Happenings

I'm baking bread. I usually make enough in one day to last a month or two. We've been out of bread and I didn't feel like baking, so I bought some last week - good stuff. But stuff it is! Almost no bread can compare to homemade from fresh ground flour (unless of coarse I do a flop batch!)(but there's always uses for flops).

I just picked my first daylily. I have regular lilies blooming now and one is a deep red. I put this daylily in a little pot Travis and Sarah gave me for Christmas. Last week I put rose buds in it.

I decided to take pictures of what's hanging over the kitchen table right now. Every summer there's these bees I hang from the wreath over the table. They're made from sheep wool, wrapped with yellow embroidery thread with tissue paper wings. It's amazing how many years these delicate little things have lasted - especially considering Dawson and his friends like to flick them. I also wove a little 'hive' with a bee on it, that is either on my shelves of doilies, tea cups and miniature treasures, or I'll put it on the kitchen table.



Monte is gone hiking and fishing down Mt Evans today with Dawson and some of his friends. Last week Dawson had a whole group camping there for a few days and Monte hiked up and down in one day. I think today they were leaving a vehicle down at the bottom so they could drive around and pick up the vehicle they left at the top. Mt Evans is a 40 minute drive from our house and is the highest paved road in the US (and the world?).

I've done a load of laundry and was going to do more, but it's hot (well, hot here is almost 90, but at 8000 feet's thin air wouldn't the sun feel hotter? at least there's a nice breeze blowing through the house) and not rained yet (not REALLY rained much in two months), so I'll be watering this evening (we've no clay in our soil, so water goes straight down and the dirt, or decomposed granite dries out fast), and with our well, I have to space out watering and laundry and showers.

Six loaves of basic bread, four french bread, and four baguettes all done. Six more loaves of basic bread to go (maybe I'll skip this second batch today), and then a combination from the same dough of two dozen hamburger/dinner rolls and two dozen cinnamon rolls.

I know they'll bring fish home, but we'll cook them tomorrow. I'll grill hamburgers, large portabella mushrooms, and onions, for supper tonight. And we'll have them with fresh homemade buns.

Family Reunion

I was going to post this yesterday morning while my mind was still swirling with all the conversation and memories of the day before, but I didn't. I sat on my deck drinking my pot of English breakfast tea, reading, and enjoying my birds and chattering little gray squirrels. Then we went to church, ate at the Smiling Moose Cafe, and then walked around Summerfest, Evergreen's annual arts and craft fair. This year it was moved to the ball park and I missed the ambiance of trees. So this morning I've got my tea and can still enjoy all the birds, but I brought my MacBook out here.

Saturday was a family reunion for the Magnuson clan, here in Evergreen, at my mom's cousins place. His dad had a cabin along Upper Bear Creek since I was a child and reunions and church picnics often happened there. Now the cabin (which reminded me of a basic double wide trailer, nothing fancy) is gone and the son, Sherod, built him and Phyllis a home there.

I'm the oldest girl grandchild of the Arnold Magnuson family tree, so I'm the one of my siblings that has memories of the older family now gone - all those reunions and then gatherings in Washington Park for picnics too. Looking around at all the people, my mom and her older sister Betty, are the last ones left having all the old stories!

I enjoyed sitting with my aunt Betty, her oldest son Terry, and Sherod, listening to the old stories. My aunt's body may not be functioning well these days but there's nothing wrong with her memories and wit! Sherod was able to pull stories from Betty that he has memories of as a child, and Terry and me have only heard stories of, and I think Sherod's been doing some researching.

I have vague memories of a family cabin with a large kitchen and lots of bunk-beds and a rope swing, prior to the Upper Bear Creek one, that was near South Turkey Creek and Deer Creek. And Sherod was old enough as a kid to investigate further from the cabin - him and Nic would sneak peeks at a nudist camp, that apparently still exists there, he says.

But the stories tell how much the Magnuson's played roles in Denver's roots. Monte's seen the Magnuson name all over Colorado in connection with mines and mills. Brick manufacturing and concrete and so much other stuff started, with them involved. And then there's the fun family stories.

Travis and Sarah came Friday night to sleep over. I made fish tacos which are so good, and we had a campfire and made s'mores. What I didn't know, since my mom FORGOT to tell me... My brother and sister, Rob and Kelli, with their families, were driving up from Arizona for the reunion - so that made it more special. And our cousin Sonja came from Alaska with her two kids.

It was with Rob and Sonja that we got on the subject of family traits. I don't remember the thread of conversation that brought us to our feet, but we have unique feet. Some of us in the Arnold Magnuson descendants have what we've called "webbed" toes. We started comparing toes, with some shedding of shoes. Sonja said it's a Bradford trait - Arnold Magnuson married Thelma Bradford. Sonja said, her dad said, William Bradford from the Mayflower wrote in his journal about his webbed toes. My cousin Tim's kids said they called them "twin toes" and my Aunt Betty said she called them "Siamese toes" (hers and uncle Ted's are joined all the way to the toe nail). We all decided we like the twin toes description the best! (I am posting a picture Rob!)

So 'twas a good day. Good food. Great weather. Plenty of table seating with red check tablecloths and flowers in pint jars under rented canopies. The river flowing and kids playing in it ...

Photos

I've posted about my son Dawson's photoblog. Well, I occasionally look at my other son's photo flicker site (he doesn't post as much! - Travo!!!). So I'm trying posting his most recent photo here so y'all can see it. What is this Travis?

Dawson's rock work

Dawson has been doing rock work this week. Monte did the rock work last fall (to the right of the stairs) above the campfire area we call the amphitheater. I had planted more grass and then old wildflower seeds to cover a dirt area Monte had smoothed out with the tractor last fall (burying an old concrete cascading fall and pond Travis had made years ago that was cracking and not functioning).

Dawson and his friends have been having campfires- roasting fish, hotdogs and/or smores. I told him he needed to make steps. So he did. Now he's finishing up a rock wall in front of the house where Monte made a new parking area last fall.

The plan is to get our neighbor's tractor soon, when he's home from vacation, and finishing up the landscaping behind our house, putting in a split-rail fence, that'll be electric still, and turning last year's new parking spot into an oval circle drive around two pine trees. Then there will be more rock work to be done. Luckily our neighbor has plenty of rocks.

What a man Dawson!!!

Check out his photoblog. That's where I just stole his two rock pictures from, but he's posted pictures of his backpack trip and climbing one of Colorado's 50 14ers.

Monte's currently cleaning the front porch with the shop-vac. The pine pollen is done and we're wanting to get rid of all the yellow dust. AND we have company coming tonight. Another artists from church Show&Tell night.

Memory Lane

The summer rains have begun - "Yeah!" Monday it rained most of the day. So I took the day doing more in making Heather's old bedroom my sewing, art/craft, and now "Memory Room". Though the whole house holds memories, Heather's room now has more of my childhood memories.

I had bought and stained awhile back some shelving for the room. So the rainy day was a perfect day to put up the shelves (I still love the denim material I pasted onto her walls). I went through a barrel we moved up to Colorado with, labeled "Mom's Memories". It was fun going through it and walking down memory lane: things my grandma made me when I was a little girl, school year stuff, and on to some things I saved that I made my young kids.

So one shelf holds memorabilia from Austria, where I was born. My dad was overseas, in the military, with after war cleanup and my mom joined him. I have the beautiful scrapbook she made of that time and I recently read through her white ink writings on the black paper. During "The Sound of Music" movie she'd say, "You were there", "We were there", "I've seen that"...


Another shelf holds some of my old doll collection. My Barbie sits in the middle. My grandma made the chair from an opened tuna can - the lid is the back of the chair. It's covered in blue velvet. The Barbie is my second or third. I thought I had saved my old heads, but couldn't find them in the barrel. I had the original first ponytail Barbie they came out with - my aunt Recie bought it for me. The surrounding dolls are old. My grandma gave them to me and made tons of clothes for all my dolls, both sewed and knitted. I saved them all (or I should thank my mom that she saved them for me in the beginning - valuing what I valued).

Of my saved baby dolls, my Thumbelina has remained the best (other than my sister Kelli cutting off some of her hair) - AND it is close to 50 years old! So I went through some of the baby things my grandma had knit for me (I was the first girl grandchild) and had fun dressing Thumbelina in them and now she sits (lays) in Heather's old room, next to a cuddly patchwork dog I made from a tie-dyed sheet I did in a high-school art class.



And I hung some of my tie-dyed and batiked things from high-school. I liked to tie-dye material and see what I saw in it and then India ink details. I went through photos I did in a photography class where we got to play in the darkroom.


I was/am a saver I guess. Heather packed up a lot of her memories and is currently going through them with Bill in their new home in Texas. Since they didn't do the typical dating thing, this is helping them share their stories. And I told her to then throw a bunch of the stuff away! But she just emailed me about enjoying remembering, and even crying over some of the things she's finding.

Travis with his wife Sarah have come the past couple of years and helped us go through all the stored junk in the large space that is now Monte's new office and the garage. We wanted Travis to take whatever was important to him home. We had so much fun with all the remembering and telling stories. "Oh, I remember this ..." And Sarah would laugh over so much of the junk that was truly junk and try and help Monte think clearly and throw some stuff away (Monte's a saver too)!

Dawson will some day have to go through the same process with us. His stuff is still stored in the garage ... and bunk house ... and old ferret house ... and playhouse turned "Dawson's Natural History Museum".

Memories, like stories, are important to us. We've been giving and throwing away more and more stuff, but I'm making sure I capture the memories by taking pictures of them (LOVE this new digital camera era!).

Just a side note in connection to memories and stories - I read about people in nursing homes and the importance of memories. People, even caring family members, might just look at things as junk, but when helping move one into a nursing home care, it's important to ask them about things and see what stories are connected with them. This 'junk', with their memories, often keep the last years of living more 'alive'.

Independence Day

We spent 4th of July in Ft Collins at Travis & Sarah's home. It was a great day with friends and family. Travis did the yummy ribs and we all brought the rest of the food and drinks.

Dawson brought his ... like walking on a tight rope, but only a foot or so above the ground. I can't imagine doing it high off the ground, but then they have safety nets. I think I might be able to do it with holding a pole to help balance. Some people kept trying all afternoon and got pretty good. And they set up the bean-bag toss game.

Dawson set up his camera on a tripod at the fireworks in the park and snapped tons of pictures with a remote while laying on a blanket. So I'm posting one of his pictures. He'll probably play with some of his pictures and post them on his photoblog soon (He's backpacking right now).

We stayed the night. Dawson and Splara made us breakfast. We had a great time!

It's raining now! Yeah!!!!! My rain dance worked! Yesterday was the first rain in a couple weeks. We really needed it.

Happenings

While I'm at it (and I do love to write ... and I was going to go to bed early tonight ...) things are happening just this moment around here. Furniture Monte and me have been waiting for came in at the store, and they're currently having a huge 4th of July sale ... so we went today ... it reminds us of why we want to keep our pick-up (just don't want it as our primary vehicle!).

Dawson just came home with some friends and they are bringing the stuff in to where it's going to belong. (He's playing in the worship band this weekend at church for the three services, and his friends will spend the night, leaving early in the morning for the next two services.)(We're making use of Dawson and his friends a lot ... soon he'll be gone ... and getting-old-Monte-and-me want things finished up around here - for us to carry-on into our next season of life.)

I saw the image above and it directed this post. Our home is SO messy right now. Maybe not so messy as dusty-dirty. I've been so busy outside - Monte was gone - and this is pine pollen time. I keep all the windows closed for several weeks. I'm waiting for rain to settle the pollen - PLEASE RAIN! We've just gotten wind and some spittle. So yellow dust is everywhere - even with just the front and back doors open. It is the one thing I'm allergic to, but I don't panic in trying to avoid it. I just have to remind myself - DON'T TOUCH or rub my eyes! It's about now that I keep a generic allergy pill handy or the allergy Visine handy - & I have a kind-of cold.

I have my famous quote (my daughter-in-love Sarah wrote my quote on our graffiti wall in the guest bathroom) - "Dust is country". We don't have a lot of dust. We don't have air-duct-work - for heating or cooling. So I don't do a lot of dusting. And with our house being a farm/country/mountain home type decor, I feel that dust is just a part of it all! But this time of the year! ...

And the characters!!! We ARE quite the characters!

Attack! Red-Winged Blackbird

I just watched a news video on a red-winged blackbird attacking some people on bikes, and I'm remembering that I've been attacked by one too!

Periodically I like to walk around Evergreen Lake - they've made a nice trail - just a bit over a mile, and I'll walk around it twice (I used to go, taking Dawson, since he wanted to fish or catch crawdads, which we ate once).

One year they started posting a sign just before you entered the boardwalk that went over a wetland area of the lake with lots of reed/plant growth. It was a warning sign about an attacking red-winged blackbird.

Defending his nearby nest, the dive-bombing daddy pecked me on the top of my head, and sometimes clawed at my hair!

Apparently they are a highly polygynous species, having up to 15 females nesting in his territory - BUT it does not mean all the young in a nest are his! being sired by other neighboring males. They sound like quite the communal bird, even throughout the year. The nesting season is primarily late May through early July.

I never imagined that the female wasn't black like him. She's just brown and striped all over. It's so interesting that females in the animal kingdom are so bland ... and then there's us humans!!! Hmmm ..........

Flowers

I love summer! I'm outside most of the time. I love sitting at my umbrella table on the back deck, both eating there and reading. I watch the birds from there - they seem to like the sanctuary I've created for them.

I'm posting a picture of flowers on my front porch. Monte built window boxes, but I gave up planting real plants in them years ago. The front porch gets only early morning sun for just a bit, and nothing seems to grow very well. There's also wind to contend with there too.

So I have boxes in the garage of seasonal flower changes. 

Bedroom

I had to take a picture out my bedroom door, trying to capture both our new bedspread and the flowers. When I bought the flowers to pot up for our deck, I just really liked their color. But the other morning I realized how they coordinate with the bedspread.

We've had a bedspread on our bed for several years that I wove on my large Swedish Glimakra loom. It's a variation of a honeycomb weave. I now have it next to the bed covering a barrel we use as a bedside table (and seasonal clothes changeovers). It was going to rot from the sun if I left it on our bed. And I've put up some sheers that I'm hoping will 'calm' the sun's intensity on our bed.

Organizing

I've missed posting for a few days. I've been outside most of the days, enjoying the weather and birds, and doing lots of needed things around here. With most things planted, I'm now weeding.

One minor detail too to not posting, besides being dead tired by evening, is ... our internet was down. Why? I was digging a deep hole for a plant I bought and shoveled through our phone line! It baffles us. We built our home 24 years ago and can't remember that the phone cord was buried where we found it! We thought it was elsewhere.

Every winter our garage turns into a disaster! So Dawson cleaned the messy side up yesterday. I actually had fun today being able to look at all the organized boxes of tools and stuff on the shelves! My side of the garage (freezers and food shelves and textile art stuff  remained organized! Now with Heather's stuff gone, we'll go through things again this summer, organizing and weeding out even more.

I've been looking at all the 'out' buildings and what's been stored (dumped) in them. Dawson tore down all the extended chicken runs and buildings. We're keeping the main chicken house and run up for now, but no chickens. With the kids gone and Monte traveling more, I don't know if we'll do chickens again (but who knows - but definitely no more ducks, geese or turkeys - we tried them one year, and don't need to do them again. I now know what it means to be goosed - and then there's all the chicken phrases too). So for now, we're thinking of storing the  rototiller and extra tools there - it's closest to my big veggie/fruit garden.

The 'bunk house' has a couch and desk and sleeping area. It's storing extra sleeping pads and pillows. And then there's boxes of books I wanted to give away, but Monte wants me to put them on eBay. They've been there for a couple years now under the sleeping area. Will I put them on eBay?!

The old playhouse, turned 'Dawson's museum', is now storing tons of boxes of Monte's rocks. It still has shelves of Dawson's collected skulls and bones, etc. That's where I found our front screen door stored. So I put in a new screen material today and hung it. 

The old ferret house (yes, Dawson had ferrets. They are too smelly and we finally had him build a building for them. Dawson has had most possible pets. I got to liking his lizards and snakes. We joked for awhile that the escaped python was probably living quite well between our two stories on escaped fertile gerbils. The Madagascar cockroach and Az tarantulas were my least favorite 'pets') is storing two large fish tanks. "Do we need to keep them?" I asked Dawson today, "will we ever have fish again?" I don't think so, but he might somewhere later when he moves away. Travis had them in college and now has a huge beautiful tank. But I am storing some closer to the house garden stuff in there for now.

It feels good getting things done right and in a put place - with the goal of hoping things get put back in their 'put place'. We're getting better.

Calendar Stuff

So, it's Friday the thirteenth today! I heard on the news about some people's phobias. Well, I think I was born on Friday the thirteenth, and have no problems with the line up of the calendar.

I've missed several calendar things I thought I'd just skip, but my continued thoughts and liking to write them down, won't let me leave them behind.

I need to go back and check my posting on the Old Testament counting 50 days, Omer, between the two first fruits festivals to see what details I gave. The link will be here if you want to read more. But on day 40 is Ascension Day. Because Western Christians were celebrating Pentecost Day on Mother's Day, they celebrated Ascension Day earlier then I did. I was 'remembering' it's story and meaning on May 29, along with Eastern Christians.

I like to imagine me as one of Jesus' original disciples, having lived with him for three years. I've probably dreamed of ousting the Roman rule and Jesus setting up a Jewish Kingdom, that I can help lead. BUT WAIT! Jesus is rising into the sky! He's leaving us! This isn't the way I imagined it! Now what do we do?! Before leaving, Jesus told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait till the next Jewish First Fruit Festival - Shavuot. I imagine them in that upper room for ten days reliving every moment with Jesus, everything he did and said, and asking, "Now, what the heck did he REALLY mean?"!

June 5 was saint Boniface day. That's the day he died, thus his birthday into heaven, but I remember his story more in relation to Christmas since some Advent traditions are a result of his doings. In the early 700's he was sent to work among the Norsemen and Teutonics. Boniface was constantly jeopardizing his own life for the sake of the young, the vulnerable, the weak, the sick, and the poor - often imposing his body between the victims and their oppressors.

The Norsemen had brutal pagan sacrificial practices. Boniface decided to strike at the root of their superstitions by cutting down the sacred Oak of Thor. Since no immediate judgement came against them, doubt about the power of their gods began.

A few evenings later, on the first Sunday in Advent, a young boy rushed into Boniface's camp breathlessly telling of a sacrifice soon to be done - his sister was to serve as the vestal virgin. They ran, arriving in the sacred grove just when the Druid priest raised his knife. Boniface ran, pushing his wooden cross forward. The knife blade pierced the cross, saving the girl's life. Boniface seized the stunned silent moment to proclaim the gospel's good news, saying that the ultimate sacrifice had already been made by Jesus on the cross - there was no need for other sacrifices!

Boniface hacked off lower branches from the sacred grove, handing them out, telling each family to take them home and adorn their hearths. These branches, like wreaths were reminders of the completeness of Jesus' work and tokens of his grace. Logs from the grove were burned in fireplaces, later called Yule logs.

On June 9, we passed Columba's day, Columba of Iona, who died in 597. Columba was a scribe and poet. I might have written this on St Patrick Day posting, but while most of Europe was being ravaged by barbarians, books were being restored, protected, and copied in Ireland. Columba established a monastery on the island of Iona. When the Roman church was becoming more ceremonial and priestly, the school at Iona emphasized the Bible as the sole rule of faith. For these Celtic Christians, Christ alone was the head of the church - they did not follow the hierarchical authority or the liturgical ceremonies of the Roman Church.

Many missionaries went out from Iona. The Celtic Christians evangelized all of Europe, bringing a breath of fresh air to the church. Pope Gregory tried to bring the movement under the authority of the Roman Church. For a century there was a struggle between the British Isle Church and the Roman Church for authority. Read the Celtic Way of Evangelism for a great read - How Christianity can reach the West ... again! Roman rule of course won, but revival came in the 16th century during the Scottish Reformation under John Knox and George Buchanan.

Then the last missed calendar date I was wanting to post was the 11th, the remembrance day of Barnabas on the church calendar. What do you remember of Barnabas and the beginnings of "Christ"ians? I remember him as being the one who introduced Saul, renamed Paul, to the disciples. Barnabas took Paul's side in his disagreements with Peter. Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel together for a period of time ... 

BUT, I also remember Paul and Barnabas having a split - going separate ways. Is this the first church split? We so agonize over church splits. We just went through one, it's been awful. I'm sure the spreading of the gospel and the starting of new churches could be done less painfully. I suppose it's a mixture of God's desiring relational growth for all, and human blunderings ... (Exclusion & Embrace!) ...

I took Monte to the airport yesterday morning. He's in Calgary Canada for a bit over a week - working with scientists in the part of the world where the oldest life exists for all to see. They want Monte and Stan to share their science with them, and they will probably be writing together papers (and books?) on their understanding of the origins of life. Monte sees the blueprint written in every cell's DNA, as do others. Scientists DO see a creator's hand, authorship, design ... Sermon's could be preached by scientists - Monte does. It's just that many scientists don't see God as someone desiring a personal relationship with us, but I'm betting that they do have this mystical thing going on within them. And I trust them to God. He'll lead them to know Him!

Happenings

I have been blogging in my head for a week. Does that make sense? I talk in my head - forever! Sometimes I wish it would just shut up! It's what causes me to not sleep; been a curse since I was a teen - the talk, or reliving everything, or composing stuff I'd write, and thus, the lack of sleep. I sure don't want to get into it all now, or I'll not go to sleep.

Monte is watching some scene selections from a movie we just watched while I sit reading emails, writing this, and having my nightcap. It's had him saying he's returned to his ancestral roots. It was a Scandinavian kinda Viking era, tho not the warring stuff, movie. With his geology, he's been to Norway and Norwegians have visited us several times. He's pure Swedish, I'm part, and then Dutch and English - the English that came over on the Mayflower - Governor Bradford,  to be exact. But I look at all those Northerners so interwoven that we're all really One.

All I want to say for now is that I'm heavily gardening from morning till night, thoroughly enjoying the out-of-doors. And like I said earlier, my looking-forward-to, my bare feet have been in the dirt - they are stained! I was thinking of this when showering tonight - I still will wear sandals - in spite! 

But then genetically, I don't have feet or hands that can ever by 'pretty'. My nails grow upward, never curving downward. And my fingers and toes are stubby. AND I use my hands too much (and enjoy digging my feet in the dirt) to ever hold a mani/pedicure. If my nails don't get shortened from all my varieties of labors, I slice my nails often in my cooking from scratch (so we get some calcium from my nails! That's weird, I know, and gross, and not so prevalent - but Jesus used hyperbole to make a point!)

If I keep reading Annie Dillard ... but listening to murder mysteries counter-balances that ... 

Memorial Day

Our Heather married William Lavender last December 18th. He was newly home from Iraq. He is a captain in the military.

They left this morning in their rental truck full of stuff Heather's gathered over the years awaiting marriage. She's prayed very specifically since she was 10 for this man she'd marry. As she was approaching 30 she was still trusting and resting in God. I was trusting too, thought I'd often argue with God ...

How'd they meet? Through E-Harmony, an online Christian dating site. Bill is a wonderful man and they are like brother and sister - both in looks and compatibility.

While today we remember those who have died for our freedoms. I'm also saying thanks to those still alive, willing to give their lives for freedoms they value - like our Bill. 

Happenings

Getting ready for a weekend of company. My newly married Heather, with Bill, are flying in tomorrow morning. They'll be getting a rental truck to pack their stored stuff here, and drive to their new home at Fort Hood, outside Austin Texas.

Monte and Dawson have been in the SW Arizona desert this week doing geology. Dawson's been posting pictures on his photo site. I like the one of Monte's silhouette with pick in the rising sun. Normally you'd think 'sunset', but with afternoon temps over 100 degrees, they are going out at dusk and working till just after noon, or till they can't stand it! And Dawson captured a picture of a jackrabbit jumping. They fly home Saturday.

Saturday afternoon the whole family - with Travis and Sarah, and my mom and Jim - will be here and share supper together.

Tonight is my second needlefelt class in this 4 week course. We do wool-sculpted heads tonight.

So I'm off to ready the house and get ready for tonight's class.

And since I so often give a weather report for our 8000' Colorado Mtn area: supposed to be cooler today and rain, but it's been beautiful! Got some garden seeds planted, but need Monte home to ready the rest of the garden. The greenhouse is full and I'm starting to harden off the broccoli ('cole') family plants and some flowers for planting outside next week. Apple and Nanking Cherry trees/bushes are in bloom. Lilacs are soon to bloom. Hummingbirds are humming, and pine siskins are in abundance at the thistle feeder, and I'm keeping my eyes open for the occasional goldfinch. Someone has said we shouldn't get any more snow this season. Hoping.

Story Quote

My friend Ellen sent me this quote since I so often talk of the value of story.

Story re-orders, sifts through experience, and allows others, young children and adults alike, to hear what we think truly matters. We are constituted by the stories we tell ourselves and others. Thus stories serve an ontological purpose. Story connects us with that which lies beyond ourselves and this process makes us ask questions about the meanings of our lives. It is, in fact, a way we can begin to define what we mean when we use the term "spirituality."
- Barbara Kimes Myers
Young Children and Spirituality

As I said before, I'm home alone. Been gardening. It's beautiful outside. Sat awhile outside off and on yesterday reading and watching the birds. Monte and Dawson are in the southern Arizona desert and said it's 115 degrees! So going out early, starting at first light and needing to quit just after noon.

Happenings

We almost always sleep with the sliding glass door open. Yesterday, awakening in the early morning I whispered, "shh". Monte and me lay listening ... birds singing (I like to recognize them - name them) ... and then, a hummingbird! The hummingbirds always come around mid-May and I anxiously await them, as I do the blue birds.

Growing up in the southern Arizona desert, I never heard hummingbirds 'hum' - so why are they called 'hummingbirds'? In the Colorado Mountains they are NOISY! all summer long. The Rufous shows up early July and then things really get feisty! He, with his bright copper color in the sunlight, doesn't want to share the feeder.

So yesterday morning before leaving for MOPS I cleaned the feeder and made the syrup mixture and hung it on its hook on the back deck. It's snowing again now, but I know summer is around the corner because the hummingbirds are back!

Sat with friends Jeanie and Marty after MOPS at Starbucks for over an hour talking. Marty wanted to talk about books since she just finished reading The Shack (a good read), and we go off on many bunny trails. But as my sister-in-law Linda always says, "Bunny trails come home".

I came home to Dawson and four friends playing Twister in the parlor! What's so unusual about that you may ask? First off, kids rarely play real games together any more, AND they are college kids! School is done (can I brag? he thinks he's got another 4.0 grade average again this semester). Later, after I put groceries away and wanted to check my emails, they were on their stomachs on my 'office' floor playing cards. Then later they were playing a game at the kitchen table. After finding out they weren't staying for supper, I teased them that they were trying out every room in the house playing games! (Remember my post about our Velveteen House?)

So, after Dawson's piano recital tomorrow night, him and Monte are leaving for southern Arizona to spend a week in the 100 degree desert doing geology. In getting ready, Monte and me are going to combine errands this afternoon down in Denver, and I start another needlefelting class tonight (we're saving gas).

So I'll be Home Alone again for a week. Yuck, looking out earlier I saw some elk go by and now it's snowing hard! I want to get my garden planted. The greenhouse plants are getting big and are ready to go out! I'm ready to go out! I want to get my hands and bare feet in the dirt!

SNOW!!!!

I AM SO SICK OF SNOW! Woke up to no electricity and 10" of snow. Started the wood stove so I could make tea. Electricity is on now, but it's still snowing, and this time of year means it's very wet and heavy snow.

I remember my lilac getting flattened one year, so snow into late May is not unusual. Luckily no leaves are on the trees and bushes, so the snow won't break branches.

How much snow will we get is the question? Tornadoes, cyclones, earthquakes, electrical storms and volcanoes - the news is sure full right now. We still can't control nature.

Compost and Mother's Day

I get interesting gifts for Mother's Day - but they are what I ask for! There's been many years that I ask for compost bins. We've finally learned how to get great compost, so this year Monte made me a supper-nice 3-compartment compost bin. I've asked for rototillers and other gardening stuff.

I came down Mother's Day morning to a wrapped gift for me from Dawson. He's a gift giver and a creative wrapper. Lately his gifts have been wrapped in the many pages we helped edit for his college classes. He gave me a rock water-fountain. So now I can sit here in my recliner, surrounded by my many house plants and have the soothing sound of tumbling water.

When the rest of the world is waiting to be seated at restaurants, I prefer not to join the masses. But I get taken out quite a bit, so eating out on Mother's Day isn't so special. Just like when the rest of the world is vacationing, I'd rather stay home. But then we often go on mini vacations, so there isn't that need.

So is it that we enjoy treats, like dates, on a regular basis so there isn't this huge need for needing a holiday to make things happen ... or is it that we don't like crowds ... or are we just rebellious? (I do have a rebellious streak in me.)

Actually yesterday, after church, we went with friends to eat at Pannera Bread and sat talking quite awhile before Monte and me went to the REI outdoor store to get a new GPS he needs for his geology field trip he's going on next week. But like gardening paraphernalia, I like looking at all the camping, backpacking, and outdoor activity paraphernalia too. So maybe it wasn't a thing most would do for Mother's Day, but I enjoyed what I did with Monte. 

Can you believe it? - today, late this afternoon, the weather instantly changed from sunny upper 60's to freezing wind and rain. Denver is supposed to get 3" of snow overnight, so we'll get more! I finished planting my summer flower pots, but of course they'll stay inside awhile more. I filled all the bird feeders. I trimmed the grapevine in the greenhouse (so many grapes coming this year!) and emptied all the garden and kitchen scrap buckets in the compost bin.

Supper 2

I'm soooo tired ... I'll say phrases, and a song will pop into my head. With the opening phrase, it's the Beatles line in a song, "I'm so tired ..." but I'm NOT "feeling so upset". (I grew up with the Beatles and loved them.) All I'm doing as chef for these visiting scientists is wonderful.

Second supper, one more to go Friday night. Two lunches done, two more to go. No, I wouldn't want to do it all the time. People so often say, "You should have a restaurant"... But then I wouldn't enjoy cooking! I did the grilled chickens on the beer cans tonight - six of them. The Norwegians took pictures of them on the grill, and the eating was great!

I'm really writing just to post another Picasso quote. He really does say some things I like (I've already quoted him in other posts):

"There is no abstract art.
You must always start with something.
Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."

I can't tell you why I like this. I've read as Americans we are mal-nourished when it comes to art. It was a discussion at the supper table tonight. Dawson is working on a college English project and had a poster picture he's creating from photoshopping a photo he took. The Norwegians said he shouldn't add words. My thinking is that today, with the mal-nourishment, a picture may not necessarily say a 1000 words.

Call it hand-holding or educating or nurturing ... but it's a helping people to 'see'.

Swan Inn

I've begun wearing my 'chef Karey' hat for this week with the many visiting scientists from Norway coming in today. I've got my weeks' menus planned and steps laid out.

So tonight is Mexican and I've begun the burrito meat in the crock-pot, started the beans, and made a cheesecake. Usually I do a flan, but we decided we wanted a cheesecake this time. I'll be grilling the stuffed poblano chilies this afternoon.

I'll be doing four lunches and three suppers. They'll be taking me out for two very nice suppers. Some of them have been here before and have been building up my reputation to the new ones coming. Pressure! But not really, I've done it so much before that it's not so bad.

I saw a cool "Swan Tavern" wood sign some time ago that I wish I bought - a great picture of a swan. We definitely get the company. But then we do live where people like to vacation, which is why I prefer staying home when the rest of the world is vacationing. And why leave beautiful here, when most other places are so hot, humid and have mosquitos and whatever else negative!

Well, back to my typing of Monte's and Stan's field trip guide.

White Deer

As I said in yesterday's Fire post, it did snow (and the fires are out). It started midday and snowed hard and we got about 10". Now it's sunny and will melt fast.

On Monte's and Dawson's second dump run yesterday it started snowing. At the dump were some deer with an albino-like one. Because along with the large, white snowflakes it was so cool, Dawson went back with his camera. He posted it on his photoblog.

Fires!

I heard on the news this morning that at least three fires in very different parts of Colorado started yesterday. "Oh Dear." We've had good moisture this winter, but if it doesn't continue, the good growth dries.

It was so beautifully warm yesterday! We got so much done outside yesterday and the roofers totally finished and cleaned up. Monte got our parking area in front of the house reworked with a little bobcat so the area slopes away from the house, and gravel was delivered and he got that all spread. We've loaded up stuff for taking to the dump. And I even walked around picking up trash.

The snow is finally all melted from my garden and there's onions and spinach coming up. I always leave last year's salad stuff in the ground and they come up early spring for good eating, way before I'm able to get seeds in the ground. I will have to dig them out eventually, since last year's crops live into another year for the production of seeds.

It did get really windy yesterday. It's been a windy winter. I guess the wind is what wrecked havoc with the started fires. Many homes burned in southern Colorado. We've lived some summers with the danger of fire. Many of the large fires have been close to home and we can smell them. I hate waking in the night smelling smoke, wondering, getting up and looking out all the windows.

There's a local website that began about a decade ago because of wanting more close-to-home updates on what's going on. Now there's pictures posted from all over so we can even check on snow conditions for various mountain roads. When I smelled smoke last summer I went to this pinecam.com and there were questions posted about the smoke and someone in the area wrote answering, as to what was going on, so no worrying further.

What to grab from your home if you do have to get out fast?! It's because of this question and stories told that I've tried to get as much on my computer as I can. I've put most all our important data on my computer creating spread sheets, and I've even scanned in old photo albums and have lots of photos on my computer.

It was supposed to snow overnight but I guess that's changed to tonight. They say the snow/rain will help with the fire fights.

Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born yesterday, the 15th, in 1452. Lots of journals of his drawings and figurings exist, but his completed works are few in comparison.

Because I've been framing pictures (I learned how to cut mattes - how cool - oh, the possibilities ...!) I've got all the frames I've collected all in one room. On the windowsill I sat a funky little picture I have of the Mona Lisa. That picture has fascinated viewers for centuries. From his sketch journals it's believed he used himself as the model for that picture.

From a library book, I saw the building that is home to his The Lord's Supper. It is totally a miracle that it's the one wall left standing pretty in tact from bombing in the war.

Some people have taken his sketches and completed some of his projects. One of those I connect with is, it is he who first imagined the spinning wheel's fly-wheel that holds the bobbin with the feed-hole for the animal wool twisting into a yarn. I could probably say that better if I looked at one of my books, but I think you get the idea.