Caminobleu

Supporting Clean Energy

August 23, 2026

I was happy to see that today the Albuquerque Journal saw fit to publish my letter in support of Gail Evans’ column last week on her analysis of New Mexico’s energy situation.

If you click and scroll through this link you will find my letter, and if you click here you can read Gail Evans’ column.

Hi Suzanne, here you go. Not sure why I didn’t copy the letter in the first place. If you scroll down in the link, you should be able to find the letter there and also Gail Evans’ article to which I was responoding.

Oil profits should go to solar and wind power development

Thank you for publishing Gail Evans’ column on New Mexico’s energy policies. She is absolutely right. New Mexico and the gas and oil companies are making billions in profits from New Mexico’s gas and oil reserves. The state is raking in money in taxes, but the people of New Mexico are paying through the nose because the carbon produced by oil and gas extraction is ruining our climate and our health. Global warming has never been more evident than this summer, not only in New Mexico, but around the country and around the world. This is the first time in more than 40 years in New Mexico that I have seen the Rio Grande and our irrigation ditches completely dry.

We should not be subsidizing the oil companies. Our governor’s $250 proposed payback to the people of New Mexico is an insult. We are paying a lot for gas for our cars, our homes and our electricity. We should be putting oil company profits into building solar and wind power and stop killing ourselves and all other living things by encouraging increased fossil fuel extraction. And we should be charging oil and gas companies for the cost of the ecological disasters they are causing.

Linnea Hendrickson

Albuquerque

Below is a rainbow, a sign of hope for our parched land, taken on one of my early morning walks (they have to be early because otherwise it is too hot). I cannot imagine how difficult it is for people whose work requires them to be doing physical labor outside during this summer of endless 90-100 degree days.

Thanks to Esther Jantzen, who founded our little group of Elder Activist Readers (EAR), for bringing Evans’ column to my attention and encouraging me to write a letter.

I will update our reading list soon.

https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/opinion-talk-of-the-town/3105472

How Do My Lamellae Look: Featured in Artistonish Magazine

My photo ‘How Do My Lamellae Look‘ is now published at Artistonish – June 2026 magazine via @Biafarin portal.

flamingo close-up selected photo for Artistoniosh Magazine

To learn more, please go to:
https://www.artistonish.com/june2026?AW=AW127645940
Read the magazine via the below link:

https://www.artistonish.com/june2026

Artist’s Perspective: Enchanted Lens Camera Club Portfolio, 2025-26

This is my portfolio project for the Enchanted Lens Portfolio Project for 2025-26, presented on June 6, 2026. The purpose of the Enchanted Lens Camera Club’s portfolio projects is to present 12 images that represent the photographer’s interpretation of the theme outlined in the artist’s statement. The process involved selecting and editing photos from many possibilities in collaboration with a small group that met over the course of the year, along with the suggestions of a final reviewer. Comments welcome!

The varied subjects are: Background for artist’s statement, Corrugated metal on a shed in my backyard, Albuquerque, NM; Water flowing from a pipe into the Alameda drain, North Valley, Albuquerque, NM; A large moth camoflauged on a tree in the Amazonian rainforest, Ecuador; Cactus in the San Francisco Botanical Garden, California; Cracked red paint from an old sign found at Neon Park, Glorieta Station, Albuquerque, NM; Water trickling through sand on beach near Land’s End, San Francisco, CA; Dew on red leaves, San Francisco Botanical Garden; Cracked paint on a wooden door, Anos Syros, Greece; Ice in my patio fountain, Albuquerque, NM; Cracked black and gold lava on Fogo Island, Cabo Verde, West Africa; Old window, Goree Island, Senegal, West Africa; Barbed wire, Sabino Canyon Open Space, near Albuquerque, NM; Broken glass in boarded up window, downtown Albuquerque, NM.

For Previous Portfolio Projects, see below, and see the Photography Section in the Menu

Exploring My Photography Portfolios: 2018-2024

Submitting Artwork: My Experience with CaFé

Adventures in photography

Great Horned Owl, Albuquerque Bosque, November 2025.

Several months ago, someone introduced me to an organization called CaFé (Call for Entries) that lists opportunities for artists to submit their work to various online, virtual, and physical galleries and other organizations seeking artworks of various kinds, including photography, sculpture, painting, textiles.and literary arts.

It is possible to upload up to 200 photos and then submit them directly from a CaFe portfolio. This saves a lot of time searching for photos in a huge photo library. As I began writing this post, I checked some details on the site and saw there was a contest for photographs of the animal world that closed at midnight tonight! I had not yet uploaded the photo of the Great Horned Owl recently displayed in the Insight show in Albuquerque, but I knew where I could find it on my desktop. There was no entry fee, so I thought, why not?

However, it took longer than I thought it would (imagine!), and I just now finished submitting the picture of the owl, first uploading it to the portfolio, and then to the call. As much as I love this owl photo, I will be very surprised if it is accepted. I was delayed while I searched for a copy of the photo under 5 megabytes, but I did find the version above that met the requirements.

But the real reason I thought I would write this blog tonight was to post a link to Abstractics 001, to which I submitted some photos several months ago, and two were chosen. I realized only a week or two ago that the issue had actually been published, and since then it has taken me some time to figure out how to share it. Finally, I put it on my Facebook page tonight, but not everyone uses Facebook. Here is the link with at least two ways to access the online journal. This one had no entry fee but charged a fee once a photo was accepted. I’m not sure that paying $75 for this was wise, but I’ll see if anything comes of that exposure.

https://drive.google.com/…/1jDY9wo8Qasjye2eQbnB…/view…

This is a link to the Copy of Abstractics that contains a page for me and two of my photos. The entire file is very large. My photos are on pages 14-15.

You can also flip through the journal online in full size. It will say “Purchase online edition,” but the cost is $0. The images are very beautiful and worth looking at. Here is that link:

http://abstractics.com/issues/issue001.html

This is what my page looks like, a bit too small to read from this screenshot.

Writing Down Rabbit Holes

I’m juggling so many projects that I haven’t finished any of them. My memoir Once a Pilgrim was nearly done when Kent and I walked on the Voie de Vézelay in May. But I haven’t returned to it. I’m uncertain about the structure. Should I end with the first half of my 2010 solo pilgrimage? Should I start a new book with the second half? Wherever I leave off, I want readers to wait breathlessly for the happy ending of my relationship with Kent.

I also created a children’s picture book based on We Ran Away to Sea, tentatively titled Home Sea Home. I thought it would be a great way to keep Kent’s book alive. Parents would buy the book for their kids and also read the adult version. Then the kids would grow up to read that one, too. I should have sent the picture book to a professional editor or queried it to agents. Instead, I showed it to other writers. Some loved it, and some had so many suggestions that I thought it would be better as a chapter book. That one is almost finished as well. One of the critics of the picture book said, “You’re not giving up on it, are you?”

Inspired by Facing East

When my friend, Evelyn Begody, published her second book, Facing East: Boarding School and Beyond, I was eager to read it. After finishing her kindergarten chapter, I was inspired to write about my own elementary school experiences. I wrote about Kindergarten and First Grade quickly and easily. But Second Grade was harder. The trauma I experienced with flashcards that year carried over to problems with math for the rest of my life. I’ve put the grown-up incidents in another chapter.

While writing about Third Grade, I really went down a rabbit hole. That was the year I fell in love with writing stories. While writing about that year, I remembered a collection of ribbon-tied, decorated books in the dining room bookcase. There is one for each year from grades 5 through 10, filled with my stories. Doesn’t everyone have a bookcase in their dining room? Mine has a set of encyclopedias to settle questions that come up in dinnertime conversations. They were a necessity before the Internet. Come to think of it, we haven’t looked at them since we got cell phones.

I’m still considering what, if anything, to do with those stories. I edited one about Santa, a mouse, a lonely reindeer, and a life-sized toy polar bear. They have an adventure with dancers in grass skirts on a tropical beach. There is also a witch and a volcano. I wrote it when I was 14. I’m sending that one to the grandsons for Christmas. I haven’t yet revisited Evelyn’s book, although Kent read it cover to cover. But I have finished writing about Third Grade, where the story-writing started.

Covers of the books and illustrations.

Childhood Writing

I’ve reflected on the kid I was all those years ago, and on how much the world has changed. I wonder where I got some of my ideas. Some are obvious, some not, and what, if anything, to do with them now.

I’m amazed by how many themes from those stories still hold my attention. They include the meaning of life, faith, irony, concern for injustice and the environment, and a love of travel. I was surprised to find neatly handwritten tables of contents with page numbers, and signatures with my full name. There are many illustrations. Linnea Hendrickson’s Freshman Folly of 1959 has a hand-lettered note: Copyright 1960 by L.M.H. Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The books include poems, jokes, limericks, and stories. In the upper grades, there are book reviews. My reading choices are revealing. As a freshman, I reviewed biographies of Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hans Christian Andersen. There was also a biography of a pair of dancers who escaped from behind the Iron Curtain. Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough captivated me. I became obsessed with Paris, although I didn’t get there until after I married Ed on my thirty-third birthday. Richard Halliburton’s New Worlds to Conquer (a book of my mother’s) fueled my love of travel and adventure. I read most, if not all, of Halliburton’s books. Who’s even heard of Halliburton today? There is a lengthy article in Wikipedia .

YouTube and Tiktok Videos

I have completed two videos from last May’s pilgrimage and many brief TikTok videos. Most of those were designed to bring attention to We Ran Away to Sea.

La Voie de Vézelay

Bourges and Chateauroux

Short TikTok Videos for We Ran Away to Sea

À Bien tôt! (Until next time! See you soon!)

Happy Thanksgiving and a Recipe

“When life is sweet, be thankful, and rejoice; but when bitter, be strong, and persevere.” — Matshona Dhliwayo

Autumn Leaves

Tomorrow I will make a storied mashed potato recipe. It originated with our dear friend, the irrepressible Sue Grant, who passed away in June 2024.

Recipe for Mashed Potato Casserole

4 cups mashed potatoes, butter (4 T up to 1 stick)

& milk (1/2 to 1 cup), salt and pepper

8 oz cream cheese

1 egg

¼ cup chopped pimento (don’t have, don’t add)

¼ cup finely chopped onion (or much more – I like onions)

Pour into 2-quart baking dish, which is greased

Dot top with more butter and paprika

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Note from Pam: Sue, help! I’ve lost your mashed potato casserole recipe, checked my completely disorganized folder, and it’s nowhere to be found. Wouldn’t you know, everyone in the country wants it for Thanksgiving because I’ve given the recipe to one half of the country and you to the other, and I’ve lost track of it. Please send it. Forgive me for losing it. Can I double the recipe? (Sunday 11/23/2008)

Note from Geoff: Sue says that the quantities aren’t all that important. Pimento and paprika are mostly for color. This dish is good, one of my favorites, but not a diet dish. Perfect for Thanksgiving. Having the actual recipe is so unimportant that Sue typically doesn’t use one or even remember the pimento. She adds way more onion than the recipe calls for. Modify however you wish.

Note from Linnea: When Sue and Geoff joined us for Thanksgiving in Albuquerque in 2012 with other Brookings folks (Joe and Signe Stuart, Terry and Ruth Branson, and many other relatives and friends), Sue made this recipe, introducing it to me for the first time. We’ve been making it for large gatherings and holiday dinners ever since.

If you read We Ran Away to Sea, you may recognize the names of our guests because they all appear in the book. Sue and her husband Geoff also joined us on a sailing adventure in the Virgin Islands in 2013. Recorded in vivid detail in this YouTube video.

Unfortunately, there are not many pictures, none of the whole group, and the quality is poor. We were having too much fun to take pictures.

Pictures,Thanksgiving 2012: l-r Terry Branson and Kent, table, Linnea with Jesse & Carrie behind

Exploring My Photography Portfolios: 2018-2024

I have finally collected the seven portfolio projects I completed for the Enchanted Lens Camera Club in Albuquerque. There is one for each year, beginning in 2018-19. They were scattered in various computer files where I had to search for them. I now have them in a Mixbook book. I am looking at them and pondering the variety of topics I chose and how well I executed each one. What will be my topic for the 2025-26 year? It is a difficult decision. What do I enjoy photographing? What do I want to convey, and what will help me grow?

Today, I am adding six projects to the blog, from newest to oldest. I did not include the 2024-25 portfolio, which has its own post. This will give me another way to find them. It allows me to share them with you.

I welcome your questions and responses. Some possibilities for 2026 include old buildings (such as businesses) in Albuquerque, as well as themes like people and books, people and food, and sacred places. What would you like to see next?

Lights of the Polar Night Portfolio, 2023-2024

Patterns in Nature, Portfolio, 2022-2023

Human Impact on Mother Earth, 2021-2022

The Eyes Have It, 2020-2021

Windows Transformed, 2019-2020

The Pilgrim’s Way, 2018-2019

There is also a video roughly based on “The Pilgrim’s Way.”

Kent Twelve Ways 2025 Photo Portfolio

This was my 2024-2025 Portfolio Project Completed for the Enchanted Lens Photography Club (ELCC), Albuquerque, New Mexico. The aim is to compile a group of pictures on a theme. Click on the individual photos to enlarge them

Chateauroux Day 2

Thursday, May 22

We had a fairly quiet day, sleeping later than usual before walking out for coffee and pastry at a nearby boulangerie, then exploring more of the old town and the parks and gardens along the Indre before lunch at a lovely restaurant, Jeux 2 Goûts in the old town.

Afterward, we visited the Musée Bertrand. Bertrand was one of Napoleon I’s marshals and generals and was with him on St. Helena when he died. The museum was an odd collection of art, memorabilia, and objects collected from Egypt and elsewhere. One of the most interesting pieces was a large sculpture by Camille Claudel.

As I wandered through the house, my main thought was that I should get rid of all my stuff when I get home.

We also visited the enormous Gothic church of St. Andre whose gleaming white spires helped us get our bearings.

Inside was the banner for this year of Jubilee proclaimed by Pope Francis one year ago, “Spes Non Confundit.” Hope does not disappoint.

Feeling without hope, I read through much of Francis’s proclamation, which moved me to tears. It seems our world continues to accelerate in a direction opposite of that Francis urged us.

Tomorrow we take an early morning bus to Bourges. I realized only today, that this city, too, is on the Vézelay northern pilgrim route. There is a brass scallop shell right in front of our hotel.

Here’s a video Kent took a few days ago when we walked through tall grass (oops, I guess you have to go to TikTok to see it:

“Come on!” he says

Chateauroux

May 21, Wednesday, 7,900 steps. 3.1 miles (mostly without backpacks).

Thanks to Mme Tessier, we arrived in Chateauroux about 8:30 this morning. She left us at the train and bus station and our hotel was just across the street. We brought our backpacks over, and it was Ok with my mixed up day for our reservation. They took our packs and said come back at 2. Did they have a city map? No.

So we sat in the lobby for a bit and pulled Google maps before heading toward the tourist office, closed until 10. I gaped at the shop windows filled with elegant clothes, shoes, and travel brochures. Of course nothing was yet open. We wandered toward green trees, and spied a golden Mary atop a dome. The Eglise de Notre Dame was open and filled with luminous stained glass. I spied a St. Leo, and wondered if this was the one from whom the new pope chose his name. I was fascinated by windows with Martha and Margaret with dragons at their feet.

Back outside we followed the green spaces to the impressive chateau, now holding government offices. Then down through old streets to an original gate to the city, later a prison, and on to the Indre River with ducks, a fisherman and walkways through parkland.

Most interesting public we. Push a button inside to lock and unlock and toilet flushes.

Back up through medieval streets to a welcoming tourist office with maps. After espresso and pastry and we continued wandering. It was getting colder and windier, so we joined a group of people waiting for a bus (free city buses). We ended up at what must have been a suburban shopping mall, but stayed on for the return trip and lunchtime in the city center at a lively Italian restaurant where we had pizza and too much wine (at least for me).

A sweet perhaps 3-year-old girl at the next table waved goodbye to us, so I showed her a picture of Amar, and then one of Psyche and all 3, and she smiled and said, “Bebe!” before she and mother and two friends left.

We have a rather quirky split-level hotel room with bed atop two steps and windows at the other end of the room.

It is cold, high of 60, with rain predicted, which could have been good walking weather

One day would probably be enough here, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings. On to Bourges on Friday and Paris on Sunday.

We heard from Alain. His knee is giving him trouble, and his wife will pick him up in Gargilesse, where we were going to finish and could have arrived today.