We took a beautiful drive yesterday up to Westcliffe and then east towards Colorado City to see the autumn leaves before they get knocked off with the first snow storm in the mountains…
As it turns out the high peaks of Sangre de Cristos on the way up to Westcliffe are already covered in snow, with the aspen turning right below that.
Then we headed east and witnessed lively colors every time we went around a new curve!
Looks like it’s time for Octoberfest again in La Veta!
I haven’t been out to my garden lately because of a painful hip and various illnesses in our family. But this morning was glorious, with temperatures in the 60s and great light, so I took a walk around and this is what I found.
First I noticed the loveliness of the East Spanish Peak, with a sash of wispy clouds around it.
Then I was drawn to my center piece of golden yarrow and those Rocky Mountain Penstemon who survived the deer that ate most of them in early spring.
Behind and to the right is my Buddha decorated with native Showy Four O’Clocks and Catmint. I still have a yellow Coreopsis that should be coming in soon to the left of Buddha, if the others leave enough room!
My yarrow and lavender plants are coming along well…
My yellow Columbine is almost finished blooming. Now it’s spreading its seed for next year…
My favorite time of year in my garden!
We had a quiet time celebrating the solstice this June. Our loving pup Rasta is now almost completely blind. Glaucoma just took his other eye this week 😦
I have been fascinated with movies for as far back as I can remember. My favorite reward when I was a child was to get a trip to see a movie, back when it was only 50 cents! I see now that this was my best chance at escaping into someone else’s fantasy world. I loved the way they showed how we all have problems and how others dealt with them, a kind of group therapy.
After recently seeing a documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, and how he escaped Thomas Edison’s east coast monopoly on movie making to found the International Motion Picture Company, the precursor to Universal Studios in 1909, I realized for the first time why our nation’s early immigrants flocked to nickelodeon movie houses. There were a few reasons. First, movie-watchers didn’t need to know how to read English. In fact, watching early movies probably helped them learn the language and more about American culture. This documentary also suggested that seeing those early movies helped immigrants feel like they belonged here.
Early “talkies” had simple themes like comedy, drama, romance, or action. They were shot in a film studio with two or three dedicated actors and a few songs. A short movie could be cheap and easy to make.
In the 1930s the movie industry triumphed by giving the public what it wanted most, a therapeutic diversion for the millions who needed to get away from their troubles for just an hour or two.
One of our most important human needs is to feel like we belong somewhere, in some group or community. That sense of belonging and camaraderie, so essential to the happiness of most of us, is what American movies sold, and very inexpensively. That is why they have always been so popular. As a recent immigrant, Carl Laemmle understood the public’s need for fitting in and therefore feeling less alone in a new country. He made movies that met the needs of the masses, foreign and domestic.
For me, movies have provided so many things I have needed through the years. Diversion, a sense of feeling a part of a group that understood me and my needs, creative escapism, and the joy of being a fly on the wall watching others figure out their lives. They have always made me feel less alone. When I think about it, I have learned so much from movies and documentaries. Once, decades ago, I said to my therapist, “Movies sometimes make me feel like I am entering someone else’s dream.” She told me then that the quality of film making had advanced so far, that they sometimes border on exactly that experience in our minds. And don’t get me started on the genius of screen writers! The writers make the movie for me!
Especially when they are about relationships…
Although we haven’t had the kind of moisture that Denver and Colorado Springs have had this past May (with over five inches!), we have had over two inches here with cloudy rainy days for quite a while now. Today is a good example. Here are some pictures of my plants and bloomers in my foothills garden in southern Colorado today.
Starting on the west end, we have some very happy yucca, cacti and evening primrose plants, although the flowers and fruit of the yucca were rudely eaten off by some kind of varmint. Note the cute little honeysuckle bush in the upper left. It always blooms too early in the year!
Next we have the plants that bloom around my Buddha. On the left is a native Penstemon volunteer still blooming, some catmint coming in on the right and a native Four O-Clock fighting its way through in the middle. That will have magenta flowers eventually… Love it!
What I’m most proud of is my yellow Columbine, because I’ve never had one bloom in my garden thus far. Although it is the Colorado state flower, it usually gets bitten off before blooming.
On the east end I have some lovely irises blooming with the West Spanish Peak behind them!
Overall I’m so pleased with what I have so far, because I know that those May and June showers will bring some great blossoms later on! I’ll keep you posted…
Nine years ago this month, Mike and I drove down from Fort Collins to choose a few acres in Navajo to buy. We didn’t know much about this area, only that we loved how it felt to our suburban souls. It took us another year to build our passive solar home facing the Spanish Peaks and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with Mount Mestas to our west.
I was reminded again early this morning why I love living here. I woke up around 6:30 AM to see an unobstructed view of a bright red sunrise to our southeast. This is BIG SKY country to me, where the landscape and the silence are the main characters! Every time I go outside in the morning I stop and feel astounded by the silence. This is what the earth used to be like. Maybe a few bird sounds, but otherwise perfect silence…
Sure there are also unattractive features to this area, but the land is encouraging and haunting all at once, and the summers are glorious!
Our first summer here we had so much fun exploring the back roads and back stories, like this dilapidated adobe schoolhouse slowly sinking back into the earth west of here…
or taking the train up to Fir to hear the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band play in a big mountain meadow.
When I first met Mike he said he wasn’t moving again until he could look at something besides the house across the street.
We found this cartoon in a magazine and laughed together about it. Then we went in search of someplace with truly ‘spectacular views.’
We found those here and so much more…
First I noticed Mount Mestas to my west as I stepped outside this morning around 6:30…
Then I looked southwest and the Sangre de Cristos Mountains were brilliant in the morning light.
And to the south I saw the Spanish Peaks peeking out through brand new light.
Adventures of the NEW??? Old Farts 