Colorado: Estes Park & Boulder

I'm alive but sleepy, so, so sleepy. We got back from Colorado Sunday night around 9:30pm and I headed back to work bright and early Monday morning. Ugh. We had a great trip but spent a good deal of time worrying about our family and friends here because of all the flooding and tornado watches/warnings, etc. Unfortunately my Nannie's house flooded and it's going to take a lot of work and time to get it back to normal. Luckily she and my aunt were able to evacuate with all of their animals. I'm planning on driving up Saturday to take them some things and check out the damage. Please keep everyone in your thoughts, in Shelby County Millington was hit rather hard and the folks further northeast in Nashville have really got a mess.

On to the trip - we flew into Colorado Springs Wednesday afternoon, picked up our rental car, grabbed lunch at Marigold Cafe and then hit the road for Estes Park at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park (almost three hours away). I was blown away by the mountains, just gorgeous. The trip from Colorado Springs to Boulder was pretty uneventful but once we got past Lyons, Colorado heading towards Estes Park the drive up into the mountains was a little narrow. When we arrived in Estes Park we pulled over at the visitors center and gawked at this collection of elk. We also realized how flipping cold it had gotten. Our reservations were at The Stanley Hotel, the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining! But when we got there we found out we would be staying in the new villas (fancy condos) behind the hotel. We were kind of bummed until we got inside the condo, it was huuuuge, two bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen, fireplace, hot tub, mountain view - we were no longer bummed. Our biggest challenges in Estes Park were finding places that were open, most restaurants/stores don't start opening until later in May.

Thursday morning we awoke to a town blanketed in snow. In the mountains snow = not a big deal. It took me a while to get the snow off of the car so I could drive into town but once I got on the road everything was pretty clear. I did some coffee drinking (Kind Coffee), pie-buying (Estes Park Pie Shop) and souvenir shopping. I also drove to the park entrance but the snow and cold kept me from walking. Instead I stopped at Coffee on the Rocks, warmed up and took more pictures of the mountains. By the time I got back to the condo the snow had melted and I took pictures of more elk from the front door.When Kenan's conference session was over we drove to Boulder and spent a very nice afternoon there, it was our favorite place out the towns we went to. We bought yarn at Gypsy Wool, had the best little cupcakes at Tee & Cakes (salted caramel! bacon & chocolate!), walked around and shopped and ate dinner at a crepe place while playing our new favorite game "Spot the Subaru" - extra points if it had a boat rack on top. I still have Denver and Colorado Springs to tell about, which include stories of alpaca, cog wheel trains and more yarny goodness.

Family memories - one

As I mentioned earlier this week I borrowed some family photos from my grandmother to scan with our new scanner. I thought it would be nice to share some of those photos and memories to go along with them. The first set are of my maternal grandmother's parents.

Their names were Irene and Roy Rone but I called them Ma and Pa Rone. Ma Rone passed away in 1994 and Pa Rone in 2003.

(My great-grandmother, 1955)

As a child I spent a lot of time at their house in the summertime. They are a big part of why I'm so interested in gardening. They always had a huge garden and chickens and Pa kept bees too.

These are some of my favorite memories about spending time with them.

(My first Easter at their house, 1982)

Swinging in the white swing on their front porch
Shelling purple hull peas in a big pan on the back porch until my fingers turned purple

(Pa with my mom)

Eating cornbread mashed up in cold milk

Picking blackberries and strawberries from their garden and eating them while they were still warm from the sun
Walking around in their huge garden and being enthralled by the actual fruits and vegetables on the vine
Ma’s little dark glass bottles of snuff on top of the television

(With my newborn baby brother and me, 1983)

The wood stove in the center of their living room, watching them cook sweet potatoes on top of the stove
Looking for Easter eggs in their front yard, among all their roses and peonies
Riding in my Pa’s baby blue Ford Ranger
Going with Pa into the chicken house to get eggs

I can only recall a couple of instances on which Pa did not wear overalls. Practically every memory of him I have he’s wearing Liberty overalls, a long-sleeved flannel shirt and a cap.

(With my uncle, my mom and my aunt, 1963 or 1964)

Pa peeling and eating an apple with a pocketknife
They went to bed with the sun and woke up with it too
They always had bacon leftover from breakfast, at any given time you could go to their house and have a piece of bacon
There was also always Little Debbie cakes to snack on
I feel very lucky to have been able to know them

2-9

Today is my birthday, somewhere around 11:40pm-ish I'll officially be entering the last year of my twenties. I know it's not 'old' or anywhere near 'old' but I can't help but be a little freaked out. Where the hell did the last ten years go? Each year seems to go by more rapidly than the last, yikes.

I am happy, really, really happy, with my life right now and I'm also thankful for the family and friends and husband I have that support me and love me and eat my baked goods.

For the next 12 months I plan on work on my 30-by-30 list, 30 things I want to do by the time I leap into my thirties this time next year. I was inspired by folks like Andrea of Hula Seventy and Maggie Mason's (Mighty Girl) Mighty Life List. My list is here on Listography and it isn't full of life-altering, impossible things, but hopefully things I'll do and enjoy or hate or whatever, but I know I'll be richer for the experience. There's something from a Kurt Vonnegut book I think about whenever I'm feeling apprehensive or unmotivated.

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." - from "Player Piano"

In celebration of my birthday here are some pictures from birthdays of the past.

To grandmother's house we go

Yesterday afternoon Doug and I drove to Covington to visit my grandmother and aunt and take back some pictures I had borrowed to scan a few months ago. Sunday was such a pretty, clear day and a little cooler than it had been over the past week or so. A lot of Nannie's flowers were blooming so I took loads of pictures. We also visited with her chickens, I was hoping Doug might be swayed by seeing them, alas he was not. Although he did think the rooster's feathers would be ideal for fly-tying.

Clematis

Iris

Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia Milii)Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis)

Snowball bush, one of my favorites (Viburnum opulus)

One of my grandmother's peacocks & a tomcat that hangs outSugar, my aunt's horse

Ricky, the rooster, who has a slightly garbled crow more 'cock-a' than 'cock-a-doodle-do' Ethel, the hen (there was another hen, Lucy, but Nannie said something got into the pen and killed her)

Valentine, a hen that (based on my aunt's best guess) is around 12 years old, which seems pretty old for a chicken. My Nannie seemed concerned the chicken might have arthritis.We also drove over to my great-grandparents old house. It's been tied up in estate issues for years now.It's nothing like it once was, but I wanted to go snap a few pictures of it. Most of the grass is overgrown and there's a possibility there are creepy-crawlies slithering around so I didn't go much further than the driveway. I have very happy memories of spending time at this house (more about that later this week). In fact when I was first born my parents lived just down the road. If I squint my eyes real hard I can see my great-grandfather sitting on the front porch cutting up an apple with his pocketknife.