Garden Party

by Wolf Schneider

Gathered under the portal

Santa Fe is said to be a Cancer city according to astro-cartography, and so a place where those born under the sign of Cancer or with significant Cancer influences in their charts feel immediately at home. Take my friend Amy Hoban, who just celebrated her Cancer birthday with a girls’ garden party given by her friend Judy Talbott. We gathered under Judy’s portal for a convivial afternoon and fabulous lunch of champagne, iced tea, chicken salad, cucumber salad, blueberry muffins, and lemon birthday cake – – all homemade by Judy! We welcomed fashionista Jane Smith (looking fabulous) back from Alabama, and helped Sheila Ellis plan a Napa trip. With many of us being sometimes Los Angelenos, we traded intelligence about Carmageddon. I brought a bunch of books that I’d recently read to pass along, and the most popular ones were Alan Arkin’s memoir and “Pie Town.” As for Amy’s gifts, everyone coveted the Tarte makeup set and Dry Bar certificates. There was also a good bit of oohing over Steven Tyler’s autobiography.

Summer is always Santa Fe’s most social time. The Pink Adobe patio has been filling up for lunch every Friday, what with the Origins fashion shows there and the $16 lobster salad (which costs double that at dinner). There’s Spanish Market in late July, Indian Market in late August, and the Canyon Road art shows every Friday night. It’s been a hot summer so far, and we’re all hoping the monsoons will get cranking soon with those big, booming evening thunderstorms that cool things down.

                          

Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, consulting editor of Southwest Art, and also blogs at www.wolfschneiderusa.com.

Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in Artist Studio: Gregory Lomayesva