old Town Albuquerque. August 28, 2026

Clean as can be and I loved the color.

oldest church in colorado

Pam and I stopped yesterday on our travels from Colorado to New Mexico to see "the oldest church in Colorado". There is a plaque below that tells you about the church.

Pictures are of the inside and outside of the church.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, August 27, 2026, Colorado

As I process pictures I will likely add to this page... in case you want to check back later.

Eventually all or most of these pictures will be on the website www.davidarment.photos.

This shows a colored drawing or textile hanging depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, featuring the traditional imagery of the Virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon supported by an angel with colorful wings, surrounded by a radiant halo of light.

About the Image

• Subject: The Virgin of Guadalupe is a deeply revered Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary based on her reported 1531 appearances in Mexico.
• Style: The artwork appears to be a framed or hung fabric panel or devotional drawing showing her classic iconography with a pinkish robe, blue mantle with stars, and a golden-red mandorla (halo of sunbeams).

This artwork was created by Fr. Ron Raab, CSC, a Holy Cross priest and artist who served as a pastor in Colorado. [1]

The piece represents Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Conejos, Colorado—which was established in 1857/1858 and is recognized as the oldest Catholic parish in the state of Colorado. [1, 2, 3]

Iconography of the Artwork

• The Central Figure: Depicts the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe, seated inside a radiant mandorla, uniquely styled with a traditional wide-brimmed hat and holding a staff/distaff, reflecting regional folk art and historical Southwestern influences. [1]
• The Borders: The central image is framed by individual tile blocks painted with flaming Sacred Hearts (symbolizing intense divine love and devotion), detailed with a base of flowing water elements characteristic of Fr. Raab's sacramental design themes. [1, 2]

 

tunnel vision

There are a series of tunnels north of the town of Buena Vista. These are not on the main road but going north out of town on 371.

 

from the cave

 The ice caves at "the Grotto" near Aspen, Colorado.

You have to climb down into the cave. A 74 year old man should never do this. There was no place to stand. You stand on broken rocks... big rocks. 

These are "ice caves". I think that in the winter these caves stay cool and "once upon a time" the old timers stored their food here. But this is so far from anything I don't know that people would be there.

August 26, 2026

trestle bridge

The Trestle Bridge near Buena Vista, Colorado, August 2026

The sign (or plaque) says Build by Virginia Bridge and Iron Co Roanoke, VA 1919

 

barn and rainbow in the fog

 I love old barns. Lots of people do. This one has a nicer grain elevator behind it. You can often tell where a barn once was by the fact that the grain storage unit (grain elevator) remains. The grain storage was in concrete or brick and the barn was wood.

Ths same will be true for this scene. Someday there will be but a grain elevator.

The rainbow... well it lasted minutes.

western landscape

Western landscape. Colorado August 2026.

https://www.davidarment.photos

 

two hammers

 

My dad's favorite tool was a hammer. It was his tool of choice. There didn't seem to be any situation that didn't call for a hammer.

He would have somehow fit into the scenario of the old saying, "when you are a hammer all the world is a nail". Except the object of his intentions did not need to be a nail.

He would beat on it. It didn't matter what "it" was.

If that didn't work the next thing he did was...

... get a bigger hammer.

Comanche theatre

 We are visiting my sister in Colorado. This is the sign for the drive-in at Buena Vista and the back of the screen.

international

 alongside the road in colorado.

Iron Bridge

 August 2026

Pam at an iron bridge

 Watkins Mill State Park, Missouri, August 2026

we never saw elaine

 We looked for Elaine but we never saw her. 

We have a GPS in our phone, and it tells us how to get from point A to point B and it tells us what's coming up. We travel a lot and we use this tool.

Today it told us that there were police cars ahead, and sometimes there were, and sometimes there weren't. It gave us all kinds of information today. 

Sometimes the GPS doesn't talk to us at all. It just is very quiet. Like it is insulted and is giving us the "cold shoulder". 

...but today was very talkative. It told us where to turn and made generally good suggestions.

At one point, it said, "Watch for Elaine Closure ahead!" Well, I don't know any person named Elaine Closure, but I would sure be on the lookout for her if my GPS told me to. We never saw a lady named Elaine all day long so far as we know.

About that the time we were told to look out for Elaine, we did see a bunch of people working. They didn't have name tags on or anything, so I'm not really sure if one of them was named Elaine or even if they'd had name tags on. We were driving about 45 through a work zone so it would have been hard to focus on name tags.

Our GPS does takes us down some strange roads sometimes, apparently unaware that last vehicle to travel this particular road was an ox cart pulling a covered wagon. So that happens sometimes.

But this is the first time it had us looking out for a person.

Has your GPS done this to you? What has it done to you?

Pam and "soils"

Yesterday August 12, I posted on Facebook about Pam's worms. I called them pets. Some people were confused why someone would have worms in a box.

So let me try to explain. Pam is a farm girl. Her dad ran a big dairy farm, the biggest in the county, "back in the day." She grew up playing with the cats in the barn and doing all the things a farm girl does.

Later in life, she became a master gardener, and today she is very involved in gardening and is in the garden whenever she gets a chance.

She is an expert in soils. She knows all about soils and how to make things grow. She runs tests on her soils and then modifies them to make whatever it is she wants to grow or grow better.

Once I saw her sell a trailer to a man, and as a part of the deal she had him move duck compost from one place to another place. She's a person who goes and buys compost. In our area, we have Amish horses that get tied up in town to a hitching post. The horses do what horses naturally do, and Pam and I will go pick up what they leave behind and bring it to a place where it's composted down and later ends up in a garden.

So Pam studied what worms do to a garden and began to raise worms, and that has led to her keeping them in our garage. Her current effort is to figure out how to overwinter the worms in the ground and then resurrect them in the spring.

She is a farm girl through and through who can raise flowers and vegetables and whatever it is she wants to raise. Worms are just a component of her efforts

Downsizing

 

I told Pam tonight that if there is a round of lay-offs she won't be let go. Usually this is a management team decision, but I'm pretty sure I can say she will be kept on.

This is because of several things but tonight she outdid herself with supper and the only thing I could think of to encourage her and compliment her was to tell her she would be "kept on".

She didn't seem at all grateful and the rolling pin was evident in her hand so I went to watch my favorite cat play the piano on YouTube.