Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 2 , 1943

Monday afternoon -

This morning two letters from you and one from
Henwar - you telling about him - he telling about you --

It was good to have - I've been painting all day -
Johnnie is here - he was sharpening knives and tanning himself all
morning out in the patio - I shut my door and window and pulled down
the shade and went on about my own business --

He came on Saturday afternoon -- brought a watermelon-
we all sat right down and ate all we could -- he also brought a
steak and lots of veg tables - we all went over to Navajo canyon for
supper with the steak last night -- Mike went along too -- We all
climbed of course - I found a new canyon- hard to go up it but for
that reason it was very good and looked as if no one else had ever
been there -- very grand high walls of the redish pink sandstone with
yellow spaces near the top and then the grey top -- the stream bed
we walked up right at the foot of the sheer wall of rock -- in a
few spots very big old trees - pines -- hemlock -- and in one place
a very yellow green tree - very beautiful against the wall of red
rock -- Oh -- it was lovely --

Supper was good -- every one cooking their
own steak on a long fork -- We also had a fine eggplant dish - hot --
that Maria had made just before we went over -

Every time I go out like that I wonder why I dont go
often--I--I am enjoying seeing Mike -- he is almost as special
as Henwar -- It is good to know that a young one like that is growing
up -- He is 22 now and getting big - weighs 175 pounds -- I'm very
fond of him -

Maria is quite wilted from her beam life --

She hasn't learned yet when she must rest --

I may go to the Black Place camping this week -- It is
hot to go but when the new gas rationing goes into effect I cannot go
-- Will write you if I go -- I would feel a little better about going
if I heard that you were safely in the country --

If I go it will be
for four or five days -

My love to you Little One -- and do be careful of yourself --

Thanks for the clippings you sent me --

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 14 , 1943

Alfred - I did not get a letter off yesterday -- today is Wednesday - and I am wondering if you get off to the Lake today -- Your letter this morning says it is your intention -- I will mail this to the Lake --

It is four here now-- if you get off you are there -- I will be
waiting anxiously to hear-

The reason I didn't get a letter of yesterday
is because Mike came for lunch - and just as we finished a hard rain
came - four waterfalls running on the cliffs - Mike and I put on rain
cloaks - I my hat - and walked out to the cliff - then climbed way up
as high as we could to the foot of the largest one - It is so fine -
as I have told you before - the tall muddy waterfall tumbling down over
shining wet rock - then the sun in and out over the wide beautiful
land - when up high like that one can see for many many miles - the
freshness of everything wet smells so good - it is very good -

When we came in we washed our shoes and sat about bare
footed -

I seeing that Mike was settled to stay got out my darning --
mended three pairs of stockings and a three cornered tear in my
camping canvas that I had been wanting to mend for a couple of years
-- Mike stretched out on the couch - his shirt and shoes off -
playing with the fly swatter and the kittens --

Finally he stretched
and remarked " You know I never would lie around like this all
afternoon at home without my shirt and my shoes playing with kittens
and the fly swatter "

-- He thought it about three when it was six --

As we drove him over to the other ranch for his supper there
was a very fine clear rainbow -- Johnnie had left in the morning -
It was a fine feeling when we settled down to supper without any
guest -

It is really laughable -- the feeling of relief that comes
over the house when only the ones that really belong here are left -

At supper Orlinda - my new Spanish girl - began telling
about her family -

Well I will not go into it in my letter but we all
laughed and laughed -- I never get over being surpised at the
things they do -

the women of her family seem to be so clean that the
men leave home --

Mike told about a Spanish barkeeper who was slightly gassed
in the last war who had decided that it was the gas they let loose
in the last war went all around the world and did queer things to
everyone - that is why we are having this war - because everyone went
a little crazy because of the gas that got loose from the last war --

Well - I suppose it makes as much sense as many
things --

A kiss to you --

I hope this finds you in the sun --

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 5, 1943

Oh Alfred -- I have your letter of Tuesday -- saying you hope to get away on Wednesday and plan to use a wheel chair at the station -- I would think that would save much energy for you but it also makes me want to cry - Yes -- it makes me very much want to cry --

-- Life seems so difficult -- and so sad --

I haven't much to write you -- I've been struggling all morning with two new drawings for a new painting --

The weather is so unsettled we do not get off for camping at the Black Place -- Every afternoon there are great clouds over the sky and rain either here or near by --

It is no use to go with the weather like this --

The new thin moon doesn't help any -- it was floating out in a cloudy sky last evening --

Mike came last evening for supper - We sat on the roof -- we had beans and cold slaw and lots of fresh pearls of garlic -- The beans were specially for him and much appreciated --

He stayed till we suggested we had better take him home so we could get to bed --

It was so nice an evening -- He goes away tomorrow -- it has been nice seeing him --

This morning he came galloping across the space out toward the mail box -- riding a palomino horse bringing me the mail -- your letter and the Santa Fe paper that I take --

My two kittens are sick -- These kittens are always very delicate till they are quite big -- The one I like best -- the smallest -- is

most ailing -- I just hope they don't die --

There are menacing clouds all about in the sky -- Thunder
too -- maybe more rain --

Oh -- I wonder how you are-- Don't let things bother you --
try to be quiet and get a little sun --

A quiet kiss to you -- I wish I could be
sitting beside you -- walking with you a little -- Touch you with
my hand -- --

Maria remarked as we finished lunch today that I
am looking very well --

all I could say was that I am feeling very
well --

Remember me to whoever is about

A quiet kiss to you

Have you your box 201?

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 6, 1943

Alfred ---

The thunder rolls around again this afternoon -- clouds
all over the sky but it doesn't rain -- it only looks as if it
would at any moment --

I intended to go out to work but a few drops
of rain came once in a while and that makes it difficult --

I was
out yesterday -- working on a drawing of some time back and I wanted
to start painting today --

Mike came in and told us good by and is gone -- He
is very funny trying his first moustach -- and Johnnie is going to
have him made a deputy which seems to be a great ambition he has
cherished for some time --

He is so afraid there may be some hitch
and it cant be arranged --

I think you pay a dollar and get a badge
-- We had to laugh over it -- My morning -- I don't know where it
went to --

I walked out and brought in the car I was working out in
last evening -- I had left it there last night --

Then I drove out
for the mail and there was none from you -- only my bank and broker-
st atements -- and the Santa Fe paper --

I haven't had a letter from you in two days-- I hope
-- fer for one in the morning --

I hosed off the stone porch all around the patio
-- It feels fresh and cool and clean -- that is my special job --
I never let any one else do it --

-- It is one of those jobs with a hose that I enjoy --
and any one else would dislike --

I love the freshness -- even like
getting my feet wet --

Oh -- I wish the weather would settle and I'd like to
have a letter from you

We are going to Abiquiu -- need some food and
the laundry -- it is always an adventure --

A kiss to you --

A.S. marked: Rec'd Aug 10, 1943

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug. 7, 1943 ?

Saturday 10 A.M. July 9 (August ?)

Good morning:

Here it is sunny and windstill -- last night while we
were in Abiquiu it rained here but it didn't rain there -- 18
miles away --

I just have your train letter -- telling me you are at
the Lake -- or almost there --- It is postmarked Lake George --
Aug 4 -- 6 P.M. so I assume you are there and I hope alright -- I
am very glad to have the word from you ---

There was also a note from Saga telling me you got
away --

Well I feel somewhat relieved --

Now do try to tend to your
own little job -- getting some air and sun -- and don't let other
people and things bother you ---

We did our Abiquiu shopping last evening -- looked at
Marias beans -- they look very fine -- the fields look large when
you think of her going about crushing beetles and bottle eggs on
every plant -- ---

-- yes -- that makes the field look very large

We picked some lovely wild flowers - weeds -- call
them what you will -- We saw Flora - hardly able to stagger about
from pitching her hay all day --

but very handsome in the evening
light at her little home on the edge of the mesa looking over the
river and the bad lands beyond -- Her corn - right next her chicken
coop - is very tall - she gave us vegetables -- I should say we paid
her for them as we do -- but being able to buy here makes you feel

that the person you buy from is presenting you with a gift --

We
also got eggs and left our laundry -- she looked so dark and sweet
and warm walking about the little kitchen and orchard and garden --
You would love it all as I do I think --

The drive home in the almost
dark - along the river with the high thin moon was lovely --

warm
enough not to need a wrap till we rose up out of the valley on to the
high plain --- my wide - dry -- empty country --

I like knowing that
the more lush warm valley with its Spanish people are near by --

A morning kiss to you -- I must get on with the
day --

A.S. marked: rec'd Aug 14/43

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 9, 1943

## Monday morning

I sit at the mail box waiting for the mail and for the girl - Orlind a- who is to come on the mail bus - I was up this morning with the dawn - it was cloudy but the sky seemed high and wide - Oh very high and wide in the clear spaces --

We had breakfast outdoors - back of the house by a big old cedar tree - it gives one a different start on the day than when one eats indoors - or even in the patio-

Yesterday I had a lazy day and I seemed very willing to let it drift away --

We had the excitement of a let og lamb for lunch - the first time this year - I had to watch about the cooking as Maria had never cooked one befor - it was a large piece of meat for two people but will last for several days - and we were very pleased to have -- Late in the afternoon I took a long walk alone --

It was almost dark when I got home - from a high place out by the cliffs I watched a big storm - far away - long s treaks of lightning shooting up into the sky --

and far to the right very long horizontal streak - The sun came out and hit only the highest points - sharply as it went down - and there was a lovely rose pink for a few moments under the blue grey clouds in the west - I never seem to get over my excitement in walking about here - I always find new places or see the old ones differently - and most of the area has such an untouched quality - as if no one was ever here befor -

It is my madness I guess - The bus is coming - it is an odd high top heaving looking thing - Things tied on top of it

I thought often of you yesterday - Your first Sunday

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Apr. 10, 1943

Good Afternoon -

Tuesday August 10

I had three letters from you yesterday and was
very pleased to hear that you were settled at the Lake --

I
was very pleased to hear ----- even tho your train letter of
the day before told me you were almost there.

This morning there was nothing from you --

I was sorry --

Yesterday Marías car broke down -- she left it in Abiquiu
and hitch hiked home -- I took her down to get it this morning
-- and then drove in to see the priest -- I had been intending
to go for weeks---

We talked -- I had a good time -- He and
Mr. Body had quarreled -- just two men -- no priest at all
when he is offended -- I was trying to persuade him to be
nice to Mr. Body -- to surprise Mr. Body -- and he wouldn't --

Anyway he told me I would have another life--

He has some
fine puppies and has cut their tails off --

doesn't sound very
priestly to me -- the little fat puppies without any tails-

As I talk with a man like that and think of the
church -- I wonder --- 24 years to become a priest --

he has
a heart but I oddly feel not much heart in the church as he
uses it --

On my way home I sat on a hilltop in the car and ate my
lunch -- and watched a storm sweeping for miles across mesas
and mountains -- it was good ---

There is one sweeping my way
now -- I've shut the house -- will go out and mail this
hoping rain will not catch me

A kiss to you------

on a rain cloud ---

A.S. marked: Rec'd Aug 14, 1943

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug. 11, 1943

Wednesday Afternoon -- Aug 11 --

Two letters from you this morning written
Aug. 6th and 7th -- It takes a long time for them to get here but
I am pleased when they come-- Of course your days there are quiet -
that is what you are there for isn't it? I hope they remain quiet --

Maria went down to her beans yesterday -- didn't return for
the night so it was quiet here -- I had a long letter from Dave this
morning -- He tells me his former wife is married again and all
pleased with her new husband --

Also that Peggie has married her
doctor friend - a Major in the Army or something like that -- His
wifes father died the last day of a fishing trip he took to Canada -
and some details about the Photography Dept. at Modern Art that are
not clear to me -- however that doesn't matter -- what if I am not
clear about it!

You speak of Margaret speaking of my room at the Lake --

Yes --

I know it is a nice room -- the nicest in the house -- but I could
have made any of the rooms the nicest in the house on nothing much --
My room here is good -- it hasn't even a rug on the floor -- pretty
bare but good for me --

I like it that way --

My room there is very
vivid to me -- the views out the window -- things that I felt when
I lived in it -- do you remember the wonderful colored northern
lights we saw ?

I was working this morning -- then I helped get lunch -

-2-

-- and after that I got buried in the Sunday Times for a couple of
hours reading the News section --

It all reads like a fairy tale or
a fantastic puzzle --

however it fascinates me --

I made some very
fine caraway seed biscuits for lunch -- also some very good string
beans --

Lorinda tells me I am a wonderful cook -- after her first taste of the string beans she looked up and remarked "Why they are the best string beans I ever ate " -- and she looks so amazed I have to laugh --

She also likes the biscuits and asked if I wouldn't let her try to make them alone next time --

She is a good little girl -
18 - and very clean --

All her people believe in witches -- We eat on
the porch as it was growing dark last evening and she laughed saying
- "You know - if you were a Spanish woman we would be indoors at this
time with all the doors and windows locked" -- I asked why -- and
she said "Oh - the bruhas (witches) and (do huntas) walking dead -
you don't believe in them do you?" I said no -- and she shook her
pretty head and said "I'm not going to believe in them any more either
-- but all the Spanish people do " -- then in a little while - "it
is hard not to get scared when they are always talking about it and
telling such stories"

I asked are the men afraid too - "Yes I guess
they are - they are human too"

-- And so it goes

A kiss to you --

Maria just returns from her beans - 2 days of it -

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 12, 1943

Good Afternoon - Aug 12

A letter from you this morning -- your life sounds
quiet and as if it should do you some good --

Also I have a
letter from Peggie telling me of her marriage -- She seems
surprised that she has done it but also pleased -- he seems to
be a surgeon --

Oh --

I have another painting on the way -- it
looks well to me but it also looks odd -- Maria has gone to
town --

If the weather holds fair we hope to get off on that much
talked of camping trip tomorrow -- so if there is no letter it
will be because of that -- tho I may be able to mail one over
there by stopping the bus if it is still running --

I must get
out with this as I am late -- The package came yesterday -- Thank
Margaret for me --

A kiss to you -- I like to think of you there
at the Lake --

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 13, 1943

Abiquiu

Thanks for your letter this morning --

Friday --

We are packed and will be off in a little
while

-- It is fine to be going

A kiss to you --

I'll be alright -- so don't worry if you do not

recieve letters -- We hope to be gone four or five days
to the Black Place -- about 150 miles from here

A kiss to you

A.S. marked: Rec'd Aug 16, 1943

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 18, 1943

Wednesday Morning August 18 -

Good Morning !

Well -- I am at home again -- We left Friday
morning and arrived home last night just befor dark and just in time
to escape a very heavy rain -- It rained on us every afternoon and
night but one -- the first one --- I climbed much and walked much --
My work is of no interest except that I have two things that look like
very good starts if I can get back there again this year --

difficult --
The unsettled weather and mud from the rain made it

but as it wasn't so good for working I had time to explore
as I never did befor because other times I worked all the time --

Maria goes to her beans -- I send this with her -- will
write more later --- I am feeling fine

A quiet kiss to you

I often thought how you would think the Black Place very
beautiful -

A.S. marked : Rec'd Aug 23/43

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 18, 1943

Wednesday Afternoon - Aug 18

Good afternoon -- five letters from you when Maria returned from Abiquiu --

Very good to have but they make me sad --

You sound

lonely --- and I believe you would feel lonely even if I were there --

And if I were there I would not be what you remember -- It makes me very sad -- The child in you that I have always wanted to take care of --

Out where I was camping -- against a greyish white sand hill with a sort of yellowish top -- very irregular and creased looking -- white and hard under foot like a beach -- the silvery sage stretching away for miles -- a few thick scrubby fine yellowish dark green cedars -- about half a mile away -- both front and back the long formations of the black hills -- sometimes long lines of very dark almost purple red in them --

it is so unbelievable -- the

color -- the smell -- the heat of the sun on it --

the rain and the

moonlight -- I would often stand and look about and wish that you could stand there with me for just a few moments -- oddly --

When I see the country in its silvery beauty and forbidden blackness in my memory -- it is so often almost as if I see you too -- your silvery hair and grey clothes and black cape -- hankerchief in your hand and mouth -- looking about -- alone in it --

When I come back after such a trip -- such a place --

-2-

-- it is good to be back -- one is weather worse -- it is good to
be in a bath -- under a roof again -- but I wish to put all my work
of the summer out of sight and start again --

than what one can be --

The world is so much bigger

Those black hills -- like the black sands of Hawaii -- have
something of a photograph about them -- I never thought it till this
trip --

Oh -- it was good to be out there -- it shakes one down
to ones smallness -- and I feel very inadequate --

But I'll start again --

I wish you were here --

A kiss to you --

I believe a bird dropped this feather for you --

A.S. marked: Rec'd Aug 23/43

Feather enclosed

CARE

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Thursday afternoon - August 19 ---

Three letters from you this morning -- I enclose the
one you wish returned -- The young man seems to have had a very
special time with you --

-- Well -- you are special -- Thank you for sending
me the better --

The weather has been this and that today -- I started
to work in the patio -- it was windstill -- then the wind came --
after an hour or so a hard short short rain -- then the sun out --
I wanted to go out this afternoon but a brisk wind in spurts makes
me see my canvas falling on its face if I go --

Myirlinda is a
pleasure -- she went to a dance a few nights ago and had such a good
time --- was so much stepped on that when she got home her feet were
all bloody -- She had such a good time she never thought of her feet
till she was undressing when she got home --- Fine to be young and
good looking and dancing isn't it --

Maria went off to her beans this morning for a couple of days.
The beans have her pretty well down. -- She is so big that when she
gets down there seems to be a lot of it --

Last evening she was canning till all hours --
she has a way of wearing herself out and then being mad about it --
hasn't yet learned that one person can only do one person's work in
a day --

You speak of dreaming that I spent my last cent on a party
-- I must laugh because parties are so far from my way of life --
In
case you worry about my affairs I must say to you that there is no
need for you to worry -- at the moment they are going very well --

-2-

8-19-43

--- I am always surprised -- as you probably know -- when I make more than I need to live on ---

It is too bad that you did not let me work on your affairs --- as well as on my own --- Well -- I don't suppose it matters but since I have been able to keep slight track of my own and seen how things happen -- a little bit -- money becomes an oddly difficult thing to me -- I can see a fascination it could have if one worked with it -- also --

an odd sort of unreality

about it --

I am satisfied with the way I live -- I do not wish to spend more -- My house is quite unfurnished -- I like it that way --

What should I do with furniture -- ?

Most of my clothes -- here -- are old and worn looking --
I'd rather have them this way than bother with new ones

I like the late summer feeling of this time of year --

a sort

of feeling as if one is suspended in space before the turn of the fall

--- Many yellow flowers ---

We were stuck in the mud of a very red river on our way home from camping -- The highway truck that pulled us out was stuck too -- A huge 8 wheeled affair -- about 10 Spanish men on it --

They got out and cut bushes -- lots of big bushes -- all in yellow flower -- to put under the wheels to ride out of the thick - jelly like mud -- red mud -- red water running over it -- three children scampering about -- in and out of the muddy stream and across the rocks --

The men never hurried -- slowly and pleasantly

pulled us out with a long iron winch from their truck --

worth being stuck to see --

It was all

really the pleasantest time I ever had
being stuck in the mud --- And as we drove away they all stood
among the tall yellow flowering bushes - dark faces -- blue jeans
smearied -- with red mud -- waving us good by

A kiss to you ----- My odd life.--

A.S. marked: Rec'd Aug 23/43

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug. 20, 1943

Good Morning

It is a beautiful still morning -----

Orlinda is washing in the ratio -- scrubbing
-- and -- water and mud -- sounds good

There are many of those
big white Jimson flowers blooming -- and a small fine branched oval
shaped weed -- flowering yellow -- about two feet in diameter
-- about six of them -- and two or three fairly tall sun flowers --

Orlinda and I ate supper out there at the open edge
toward the mountain last night -- As she sat down she said "Oh -
isn't it quiet and peaceful here - I've had such a good time today
--- no?" She always ends any statement with No? -- question --
for me to agree with her.

I had to laugh because she had worked
so hard all day -- and has tooth ache besides --

Well -- she is a
nice person to have around --

I was out painting late afternoon -- A soft many
branched dead tree against a two painted red hill - I have been at
it for some time --- and so far it pleases me -- It is a big one -
30 x 40

The early morning was cool -- I ate my breakfast out toward
the red hills in the sun and was not too hot --

I hope all is well with you --

It is so still here

A kiss to you

A.S. marked: Rec'd Aug 23/43

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug 29, 1943

Monday evening -- August 23 -- about 7:30

I am sitting at a table out toward the red
hills -- it is just a large slice of a very big tree -- about a yard
-- maybe more across -- And up -- and another slab of it serves
as a seat --

A store keeper down to the valley that I go to at times
sent it up to me as a present befor I got here in the spring - of
course I know that his truck has to be full both coming and going
on this road - so it was a help to him to give me the present of two
slabs of wood that filled his truck one day when he had nothing else
to put in it --

However that all may be I have a very fine table in a
very good spot -- and when it rots with the weather as it probably
will - I can have it chopped into kitchenwood - It is out the side
of the house where I eat breakfast when the mornings begin to be cool
and it is good to have the sun on ones back -- Getting this slab
of wood placed as I wanted it was one of the reasons no letter got
off on Saturday - another was that I had a man working on a stove
and on the electric plant and with runing from one to the other
mail time got away

Tuesday morning --

Well - yesterday morning I was up with the dawn
- a little befor - and got off to Espanola early about two or three
things I had to attend to --

I did my errands - and got home sometime
after noon mealtime but my watch had stopped and I didn't know the
time -- thinking it about 5 - when Orwill came along and told me
it was 6:30 -- and past mail time again - coming home from town I had

a flat tire - Orlinda was with me --

I was pleased to see how easily
I could fix it myself -- I hadn't fixed one in years alone --- Then
about 3 miles up the road I met Maria coming down to her beans--
and she was disgusted that I was able to fix the tire alone -- She
likes to think I cant do such things -- it makes her feel more
necessary around here to think I am helpless -- which I most certainly
am not --

It I didn't know how -- and couldn't do most things mys elf
I'd have a most difficult time --

Well -- the cats are fine -- the sun
is shining - and I must get on with this day

A morning kiss to you --
through still air filled with little clouds -

Postmarked: Abiquiu

Aug. 23, 1943

Alfred ---

I sometimes wonder what sort of a head I have --- when I've
been painting on something for a long time and put it up on the wall
as I did just now to look at it --

and see the kind of feeling it has
--- and then the object I've painted --- this is a cows pelvis
against the sky -- and think of my pleasure in such things and how
remote from most people's lives such an object is -- even if they
want to eat beaf every day when they can get it --

Well -- it makes
me think that I have my own peculiar turns of thinking --
and it is not
to be expected that any one will want to follow me -- unless they
think what I make with my odd wandering ways -- is beautiful --
Ideas of what is beautiful vary and change -- So?

My afternoon painting looked beautiful to me too when
I came in and saw it in the daylight this morning -- it was too dark
to see when I got in last night with it

Isn't it fine the way I think my own doings beautiful --
and my neighbor seems to find me extremely un pleasant --

Well that is fine too --

Mr. Body said to me last time I saw him " You know Miss
O'Keeffe! -- I begin to think there isn't such a thing as an honest
man in the World" --

It is a fine day -- Tuesday -- The lunch is late but it smells
fine and will be particularly good when we have it --

No -- it is
Wednesday -- August 25 -- The days go so fast -- Marie came from her
beans yesterday afternoon --