It’s been a gray and rainy couple of days here, but we still got out to attend a few events around the Silver City area.
Our homeowner recently sent us an e-mail regarding upcoming events at the Silver City Public Library, so yesterday afternoon we walked there to attend a book launch and reading for a local author. The author, Mary Hotvedt, read excerpts from the 600+ page book which was inspired by an Icelandic saga that she had read while visiting Iceland. It has dual stories that span time periods and connect Iceland and the US Southwest, including Silver City which is renamed in the book. The book seemed very interesting, and the audience of about 30 asked some great questions at the end. We chatted a bit with the author’s brother, who was wearing a Milwaukee Brewer’s baseball cap and who commented on Bob’s Iowa Hawkeyes cap as we were leaving.
and discussing the plot and characters of the story
Every Saturday from 9 am until noon, Silver City holds a farmers market near downtown. We hadn’t yet visited the market, so we headed down there this morning a little after 10 am. It was relatively small, but still had a great selection of produce, baked goods (including gluten free), meats, and some crafts as well. Bob bought a burrito for a late breakfast when we were there.
as we walked to the Farmers Market
After our perusal and Bob’s breakfast, we stopped at the Co-op to pick up a few items and then walked back to the house. We then got ready to drive to Fort Bayard in the nearby community of Santa Clara to check out the 10th annual Tamal Fiesta y Mas.
of a group of deer, one of which seemed to be a bit hobbled.
Fort Bayard, which we had seen from the car a week or so ago when we did the Big Tree hike, was founded in 1866 to provide security, mainly by African American ‘Buffalo Soldiers,’ against Native American attacks on White settlers. It was later converted into the Army’s first tuberculosis sanitarium, which was the world’s largest at that time. It was later converted into a VA hospital. While there were once over 100 buildings on the site, many still remain, although only one appears to be in use. That building houses the Fort Bayard Museum. The Tamale Festival was held on the large grounds in front of the museum.
The building on the left is the current museum.
The festival had lots of food trucks, many serving tamales but also fry bread, nachos, etc., and also held other activities throughout the day including Mexican folkloric dancing, piñata breaking for kids, mariachi, a disc golf tournament, cornhole tournament, and a car show. It was a fairly chilly day for the event, but the attendance still seemed good.
to the other side of the vendors
