This time we drove to Coronado State Monument not to gaze at the ancient ruins but so our daughter could attend a tinsmith class run by Jason Younis y Delgado. She learned a great deal from this gracious and talented craftsman of traditional New Mexico tinwork and among the pieces she created was the bird pictured above. "I've always wanted to know how to hammer tin, and now I do," she said. While she did tinwork we parked the van, put up the awning (what a blessing that thing is in the New Mexico sun), had a picnic lunch, and admired a different view of the Sandias for a welcome break from routine. We try as a family to slow down once a week and take in all that New Mexico has to offer. We do particularly well at this in the spring and fall, and we're just getting warmed up. Or maybe I should say cooled off. In the first picture above, the trees are along the banks of the Rio Grande, and the mountains are the Sandias.
