Aidan Thursday

6/28/17 Vicki Wednesday

it was our annual Tori Tuesday lunch with Vicki today, even though it was a Wednesday, because I'll take whatever I can get!

Realized this was our 10th year of being friends and hopefully not the only time this year I will get to see her. But I scoured through the files for our photos together for the fun of it. 

on inevitability

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.

Mary Oliver's "In Blackwater Woods"



“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”  ~The Once and Future King, T.H. White

6/28/17

 

once he lays down over the water, he's done

6/27/17

Got one of those perfect cloud mornings to our east today! 

And when we got to the dog park, we discovered someone had left a soccer ball. 

I kicked it, assuming Aidan would sort of trot after it and then ignore it, like he does smaller balls left at the park. 

However, it turns out, soccer balls are DIFFERENT. 

On the way back, after the color was mostly gone, we spotted a paw print opening in the clouds.

6/25/17 Our 10th Colorado Ren Fest

This marks our tenth June we've attended the Colorado Renaissance Festival. Then and now below.

 

 

10 years difference

 

2017

2009

2010

The Pirate Ship isn't the same without this character around.

 

Me and my sign 

 

One day, Ren Faires will catch up to Ringling and retire their elephants. Soon, I hope.

 

on the other end of the spectrum, Nature's Educators takes in birds of prey who would die in the wild 

This little screech owl was hit by a car and is blind in one eye now. His name is Morpheus.

 

Penny, the Peregrine Falcon

Hades, the Vulture, shows off his wings

 

it was only 70° and the sun was still intense. We might come back in July, but only if there's a break in the soaring temps!

in 10 years, though, this is the best parking spot we've ever scored. 

You can see the gates from here!