Home is Where the Bed Is

The pass across the Rockies leads from my brother's home to ours. Since another big storm was coming in, we hastily packed and headed home yesterday, arriving just before five o'clock last night. My rib wasn't happy, but I was smiling as I walked into the house like an old woman. It's always good to be home. At least now that we live here it's good to be home. I guess our roots were always here. We just had to find them.

I'll admit I didn't unpack last night—or yet this morning, coming to think of it. I checked email and phone messages, and made a few "we safe at home now" phone calls. Then I took one of those modern marvels called a pain pill and went to bed really early after a very few bites of dinner. (Thanks, Betty. She sent us home with dinner—her famous Boston Butt, all set to reheat for a fast meal and just about zero prep time.) Some people eat when they're sad, sick, hurt or depressed. I'm the opposite. I tend to sleep.

One of the phone calls I returned made me laugh, though, which really did hurt. It was from my cousin Mary. Let me remind you that we've been here over four years, with Mary living in Denver, just an hour away, and we've never yet managed to get together except when we both visited Wisconsin at the same time. Go figure. The last time we tried was the day she and Earl decided to come up on the day we were leaving for California. They're coming today. Maybe I'll get dressed after all. Perhaps she'd like to empty a suitcase or two while she's here. (I hope she's not reading this...)

One of the things she told me was to hug a pillow against my ribs if I laugh, cough or sneeze. Afterwards I wondered if she realized the broken rib is in my back. It's hard to hug a pillow back there. My arms don't work that way. I'll have to ask her to demonstrate for me. Still, it will be good to see her. She's one of my Aunt Cookie's kids, and a more fun group of cousins I've yet to imagine. They're the kind to call with important information, like a new phone number, and ask, "Have you got your crayon sharpened?"

My mother had a saying: Never a dull moment. I'm keeping up the tradition, Ma.

The Timberlane Farm Museum, Loveland, Colorado

It's been a strange week, but I'm back at the keyboard now, and want to start with the outside photos I took at Timberlane Farm Museum in Loveland, Colorado. We decided to drive out there while Ellen was visiting last week. Actually, it was her choice, and since John and I had never been there, it was a great decision.

I'll admit my stupidity up front. I failed to charge my camera batteries the night before, so I got still-shots outside, and video inside the farmhouses, which is the more interesting portion of the tour. Unfortunately, I'm still having problems downloading video. When I get it downloaded (hopefully soon, as I have been working on a solution) I'll put the videos where they should go, and then do a blog with links to guide you back. Fair enough?

The Timberlane Farm dates back to 1861, and is currently a museum that is being painstakingly reconstructed. We were given a personal tour, and although there was no charge, we left donations. It wasn't that we felt obligated. It was a feeling of wanting to join in the beautiful work being done on the site. Having just come from Europe, where there history is overwhelming, it seems important that we hang on to our own history. This property is some of Loveland's history at its best, and the work they are doing is remarkable.

These photos are from the farm part of the property, and don't include the two farm houses that we toured. The Timberlane Farm Museum has restored and furnished the two Timberlane Farm homes to period correct condition. I'll add those vodeos soon (God willing and the creek don't rise).

Ellen and John and I wandered around for awhile before the owner's assistant, Maureen, not shown in any of my photos, came out and gave us a wonderful tour. These pictures are all of the outside buildings and animals.

This old building is one that's scheduled to be rebuilt. So much work has already been done, but there's much still slated to do. We were happy to add our donations at the end of the tour.

John, of course, loved the old farm machinery and equipment, the tools and tractors. It was pretty close to a perfect day. If I'd charged my batteries the night before, it would indeed have been perfect.

I loved the chicken coop. They sell eggs, and the chickens seem clean and happy. One of the laying hens is called an Ameraucana, and lays bluish green eggs. I didn't know that was possible for regular eggs.

This is the Ameraucana chicken. She was sure running around happy and healthy looking, but seemed disappointed once she realized that Maureen wasn't bringing her food.

They have lots of animals at the farm, including pigs...

Cattle...

And beautiful horses. I think Ellen wanted to ride off into the sunset, but it was only noontime.

For some reason, I found their tack room particularly inviting. Maybe it was because I had been out in the sun too long. I'm not a sun worshipper, and loved the cool depths and wonderful smells of hay and leather in the tack room.

From here we went into the two beautifully restored farm houses where I had to switch to the video camera. I guess you can call this a cliff hanger...

Time With My Sister

No, I haven't been keeping my blog up this week. I'm behind, and just having too much fun with my sister to worry about it too much. Her husband was kind enough (and busy enough with work) to send her here for her birthday week while he spent the time in Reno at the office. (He commutes from California.)

We've had a marvelous week, and I've taken photos to share—once the fun stops. She flies out tomorrow, so you can expect to see more of our European trip and the fun we had this week appearing shortly. For today, however, we're heading up to the mountains to see how much of the fall foliage has already changed colors.

Loveland, Colorado—Sculptures in Bloom

It's good to be proud of your city. Whenever we have visitors, we love to take them to town and show off our favorite park, Benson Sculpture Gardens. Loveland was the first city in Colorado to adopt an Art in Public Places ordinance of one percent of all the city's capital construction projects of $50,000 or more for the purchase of art. Sculpture is a huge part of the city, whether you're looking at public buildings or private residences, offices or parks. They're nestled in among the most beautifully appropriate landscapes imaginable. Sterling dragonflies rise above marshlands. A bronze moose kneels to drink from a real lake.

The last article I read showed that the City of Loveland owned over $7 million in artwork, 72% of it having been donated. The people here obviously approved of the ordinance. It shows that when government takes a small step, in this case, one percent of its own construction costs, people will add to those efforts. So yes, we're all proud of our parks, and Benson Park is our favorite place to walk. Every single time we go, we see a new statue. This time, as we took John's cousin Laura Mae and her husband Bill, there were several new ones, but I think I liked the giraffe best. He looks so stately.

The flowers were absolutely beautiful yesterday, too. I never fail to appreciate how green the grass is, and how lush and healthy all the plants are.

Tiger lilies are one of my very favorite flowers, and one of the few I can recognize on site. I wonder if the deer would eat them if I planted some up here in the foothills.

Somebody please tell me what this is, because I see it growing wild around here quite a bit, but never have been able to tell for certain what it is, other than beautiful.

I've been told that the bees are dying out in many places, but there were quite a few pollinating the various flowers in the park yesterday, so I guess our blooms are safe for another year.

These roses are of some very fragrant variety. I've been discouraged in recent years to see a perfect rose and lean over it only to discover that it has had the perfume bred out of its soul. I'd rather have the fragrance and a few wrinkles on the petals than perfection and sterile scent, but that's just me.

Here's another unidentifiable flowering plant. As they mature, the flowers cluster along the stem in little balls like this. I can't find it in my book. Maybe I need a new book...

Here are Laura Mae and Bill walking by the new giraffe sculpture. Laura Mae said she really didn't want to do much walking because of her arthritis, so we told her she could just look from the car. Once she saw what was out there, though, she couldn't resist, and ended up covering quite a bit on foot. Bill was entranced. Laura Mae said he's always loved statues, and never before found so many in one park like this.

This has always been one of my favorites because the kids look like they're having such fun. I also appreciate how the landscaping is done, with the white rocks giving the appearance of snow.

If you ever come to see us, be prepared to either stand in the circle of children to have your photo taken, or listen to John moan and whine. I think he's planning on making a collage some day of all our friends playing ring-around-the-rosy with the bronze children. We've had quite a bit of fun coaxing friends and family to grab the hands of the kids and "look like you're running!" So far everyone has (eventually) cooperated. John is happy.

By the end of our afternoon in the park, Laura Mae and I went to sit in the car while John took Bill down the hill with the camera, so he could contemplate one last sculpture. As they disappeared together I heard John say, "You owe it to yourself to see this one last statue, Bill."
They didn't come back for quite awhile.

Showing Off Rocky Mountain National Park

The elk were certainly out enjoying the scenery as we spent our Saturday driving the Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park. Well, at least the males were out. We didn't see a single female during the entire day. Their women are hiding. Right now it's boys' night out, but soon they'll be bellowing and fighting over who gets which mates and the herds will split up again. Then we'll see them come down into our foothills.

It was one of those wonderful days where you could enjoy the park for it's beauty, the storm adding drama on one side of the road while the sun sparkled down on the other. It's the contrasts in Rocky Mountain National Park that always get to me: the huge elk lying next to the road full of cars, the glacier withstanding the glare of the sun against the tundra sprinkled with wildflowers.

We enjoyed seeing other kinds of wildlife as well. John's cousins from Albuquerque had finally come up to spend a weekend with us. Laura Mae and Bill were laughing about the way the young families were scrambling up the rocks, so I thought I'd take a photo for them. They looked like wildlife to me.

Half of the fun of an outing like this, of course, is taking far too many photographs. I'll just share a few more here. The first is one of the glacier. We spent quite a bit of time looking at it and reading the signs about its formation. It's peaceful up there, and a soft misty rain had started to fall. Laura Mae was amazed that John and I were still in our tee-shirts, without a jacket or anything. They live in Albuquerque, so they're used to being hot, I guess. We were comfortable in the mist. It was a beautiful day.

Not too much further along a person can look down and see the subalpine lakes and valleys below the tundra as you snake along the winding road. It's an ever-changing vista, different from turn to turn as well as day to day. Each time we return it's new to us.

I was taking pictures of John with cousin Laura Mae and Bill when a gentleman came up to me and asked if he could do the honors. I handed him the camera and his group stood around speaking in a foreign language while he took our picture. I was pretty sure it was a Slavic language, but didn't want to guess and sound stupid. The only thing I can say in Russian is "Ya devochka," and since I figured they already knew I was a woman, even if they were Russian, I'd look stupid saying it, it was better to just ask where they were from. When everyone else returned to the car, I took their group photo with their camera by the same sign and then walked with them back toward the vehicles.

They were indeed from Russia, and were very nice people. I told them we were getting ready to take our first trip to Europe to see our son and his family. The one who had taken the photo wanted to know what our son's family was doing there, and I said he was transfered with his company. "What company?" "Priceline." "Oh, very good company. Very good." He said we'd love The Netherlands, and I told him about our circle trip through Belgium, etc. to Cologne and back during the middle week and he said it sounded like a perfect trip. I think so, too.

We spent so much time at the National Park that we decided to save the sculpture park for today. I'm charging up my camera. It's seven o'clock in the morning, and although I've been up for three hours, and John for two, our guests are still asleep. I think I'll go have another cup of coffee and wash the blueberries, then see about starting the bacon. Some things can be done in advance. Some can't.