I Live On Top

I live on top where the air is pure and the soil is rock

I live on top where jobs are scarce and so are clocks

I live on top where time stands still and beauty mocks

The people who think they control anything

I live on top

RED EYE TOURS

I tried to give my friends a good selection of mountain scenery to view and memories of beautiful places to take home with them.  I wanted them to see snow and mountains and Hot Springs.  I think we got them all in there.  The lake is Windy Gap Resevoir, a bird sanctuary.  The top of the mountain shot shows snowboard runs that were being used heavily when we drove by that day at the end of May.

The hot springs shots are at Hot Sulphur Springs.  Another Red Eye Tour sucessfully accomplished!

Spring Over 9,000 Feet

I went hiking this morning.  I left early to avoid the crowds of people that Memorial Day often brings.  This wasn't one of those days and Roland and I never saw another person or dog.  I went up above Plume on a bike path that was too muddy to walk up two weeks ago.  It was like bathing in color, having beauty doused over your eyes, waking up after the long miserable winter.  I could smell life, not just snow melt but growth.  The ground isn't just not snow covered, it's thawing enough to create a scent of growth and newness.  

The willows have big fuzzy blooms on them and the grass is coming up soft green through the dead brown of last season.  The pools of melted snow that sit in the sunlight have floats of lime green algae that startle the eye.  The evergreens have soft light fresh color at the tips of their branches creating a soft velvet sense when seen from a little distance.  The dandilions, day lilies and buttercups are everywhere , half an inch high at the most fitting right in with the rest of the short ground cover.  Even the wild grasses look like they've been mowed they are so short at this time.  The branches of the various willows have changed the tone of their bark from the brittle dark reds and browns of winter to the more vibrant shades of growth.  There is snow everywhere still and the mountains are still so deep that the warm sun gives a lustre from a distance, pearlesence and folded like white velvet.  In the deep woods there are streamlets running everywhere and the new growth comes right up through the edges of all the snow banks.

Spring gave me a joyous day today and I am grateful.

There's frost again this morning.  It's pretty cold outside and I think about all the people who are coming up to our forests thinking they should camp out on Memorial Day Weekend.  For years it's been a miserable holiday weather wise up here.  There's sun on occassion but the temperatures are in the 30s, not exactly balmy for a sleeping bag that came from your little brother's Fort Commando set!  Every morning in the resturants of the area you will see them huddled over coffee, snuffling their runny noses and telling their girlfriends, wives and children that it wasn't usually like this.  And it isn't at least not in July!  However, the end of May is chilly up here.  We don't plant outside until as late as the second week in June some years.  In another month I may be whining about the heat but right now, I'm building fires in the morning and living with my garden indoors.

I find the tourists invading us for every holiday a strange thing.  We need the money but it's hard to deal with the discourtesy, poor driving, vandalism and trash they bring with them.  The average American family doesn't seem to have a lot of fun on vacation, more like a lot of stress! It's time for the locals to step back, go to work and stay at home if possible for the rest of this weekend.  The party atmosphere that used to come with holidays here now comes with listening to people complain about the prices while they drive cars that cost 4 times the amount my home did and require one of my paychecks to fill.  I'm fixing my home up for my company for the next few days and now matter where we go or what we do, I'm going to make sure not a complaint comes from anyone.  Vacation is all about fun and we're going to have it while trying not to make anyone else miserable.  Wish us luck!

A VIEW OF MY BASEMENT

Yeah, it's a little wet down there.  The bottom of my water heater is leaking like mad.  When I went down to use the water turn-off valve it fell off in my hands.  Oh dear!  So after a morning of dealing with being soaked in rusty water and the depression of knowing I have no, that would be none, as in zero, zip and nada funds to fix the problem.  Did I mention no plumbers in the county work on trailers?  So there's a lot of shovel work I'll be doing on my own.

I'm not sure who put the word out but I've been given a water heater in good shape, now I need to find a guy or two to help me move it up here.  I've figured out how to turn off the gas and there looks to be only two other connections.  I have a room on the outside of my place just for the water heater so it could be a lot worse to get at than it is.

Another skill learned by the time this thing is done.  Of course, depending on my learning curve, by next week I could be living large with hot running water or blown to bits and buried in that damn water heater.  Stay tuned.  (For Dan's benefit, I have no idea what has made font colors, sizes and underlines happen to day.  I guess it's just to keep you on your toes!)

MY HUMMINGBIRDS

Sounds pretty possessive doesn't it?  My hummingbirds now let me stand six inches from them when they are feeding.  Before the end of summer they will sit on my hands and will buzz right up to my nose and tell me to get on filling the feeders.  The evening I took these shots there were around thirty birds in my yard and under my porch.  These are pictures of the slow ones!

The West Mutter Dog Show

These are some pictures from our yearly dog show.  It's a benefit for the local animal shelter and is attended by hundreds of people and dogs, some cats and a few exotic pets!  Yesterday there were over 150 dogs and I saw not a fight.  Roland got up in some dogs face but for all the growling, not a bite!  I was upset when dogs put their noses up my butt also so I understood his attitude!  

The gentleman in the blue scrub shoes and tshirt shorts combo is our local animal control officer.  He is, depending on your relationship with him, treasured as a unique and giving soul or hated as a crabby old grouch.  Either way, people lined up all around a football field in order to dunk him in a tank of cold water.

I love the guy myself but it was a money making charity event.  I noticed a guy grinning as he watched the festivities.  I asked him if he was anygood with a baseball and he said he was.  I gave him a five dollar bill and told him to dunk my friend as often as he could with that.  He laughed and told me he would do it for free.  These are the ensuing shots!

The contests consisted of Lumpiest dog, Best Smile, Best Costume (that was killer) the obstacle course which included a hot dog tree that stymied many a contestant, relays, speed races and demos of obedience which many of our local dog owners watched with disbelief and their pets with horror.  My God, those dogs obeyed!  You may notice in one of these pictures Roland throwing a fit as his try for best behaved dog went down the tubes.

The whole thing is like a circus and clowns on stilts and people with bubble machines wandered everywhere.  There were dozens of plastic wading pools out and dogs laid in them or got drinks as they felt.  There was food, for the dogs, a doggie psychic, a masseuse who worked on both animals and people and an animal adoption going on.  All in all, a great day in the sun!

Nothing If Not Inconsistent!

This was the view from my porch day before yesterday.  Today the sun is shining on green everywhere, birds are singing their hearts out and flowers are out.  My hummingbirds are going through a quart of syrup a day, the robins are everywhere and flickers, sparrows, finches and bluebirds fill the trees by the hundreds.

Colorado springs are such a mix of light and dark, freaking out every new snowfall, cherishing each and every moment of sunlight.  I wish I could play a recording of this morning's birdsong on this blog.  It would bring life to the pictures I post and it would help people to understand how saturated with sound this morning is.  The fragility of the day is emphasized by a weather report on the radio calling for snow above 9,000 feet.  The animals are fed, the coffee is ready and I'm moving slowly determined not to rush at all today.  When I get off work I will be doing laundry, baking birthday cake, getting the bar-b-que ready for tomorrow  My sister is having her forty-fifth birthday.  We're spending the day and night together, taking Roland to the Westmutter dog show, getting together with the rest of the family, and just chilling.  It takes a lot of work to get to that point though.  

One last sip of espresso and the morning kicks in.  Time to get a move on and start the day's work.

SNOW IN MAY 08

The green thing in this picture?  It's a sign that says "Garden".  ROTFLMAO!  My garden is inside my house!  Every window is full of plants and most of the floors.  Walking is a joke but the air smells wonderful, newly sprouting seeds and damp good soil!  We got about eight inches more last night.  We being me and all my personalities.  If any of them were male they might enjoy an additional eight inches, but no.  They are all females who are just disgusted with this round of storms.

I just want to get on it and have my hands in soil that has been warmed by the sun and not my wood stove!

The Big Move

I had moved out of the big bedroom several years back when I had some company.  I had just never gotten back in there for one reason or another.  Recently I put a new bed in there, spruced it up and moved back in because I miss the views.  One whole wall is windows. Most of two other walls are also windows in a U-shape.  I have seedlings covering every square inch of space and strawberry baskets hanging from the book shelf that tops those windows.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning and watched the entire parade of light and color as the sun rose on these hills freshly covered with snow.  The tiniest hints of pink in the clouds and periwinkle in the sky made me put down my book and just enjoy the show around me.  By the time it was full light the clouds for the next storm were gathering, the fog was coming down from Berthoud and todays allotment of sun is gone for the time being.  I put on a jacket and go outside to refill the hummingbird feeder and get in wood for this next storm.  Wildflowers are coming up everywhere in this abundance of moisture.  It's an unsettled time of the year, part glee and part suicidal depression.  People will whine all day about the weather.  They need to kick back and enjoy it's eerie beauty.  Soon we'll be fighting wildfires again.

MOTHER'S DAY 2008

I spent Mother's Day out in the woods.  Roland and I took pictures, rolled around on the new sprouted mountain sage, slept on the peat moss by the creek and just plain old enjoyed life.  I walked through a forest of old trees.  These pictures are two sides of the same tree, blasted by lightning, a keyhole into the woods, a magic thing, looking forward and back as if two different trees were being shown.  

Maybe I was just in a mood for magic as I remembered becoming a mother and all the wonder that had accompanied that.  I wasn't supposed to be able to have a child after several surgeries.  Three years after I was told that my son was born.  He made my life full of joys I had never thought to savor.  He is the one consistent love in my life, the person who has always been worth any sacrifice.  I am such a lucky person.  My son is a kind, thoughtful, bright creative person.  He is the kind of person any mother is proud of raising.  I won't take credit for his personality as he has had a strength and dignity about him most of his young life.  I share the twisted sense of humor he has and I will take credit for that!  What better feeling than knowing the one other person in the room laughing is your child?  You know you've passed on something you will always share.

My Mother's Day has been full of joy and sun and love.  My dog is whipped.  I am butter like from the hot tub I just got out of.  Dinner is already and I'll eat on the porch watching the swarming hummingbirds and loving life.  Thank you Goddess for my son, my life and my home.

MAY 10, 2008

It snowed again last night and it's still snowing this morning.  I have plans for cleaning my yard and getting my garden together.  HA!  I know I will hear a dozen suicidally depressed people whine about snow this late in the year.  It always snows this late in the year up here.  Every year people talk about how much longer winter has lasted than usual and every year, they are wrong.  Winter lasts for nine months here.  Some years it snows every month.  I hope my hummingbirds live through this and all the daffodils, thyme, oregano, poppies and other things that have bravely though foolishly started growing and flowering.

The fritatta I had last night of wild asparagus and white cheddar cheese seemed so appropriate for the lovely warm spring evening.  I had jasmine tea out on the porch and savored spring.  I guess it's back to hot chocolate and warm fires and savoring snow again.  Shit!  

BIRDS

In the middle of this tree there is a hole in the branches.  You can blow it up as much as possible and you will see only a tiny spot of blue/gray that is the female Blue Heron resting there.  Every year for the first 1o I lived here the Great Blue Herons came into our wetland areas early in May.  They stayed a few days and then they moved on, leaving one mated pair who stayed in our valley until the fall when the rest of their flock rejoined them and they all went back south together.

The female died a long time ago.  We found her body and thought that would be the last we'd see of her mate but he came back for years, staying alone.  Finally, a few years back, he also died and although the herons stopped through every spring, no one stayed up Bard Creek.  

Yesterday I was wondering up the road, taking pictures when I looked up the hill;  there, flying down skimming tree tops was the pterodactyl shape of a Great Blue Heron.  It's been a long time and I was delighted!  Last year I was told a male stayed up here all season but I never saw him.  This year I definitely saw a female.  I'm excited and hoping another Blue Heron love story will be enacted in Empire.

Love and birds were in the air all day long.  My hummingbird feeders were loaded with the little buzz bombs. The huge old pine and spruce trees surrounding my place were so full of singing birds it made my ears ring.  The little red-headed sparrows stand on opposite sides of a feeder splashing sugar water out to drink.  Half a dozen robins stayed in the area and the juncos and bluebirds were everywhere.  It's like the bird world just returned in the last couple of days.  Slowly but surely all the signs leading up to summer are arriving.  

Walking with the Deer

I pulled up to the beginning of the hike I planned on taking with Roland today and viola! there were a dozen deer munching the new green grass poking up.  They ignored me and Roland as we went our merry way.  Springtime up here creates a different etiquette between animals and people.  More and more people have piled into our state, many of them with no previous knowledge of wild life not on a television set.  The animals keep moving away from humanity in the decreasing areas they can live in.  They know when they are around people and dogs who are no threat to them.  

I was walking up this road last night when Roland and I ran into a friend and her dog, Buddah.  She was leaning on the wooden fence you can barely see in this picture on the right.  Her dog was standing in the meadow there looking at something.  I walked over to talk to her and she pointed out the coyote that was laying down watching our dogs play together.  

It was one of the largest coyotes I've ever seen, so tall that I thought it might even be a deer laying down.  Buddah and Roland watched the coyote for a while but they both had learned not to go play with it, even when he tried to convince them to come play.  I walked on out into the meadows and got both dogs to come with me on the other side.  The dogs played while I thought about the elk, deer, mountain sheep, bear, mountain lions, bobcats, a plethora of birds, and people who share the use of this place regularly.  So far the sharing thing is going along nicely.  Once I spent two hours here sitting in a bunch of rocks, holding Roland and watching the elk walk all around us eating.  I've gone to the other side time after time while coyote mothers let their babies play out in the sun..  They in turn have backed off when we bring our babies to play.  Almost all of those animals are nosy enough they will stick around and watch us for a while.   Spring is a time when you see animals playing with each other.  Dogs and deer, coyotes and dogs, elk and coyotes, etc.  not common sights at other times of the year.  I'm thinking we are all so grateful for a little sun and some green that detente rules in our star-shaped valley!

JIMI

So last night I light some candles, put out incense, turned down the lights and cranked up Hendrix.  The neighbors on both sides turned off whatever they were trying to listen to because the old lady has her some GOOD speakers!  Besides all the hippie accessories allowing me to take a mini-trip back into time, I actually listened to Electric Ladyland.  I mean, I kicked back and did nothing but listen to the genius of Jimi Hendrix.  Sometimes I forget how far ahead of his time he was.  I forget how much incredible guitar playing was in his music.  I forget how much experimental stuff he introduced to the world.

  I also thought about the fact that his death at only 27 was considered a fait accompli long before it really happened.  

The media, then as now, made pronouncements for the sake of selling their wares that often came true.  The race between Hendrix and Joplin to kill themselves was even noticed by Janis herself who when notified of his death said, "I guess he beat me to it."  Nothing like having a cheering section as you drink and drug yourself to death.   

The music brought back good memories and bad.  I remembered all the people I had known who died in the drug wars.  I remember all the laughter and love that came about from the communal living of the time;  And the rip-offs that also came from that.  There were good people and bad as in any mix but the feelings of hope are gone from my generation.  Our dreams have been beaten into the ground and strangled in so many ways.  Our wins have been hard fought and exhausting.  So many of the political activists I've know have back away from both politics and society sickened by dishonesty, graft, and greed.  

They are just too tired to fight anymore for anyone more than their own families and friends.  The American Dream has changed.  The boogeyman under the bed is here and he's President. 

I spent my evening with Jimi and came away from it renewed.  I remembered what we had done and changed and thought maybe there could be a few more things my generation can do before their Happy Trails end. 

My Poor Hummingbird!

So it snowed last night!  And my poor hummingbird appears to have spent the whole time buzzing away under my porch, trying to keep warm.  His feathers are so fluffed up he looks like a little gray tennis ball with a red blur that only shows intermittently.  It's a sad scene but he's getting enough nourishment.  It appears he has eaten ten times his weight in the 16 hours since he first appeared, perhaps more.  Trying to keep warm in this miserable weather must be exhausting for the little birds.  Then there is the shock of climate change.  They come up from Mexico and South America.  Not a lot of snow in the areas they winter in.  

Worrying about the hummers freezing is a traditional part of Spring in Empire.  We have our strange rituals in the mountains, the search for flowers, the ear kept open to hear the blur of wings that indicates hummingbirds have returned for the season, and one of my favorites, the first fishing trip of spring.  I have to get it in quickly before run-off makes the water murky and muddy.  I'm really looking forward to those hours spent on the water in the sun.