Apprentice of Wonder

Autumn Peaks in Colorado

    The Colorado aspens are at their peak of glorious color today.  It is not hard to find wonder in every glance on days like this one.  We spent all day zwending our way down forest service roads lined with vast glowing aspen groves, with gold-covered peaks in all directions. 

Kenosha Pass is considered to be one of the, if not THE, most beautiful places to view the autumn aspens each year, and these photos, all taken at the top of the pass, clearly show why.  It's been years since we caught the colors at this level of perfection.  It is one of the largest stands of aspen in the state, and there's only a couple of days when the colors are this perfect, before they fall.  And they were beginning to fall today.

  The red rose hips add a perfect touch of red to the vast expanses of golden-orange.  I love the contrast of the dark green spruce and Douglas fir against the gold of the aspens.

Spend even one hour in the Colorado Rockies and you understand from where the phrase "purple mountain's majesty" comes.   

    These photos are taken from the west side of Kenosha Pass, along Lost Park Road.  The storms threatening on all sides only added more drama with spectacular cloud formations and bruise-colored skies.    

Truly, a more perfect autumn drive in the Colorado Rockies could not be imagined.  My hope, and plan, is to post more of the 180 photos I took yesterday over the course of 5 hours!  Digital - another wonder for which I am deeply grateful.  Digital photography makes documenting the wonder each day so much easier.

Pardon me, while I.............

try to get a grip on myself and work through some negative political obsessions I have been having since the announcement of She Who Will Not Be Named as Vice President.  After the high energy excitement of the Democratic National Convention here in Denver, and my ever-increasing shock over this nomination, I have not trusted myself to speak or write about anything because I am overwhelmingly scared about the upcoming election, which is going to be just as close as the last two have been.  I am glad I will be out of the country (in Mexico) the first week of November.

I CAN say I've been finding an awful lot to wonder about in the last three weeks, but it's not goodstuff, and I don't want to taint my wonder-blog with it all. 

I am trying to stop reading and listening to all the negative stories on both sides, and focus instead on things like the sweet delicate beauty of my canna rose, blooming for about the fifth time this summer - and always, the cats.  Here is little Smokey in bliss state:

The cats turned 3 in June, and I cannot remember life without them.

A Blessing

Some days it is easy to find the wonder.  Some days, like today, it just appears in front of me.  This photo was taken on the way up to Golden Gate State Park today.  The image of the two black and white horses took me instantly back to a basement room in 1974 in Allen Hall at Louisiana State University where Ray Beard read aloud the poem below. 

My B.A. is in Poetry Writing.  As you might imagine, I have studied and read a LOT of poems in my life.  Here is my single favorite poem, the one which turned me from a journalism major into a poetry writing major within the time it took to hear this poem read aloud. 

A Blessing

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass. And the eyes of those two Indian ponies Darken with kindness. They have come gladly out of the willows To welcome my friend and me. We step over the barbed wire into the pasture Where they have been grazing all day, alone. They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness That we have come. They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other. There is no loneliness like theirs. At home once more, they begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness. I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms, For she has walked over to me And nuzzled my left hand. She is black and white, Her mane falls wild on her forehead, And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist. Suddenly I realize That if I stepped out of my body I would break Into blossom. James Wright

Last Night of the DNC

This was the sunset last night over the DNC.  It's one of the most spectacular sunsets we've had in months.  I am choosing to see this as a good sign for the upcoming November election.

A couple of hours after Obama's rousing acceptance speech, I went back down to the 16th Street Mall to witness the action of the final night of festivities.  There were actually fewer people out and about than on the previous two nights, but I still caught plenty of hilarious Democrats in action, with several one-person "protestors" spouting their causes.

I never did figure out what this interview was about, but the fully-decked-out Mountain Man was a sight to behold, and the interviewer with the mike was a riot.

And standing next to the Rodeo Girl was this guy posing with his Obama head:

Overall it has been a fun week to be working nights in downtown Denver.  I haven't felt this kind of energy on the streets since the 70's.  In fact, there were several times I felt like I WAS back in the 70's.  The smell of patchouli and raggedy jeans with holes in the knees and teenagers with "smoke weed" signs and the several "Stop the War" signs scattered all over were very reminiscent of the Vietnam War days.  I haven't seen this kind of political excitement on the streets in decades.  I'm glad I was able to be an observer of this historic event.

Live from the DNC

This is a very exciting, energetic week to be working in downtown Denver with the Democratic National Convention going on. 

I work from 4 p.m. until midnight and have been taking my dinner breaks outside this week.  There's been thousands and THOUSANDS of people milling around; tons of hilarious political signs and single protestors, everyone out there spouting a cause.   

There's the radicals, the anarchists, the anti-war folks,

and even the anti-meat activists.  Anyone with a message who wanted publicity was there, and all of them welcomed we amateur photographers. 

You could even hula-hoop to help bring the troops home. 

There is A HUGE police presence but no reason for them to need to use force.  They were all standing around, looking serious with their masks and SWAT team equipment, but nothing was happening for them to use it.   It was completely CRAZY!  Wild, buzzing energy, thousands of people EVERYWHERE and so much excitement in the air you could taste it.  Everyone was happy and excited and the words "hope" and "change" were actually tangible in the streets and in the energy of the people.

 

My souvenir for the week is this t-shirt, which I could not resist.  I'm going back down there now to try to get a couple more of these.

So now you know where I stand.

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Please forgive my odd arrangement of photos and text in this post.  Typepad has changed in the 2 years since I last used it and I'm going through an adjustment period of trying to figure out how and where to position things.

Trying to Get Back to Wonder

 I vowed not to let a year go by between posts, and then after that year passed I made another vow not to let two years go by, but time flies, even when you are NOT having fun.  And I wasn't these last 2 years.  I've been trying to get back here for over a year now, but.... life got in the way, as they say.  In particular, my previous (note the word PREVIOUS) job got in the way of my life.  It began to take over my life starting in mid-2006, when my happy little local department of a national law firm was consolidated into one large national department and I suddenly went from working for 40 attorneys to over 900 attorneys.  It's a long, sad story that I don't want to tell here, but the bottom line is that after the most stressful year of my life, I left that job, after 14 years, in May, and am now working at another much smaller (and local!) law firm in a similar capacity.  Even 3 months later I am, to my amazement, still not completely free of the effects the immense stress I was dealing with for the last 2 years took on my body and my soul.   

To say that this Apprentice was unable to find wonder in anything is an understatement.  Only in the last few weeks have I finally FINALLY begun to wake up and notice, once again, the things in life that used to bring me such joy and fill me with wonder.

 One of the first things to excite me was the arrival, for a brief three days, of this beautiful white pelican on the little pond near my house.  The beautiful bird had never visited this pond before and he hasn't been seen since.  He arrived at the pond and spent 3 days slowly circling the edges, gobbling up every fish available, and as quickly as he'd appeared, he was gone.  But oh he was spectacular floating around the pond for those 3 days.  Even the geese looked tiny in comparison.

I work hard at not carrying or holding onto regrets in my life, and so I am going to move forward from here on out with this blog.  I may go back and fill in some things, and I may not.  But I have broken the ice with this first post, and it was trying to explain where I've been the last 2 years that was holding me back.  So onward and upward.  Today is the first day of the rest of my life as an older and wiser Apprentice of Wonder. 

Finch Baby #2

Within days after the the first group of baby finches flew from the patio nest on June 12, another finch couple moved into the nest and laid 3 eggs.  The second couple was far more relaxed and less nervous than the first and smaller couple.  Dad was more active, and both finches were loud and vocal throughout the nesting period, but despite their seeming maturity, only one of their 3 eggs hatched.  Nearly six weeks from the day the first babies left, the one lone baby from the second batch perched on the edge of the nest, trying to get up its nerve to fly.  It sat there all morning, getting more and more antsy and fidgety, and finally it dove from the nest to the patio floor on wings not yet ready to fly.  As I stepped outside to see if it was okay, it hopped away from me, cheeping in fear.  I tried to capture it to put it back into its nest, chasing it into the wildflower garden, but it was too fast. 

Its high-pitched squeals caused Papa Finch to screech down from the tall ash tree into the smaller aspens just above where the baby was hiding, and just a few feet from my head.  Daddy was frantic at my presence, and with the baby finch sheltered in the yarrow, I quickly captured the 3 cats who had, thank goodness, been unaware of this new development in their own private yard savannah, and kept them inside for the rest of the day.  I went out to check on the baby several times, as Daddy continued to call alarmingly throughout the day, and each time Dad came sweeping down just above my head.

This continued throughout the day and into the evening.  Each time Dave looked out the window, the baby was sitting on a daisy leaf, and once in this low branch.  The next morning I went out searching, and both the baby and Dad were gone.  We've chosen to believe that Dad coaxed Junior happily on his flight to whatever constitutes a long finch life.  I do know that, fortunately, the 3 cats have yet to get ahold of a bird, and I like to think that one of the finches that come to eat at the feeder might just be this little guy all grown up. 

Guatemalan Textiles: A Culture of Color

Anyone who knows me associates me with bright, vivid, colors.  I wear them; I paint with them; most of my ATCs stand out by their color; my house and furnishings are full of them.  Combine this life-long love of color with my deep connection to folk and indigenous art and cultures, and an invitation to a Guatemalan textile exhibit was something I couldn't possibly turn down.  I wish I had made note of the man's name who travels deep into Guatemala to buy these weavings from the indigenous women who make them.  I wish I'd taken notes on the history of their culture and of his travels so I could share some of his fascinating stories of the decades he has spent getting to know these people, and in some cases supporting entire families.  But I didn't.  Instead, here is a photo essay of one Central American culture shown through color and fabric.

   

If I am ever set loose in a country or marketplace that has these hand-woven colors for sale, I'm not sure I can be held responsible.

 

Happy 4th of July!

En route to the fireworks two nights ago I fell and badly sprained my foot.   Despite bruising over my entire left foot and halfway up my calf, my sister and I braved the first heavy rain Denver's had in far too long, and walked to the Arvada fireworks. 

Here is my own personal fireworks show for each of you .

    

    

3rd Annual Cookout and Fireworks Party

I LOVE FIREWORKS!  I could see them every night of the week, and never tire of watching the colorful fire explode in the sky above me.  Each 4th of July, nearly every community in the Denver Metro Area has their own fireworks display.  In my community of Glendale, the fireworks are always on either July 2nd or 3rd, making it possible to see the Glendale display and a another one on July 4th itself.   From my house, it is a pleasant 2/3 mile stroll down the Cherry Creek bike path to Ground Zero.  And so, for the third year in a row, we had our annual cookout (wild salmon, juicy sirloin steak, and fantastic side dishes provided by each guest) and fireworks party, and all who attended had a grand time, as you can see in this photo of four dear friends and me, in the middle.  The two women on the left, Debby and Elaine, are Colorado women I met via the internet years ago, and were it not for the internet, and yahoo groups, there's very little chance we'd ever have met.  Who knew that the internet would drop someone into my life who would take me to Spain for 9 days, and Chile for 18?  The five of us are in a small on-line writing group together, and most of us are also artis ts of one type or another.  If you click over to Elaine's blog on 7-3, you can see a gorgeous photo of the first foxglove I've ever been able to keep alive in my garden, after years of trying.

I always take my camera with me to any fireworks display (well, okay - I take it EVERYWHERE, no matter where I go) but it's nearly impossible to get decent fireworks shots.  I feel lucky if I get a couple of good ones per night.  Without a tripod it's hard enough, but with the delay that is part of using a digital camera, it's impossible to plan in advance and know what you will get.  You can see here how close we are to where the fireworks are set off - as close as you can get!

Here are two fireworks I played around with in Photoshop filters.