A Few Great Boomer Blogs for Your Consideration

September 14, 2015December 12, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 4 Comments

This is my favorite fantasy image of a blog carnival!

Ever since I started keeping a blog in 2007, I have belonged to what was then called a “Blog Carnival.” The idea is to share with my readers a few posts by other boomer bloggers I enjoy reading. This post is #417 in that series. Yes, I am a member of the longest-running boomer blog carnival ever!

This week I wish to share a post from “The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide” by Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist. Rita generously keeps us up-to-date on consumer issues like the fact that American credit card debt is up substantially. She says, outstanding credit card debt is expected to be more than $900 billion by the end of this year, bringing the average household’s debt balance to $7,813 – the highest amount since the Great Recession.

Meryl Baer reports that she enjoyed, sort of, the movie A Walk in the Woods, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. Read her review here. She also headed West for a wedding. Her adventure began in the airport. Check out what happened in Jetsetters R Us.

Tom Sightings was inspired by the movie, The End of the Tour, a biopic of David Foster Wallace starring Jason Segel, to pick up a book of essays by this celebrated writer. For Tom’s reaction, and a small window into the mind of the genius of David Foster Wallace, head on over to The Ultimate Question.

I began my week with an unfortunate backward tumble off a short ladder, which landed me in the ER for a few scalp staples and a week of aches and pains. I have to quit falling like this…NOW!

At least this stumble afforded me some nice nature watching right outside my door! Oh that’s bad, no that’s good, so the Chinese fable goes…

Life among the birds, the bees and the bunnies!

September 12, 2015October 11, 2016 / Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

Can you spy the camouflaged bunny in the photo above?

Oh! There he is!

Since my last (AND FINAL!) concussion this past Tuesday, I have had the time and proper disposition to sit and look out of our south-facing doors and windows quite a bit. In this process I have observed many small bunnies crawl up through our sunflower bushes and peek in. Then they run back down the hill as fast as they can!

For unknown reasons, the disturbed ground around our new home has harvested hundreds of sunflower bushes, some over six feet tall! This ground cover attracts an assortment of insects and birds, especially some tiny yellow birds. The sunflowers are the perfect cover for small bugs, birds, etc.

Then this morning we had a new visitor, a Road Runner…up-close-and-personal! They are bigger than I thought, and quite blue when seen up close. Mike says this one seems to be following him around. I guess that explains why they are in the cuckoo family…

I am filled with gratitude that I can now live like this forever. Please go learn more about our move from Fort Collins to here in my new memoir and follow us on TWITTER!

Photo credits to Mike for these great close-ups!

Reconnecting with nature

September 8, 2015September 30, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 5 Comments

I see now that it is only by living in a suburban home for 60 years, that I can now see the difference in terms of connecting with nature.

Yes, I still live in a house, unlike my brother who lives outside all of the time, but in a place like this, nature cannot be ignored.

For example, in a passive solar home which is properly positioned to the sun, the solar heat is just now starting to edge into the south-facing windows.

Ask my pup Rasta. He loves the new sun on his dog bed. And yes, he does wear a jacket even in the summer, crazy pup.

Another example is the incredible sunsets we sometimes enjoy, like last evening. At first I only noticed the nice light to the southeast of us.

It was still cloudy to the west, over Mount Mestas. Then I looked out a few minutes later to see this!

Now tell the truth, if this was happening right outside your door, could you really ignore it?

Click on photos for full-size views, and follow us on TWITTER!

Figuring out where you belong

October 28, 2014March 3, 2017 / Laura Lee Carter / 5 Comments

Just took a quick trip out to our building site west of town… Every time I do, I feel even more certain that this is the place in this big, wonderful world that I belong!

I know we all have our own opinions of the most beautiful places in the world. Some can’t live without the ocean, others love the plains, but I am perfectly sure that this semi-arid piece of land close to the high mountains suits me just fine.

It’s hard to say what it is that makes me so certain. The absolute silence is very important to me, especially after listening to the relentless traffic noise in Fort Collins for nine years. The natural beauty and wide variety of birds, plants and wildlife also help… This is simply my place.

This setting makes me feel like I never want to leave. I feel gratitude that we can finally live our dream in our very own place in the sun… solar-powered, of course!

I’m a newcomer to rural southern Colorado. After two years I decided to compile a short journal about the ups and downs of moving from a good-sized city to rural America to build a passive solar retirement home in the foothills:

A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado

Please share this information with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books! Cheers, Laura Lee (email me: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com)

Adventures of the NEW??? Old Farts

Beauty is the garden where hope grows

appreciating nature

A Few Great Boomer Blogs for Your Consideration

This is my favorite fantasy image of a blog carnival!

Meryl Baer reports that she enjoyed, sort of, the movie A Walk in the Woods, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. Read her review here. She also headed West for a wedding. Her adventure began in the airport. Check out what happened in Jetsetters R Us.

I began my week with an unfortunate backward tumble off a short ladder, which landed me in the ER for a few scalp staples and a week of aches and pains. I have to quit falling like this…NOW!

At least this stumble afforded me some nice nature watching right outside my door! Oh that’s bad, no that’s good, so the Chinese fable goes…

Life among the birds, the bees and the bunnies!

Can you spy the camouflaged bunny in the photo above?

Oh! There he is!

For unknown reasons, the disturbed ground around our new home has harvested hundreds of sunflower bushes, some over six feet tall! This ground cover attracts an assortment of insects and birds, especially some tiny yellow birds. The sunflowers are the perfect cover for small bugs, birds, etc.

Then this morning we had a new visitor, a Road Runner…up-close-and-personal! They are bigger than I thought, and quite blue when seen up close. Mike says this one seems to be following him around. I guess that explains why they are in the cuckoo family…

I am filled with gratitude that I can now live like this forever. Please go learn more about our move from Fort Collins to here in my new memoir and follow us on TWITTER!

Photo credits to Mike for these great close-ups!

Reconnecting with nature

I see now that it is only by living in a suburban home for 60 years, that I can now see the difference in terms of connecting with nature.

Yes, I still live in a house, unlike my brother who lives outside all of the time, but in a place like this, nature cannot be ignored.

For example, in a passive solar home which is properly positioned to the sun, the solar heat is just now starting to edge into the south-facing windows.

Ask my pup Rasta. He loves the new sun on his dog bed. And yes, he does wear a jacket even in the summer, crazy pup.

Another example is the incredible sunsets we sometimes enjoy, like last evening. At first I only noticed the nice light to the southeast of us.

It was still cloudy to the west, over Mount Mestas. Then I looked out a few minutes later to see this!

Now tell the truth, if this was happening right outside your door, could you really ignore it?

Click on photos for full-size views, and follow us on TWITTER!

Figuring out where you belong

Just took a quick trip out to our building site west of town… Every time I do, I feel even more certain that this is the place in this big, wonderful world that I belong!

I know we all have our own opinions of the most beautiful places in the world. Some can’t live without the ocean, others love the plains, but I am perfectly sure that this semi-arid piece of land close to the high mountains suits me just fine.

It’s hard to say what it is that makes me so certain. The absolute silence is very important to me, especially after listening to the relentless traffic noise in Fort Collins for nine years. The natural beauty and wide variety of birds, plants and wildlife also help… This is simply my place.

This setting makes me feel like I never want to leave. I feel gratitude that we can finally live our dream in our very own place in the sun… solar-powered, of course!

I’m a newcomer to rural southern Colorado. After two years I decided to compile a short journal about the ups and downs of moving from a good-sized city to rural America to build a passive solar retirement home in the foothills:

A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado

Please share this information with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books! Cheers, Laura Lee (email me: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com)