Wandering about the city

We decided to spend our first day here exploring the city. After two long days of driving it was a relief to walk around and having had a short introduction to Santa Fe last night, at least one of us was very eager to see more.

It was easy to see why Jordi and Carol love the place. Almost every shop window contained something of interest - here's a bag made from ring pulls.

This jewellery shop had the most beautiful inlay bracelets in the window by Judy Weisenthal - aren't they gorgeous?

Of course, as well as the attractive and interesting, there are other goods on sale.

and plenty of local souvenirs, few of which would really look good at home.

On Carol's recommendation we headed for Origins - a really fantastic clothes shop with loads of gorgeous things to wear. Sadly, however, we had the "help" of an assistant who greeted us at the door and never left our side, pulling out $4000 jackets and imploring us to try stuff on. Try as we might to lose her, we never got the chance to take a close look at some of those beauties on the hangers. Quite frustrating.

We decided some culture was required and headed for the New Mexico Fine Art Gallery, where we found the work of Gustave Baumann especially interesting. The "Flux" exhibition was fun too - especially the glass "fur" coat.

After lunch we headed for the state Capitol building, thinking we'd add New Mexico to our collection. A singularly uninspiring building from the outside, the warmth of the welcome and the pride which those working there shared meant that from the moment we stepped inside we knew this had been a good decision. The best free show in town in fact.

Not only is there an amazing collection of art inside, most on permanent display, the temporary art quilt exhibition was truly fascinating.

This piece of weaving - not a painting - by Janusz Kozikowski was a magnificent work, though others captured our imagination equally. The buffalo head made of reclaimed materials including a paintbrush fringe was our favourite, I think.

But those quilts were terrific too - the quilting quite breathtaking.

Oh, and if you are in Santa Fe tomorrow and look for those bracelets in the window of Jett, you'll find only two. Guess where the other one is?