Life in the Colorado clouds

August 19, 2015September 20, 2017 / Laura Lee Carter / 4 Comments

I had a request from a special friend for more photos from our new life at 7,000 feet. We just completed a passive solar home in southern Colorado, and are now gently settling into a whole new way of life, one of amazing peace and ever-changing natural beauty.

On Sunday we had our first official guests, and the sky decided to produce a double rainbow in their honor… we treat our guests right up here!

Then, on the next day we had some cool clouds hanging around the Spanish Peaks.

Some might find so much cloud-watching boring, but at age 62, after moving twice in the past year and building this beautiful passive solar home, we are enjoying the hell out of this!

There’s something so not boring about contentment…

Want to learn more about our journey?

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You belong somewhere you feel free…

August 13, 2015October 18, 2018 / Laura Lee Carter / 6 Comments

“You belong among the wildflowers. You belong in a boat out at sea. Sail away, kill off the hours. You belong somewhere you feel free…”

Go listen to this song: Wildflowers by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Are you familiar with this song? I wasn’t until I moved to rural Colorado last summer, and our new landlord Bob put it on one his recordings for us. Since then it has become my mantra for choosing to leave suburbia behind forever and live in nature.

This is the first time in my entire life that I have felt truly free, and why not with a view like this out of my picture window?

It admit, it has taken me longer than I ever expected to adjust to life in and then outside of small town USA, but now I cannot even imagine going back to suburbia with all of that noise, pollution, traffic and high anxiety.

I didn’t even know how unhappy and anxious I was until I left it all behind.

A New Best of Boomer Blogs just for YOU!

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

What have I been doing? Loving life in our new home in the foothills, whenever I can get out of my own way.

Compulsive behavior takes over for both Mike and I when we move into a new space. We have been overdoing it for the past few weeks, and it’s catching up with us!

That’s where the incredible beauty of this place comes in. Check out our sunset last night over the Spanish Peaks, a real attention-grabber!

Every time I look outside I am AMAZED at where I live.

But enough about me, what have the rest of my fellow bloggers been up to?

On The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist, writes about an Ohio couple who weren’t allowed to have a natural lawn. The St. Albans Township threatened to send someone to mow the lawn accompanied by the police. The couple compromised and used a scythe to cut the height of their lawn down to 8 inches, hoping that would give them time to figure out some other solution. Robison, who’s written about “freedom lawns,” thinks its O.K. to let your lawn turn in to a meadow.

Tom Sightings invites you to see if you can figure out which ’60s icon he’s talking about … before the big reveal. Hint: He’d be the same age as Bob Dylan and Bernie Sanders. Go on over and try it out at Remember Me?

This week Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting visited the town she lived in for over 30 years and was pleasantly surprised. The city is experiencing a renaissance and reawakening, a previously neglected center city coming to life. Read her observations in Revisiting My Hometown.

Here’s to having a great new week out there!

Family troubles AND GREAT RAINBOWS!

July 20, 2015July 20, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

In case you have any interest, this is what we have been dealing with in the midst of building this new home… but, on a much brighter note,

take a look at this great double rainbow shot we took outside our Walsenburg rental!

I have found whenever I am just about to make some important change for the better in my life, fantastic rainbows always turn up!

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Boomer Blogs: Springtime in the Rockies Edition

June 1, 2015June 15, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 6 Comments

Welcome to the longest running boomer blog carnival online! I have been involved in this activity for years now over at my old “midlife” site MidlifeCrisisQueen.com. Here we bloggers take turns hosting links to some great posts relevant to boomers.

First off we have Meryl Baer who was once again on the road, but in Seattle this week, where she had the opportunity to connect with a fellow blogger in person, Rita Robison of The Survive and Thrive Consumer Blog. Read her remarks in Connecting With an Internet Crony.

On The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist, this week writes about how older adults can stay safe online.

If you’re retired is it still possible to skip a day at school, or take a “mental health” day from work? For one answer, take a side trip over to Playing Hooky, and see what happens when Tom Sightings’ mind begins to wander.

Right Tom, and especially if you’re going through the strains and stress of having a foothills home built in rural Colorado! Yesterday we took a vacation from our daily life by driving around the Highway of Legends loop southwest of here. There we found a couple of gorgeous high altitude lakes like the photo of North Lake at the top of this post, and some…

fantastic views of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range! We stopped by Stonewall Lodge where they have a very nice set-up with cabins at 8,000 feet. Then we drove over to Cokedale, near Trinidad to see the coke ovens.

On the way back we found a few astounding views:

One was a delightful field full of Rocky Mountain Wild Iris and Golden Banner!

We found this to be a day well-spent, appreciating the benefits of this wonderful place we now call home… not bad for a three hour drive with almost no traffic, eh?

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A Magical Afternoon at Bishop Castle in Southern Colorado!

May 28, 2015May 28, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 4 Comments

Yesterday one of Mike’s best friends visited, so we made the effort to finally visit Bishop Castle north of here. It’s only 24 miles west of I-25 and well worth the trip!

Deep in the woods, young Jim Bishop began constructing a stone castle at age 15 in 1959, while also working in the family ornamental iron works business. He quit high school when one of his teachers told him he would never amount to anything.

There this dramatic monument to Jim Bishop’s skill and stubbornness rises up near Highway 165 at 9,200 feet, enclosed on three sides by the San Isabel National Forest.

There are no tours so you just have to figure out how to get inside of the moat and find some circular iron stairs that take you up to the second floor…

Where suddenly you enter the cathedral room, full of stained glass windows, skylights, and gigantic glass doors…

This is a close-up of some of the stained glasses.

You experience towering stone walls, bright colors, light, and lovely iron work everywhere!

This is one of my favorite walls of stained glass!

The decorative iron walkways will take you to the very top of the castle if you have enough courage, but all explorations are at your own risk!

They also have a GREAT gift shop next door. One of the signs I almost bought said: “Lord give me patience… and I want it RIGHT NOW!”