So a couple of weeks ago Louise,  Bingo and I went to Santa Fe.  We stayed at a Casiti on Laughlin Street.  Of course before we went, I used Google maps and street view to see what the place looked like.   It's not on street view!  That's how local it was!
I think Casiti is Spanglish for Condo, or maybe Mexish for Little House.  The weather was really nice.  It was cool enough that when we were driving around town we could bring Bingo and leave him in the vehicle.  This meant he got to get out at each stop and go for little walks.  He really like this.  He seem to be endless fascinated by the smells of the different shrubbery.  Some of which was Yucca and Cactus plants.  I was amazed and thankful he never got any spines in his nose.
At the Casiti Louise found a book on Santa Fe gardening.  It said that Santa Fe has less than 10 days over 90 degrees a year.  I was amazed.  This is because Santa Fe is at 7,000 feet.  However, they only have 5 inches of rain in a whole year.  It seems hotter because there are so few clouds.  These are the factors that lead to the New Mexico "light".  The view through the cool dry air leads to beautiful landscapes.  This is what brought the first artist to Taos and then Santa Fe starting in 1898.  Here is a nice article about it. This article cover more of Santa Fe artist colony.
So while driving around we looked for plants, planters, art, weaving and wool.  We found planters, weaving books and goat wool.  The High Country gardens were closed for the year.  (Louise was so sad we had to eat lunch at  Tortilla Flats right away.)
One day I got into a length discussion with Matthew Rhodes about his art.  He has some very nice splatter paintings.  Sort of a Pollack technique but with a whole different energy.  (The differences are rooting his base methods and color palette selection.)  Matthew was definitely a guru of his inner dude. A master of the hard sell.  (I'll look him up again.)