Leap Year Day Sunrise

Sam the Entrepreneur

Shout-out to my artist who combined several of my favorites together and then uploaded it to RedBubble so I could wear it!

My first order arrived this week.

Back in the Saddle

This morning was our first walk in two weeks. After coming down with the crud that hung on and turned infectious, I was finally able to get out in the cold morning air without waking the neighborhood hacking up a lung.

So as I was pulling off the couple of snaps I took of Evan happy again at the dog park, I realized there were a few around the house snaps to share as well. 

Basically, cats and sunrises from the window.

Today, back with Juno

these two are in perpetual motion, so this is as good as it gets photo-wise

Juno and her person (on bike) heading out. Evan has to run along the fence in the hopes they'll come back.

And then, 

A little frozen drool and whiskers to start your day

from today's Writer's Almanac, which I cannot work out how to embed:

In your next letter

by Carrie Shipers

                                             please describe
the weather in great detail. If possible,
enclose a fist of snow or mud,

everything you know about the soil,
how tomato leaves rub green against
your skin and make you itch, how slow

the corn is growing on the hill.
Thank you for the photographs
of where the chicken coop once stood,

clouds that did not become tornadoes.
When I try to explain where I’m from,
people imagine corn bread, cast-iron,

cows drifting across grass. I interrupt
with barbed wire, wind, harvest air
that reeks of wheat and diesel.

I hope your sleep comes easy now
that you’ve surrendered the upstairs,
hope the sun still lets you drink

one bitter cup before its rise. I don’t miss
flannel shirts, radios with only
AM stations, but there’s a certain kind

of star I can’t see from where I am—
bright, clear, unconcerned. I need
your recipes for gravy, pie crust,

canned green beans. I’m sending you
the buttons I can’t sew back on.
Please put them in the jar beside your bed.

In your next letter, please send seeds
and feathers, a piece of bone or china
you plowed up last spring. Please

promise I’m missing the right things.

“In your next letter,” by Carrie Shipers from Cause for Concern. © Able Muse Press, 2015

2/10/16

 

Craptastic photos, but you might notice an odd bird shape to the top of the chimneys on these houses. One big owl swooped over us to the first one, then to the next, and so on, walking us down to the dog park. 

Then, after a run with Juno at the dog park, just as we were heading out, we saw a pair of coyotes scampering across the hills and they shadowed us back along the route to the house. Right before we got to our turn off the trails, they hopped in front of us on the sidewalk and kept on trucking.

2/8/16

Juno is one of Evan's occasional companions at the dog park. Our schedule shifts with the rising sun, while Juno and his owner's schedule are set by the clock, so we have some months where we are there at the same time every day and months in which we never see one another. With the sunrise inching earlier, we're coming back around to Juno mornings. They both seem happy about that.

Superbowl Sunday

Amber and I had originally planned to visit Estes Park on Saturday but schedules got complicated and we decided to make it a Sunday afternoon instead. Of course, with Denver in the Super Bowl, it seemed we were the only people IN Estes Park!

First stop was lunch!

 

And then we headed for the Stanley to check out the baby hedge maze that's been completed but is only about knee high so far. I'm still not sure what safeguards they've put in place to keep the elk from munching through them, but perhaps they are bitter tasting plants?

the whole complex is set to expand over the coming years. The first project, aside from the maze, is the tiered parking lot up front that's got a new set of stairs and quite a lot of construction fencing going up.

The other jarring look was the emptiness of the lobby! All the couches and chairs had been removed from around the two fireplaces.

But that appeared to be just for today, as they'd all been congregated in the Dining Room for the Superbowl Party set to start later that afternoon:

It looks like the Music Room's floor might be getting prepped for some renovation, as well.

 

 

The view from the porch of the growing hedge maze

it was really windy, and the maze required navigating some slushy and snowy passages, but here we are in the middle of it, with Amber deciding, while we can, we should just cheat and step over.

wind!

orange and blue everywhere

When we reemerged and headed for the car, we found a pretty nice sized herd of elk on the grounds.

The Stanley from across the lake:

We stopped in at the Colorado Cherry Company for pie and coffee before making our way back.

 

As we approached Boulder in the dusk, the sky started dancing with color.

 

Just before the sky went dark, we were at Golden and the big M for School of Mines was lighting up.

And I managed to get in right at halftime and watch the excitement of a home team win from a couple of guys who actually cared about the game.