Scavenger Hunt September, 2014

How I love September!
It is my favorite month of the year.
I can't wait to see everyone's September Scavenger Hunt Photos.

September Gold in Colorado's High Country

September's List

1.  S is for Scenery

Looking Toward Boreas Pass Road
Breckenridge, Colorado, USA

S is for the beautiful scenery that graces our state in September.

View from Boreas Pass Road

Near Breckenridge, Colorado, USA



2.   2 p.m.

My Lucky Win!
Ameristar, Black Hawk, Colorado

But This is Better!  
An Afternoon Walk
Boreas Pass Road

Brewmaster Jason Ford Explains His Craft
Broken Compass Brewing
Airport Road, Breckenridge

Depending on the day, 2:00 p.m. can be a very different experience!

3.  Car Park

Parking Lot, Breckenridge

This Car Park in Breckenridge comes complete with a rainbow!   

4.   Hat

I had to scramble to come up with a hat!  
We rarely wear hats.

I was scouring my photos from my travels

earlier this year,

and look what I found!

Hat

Who is better known for hats than the Queen?

Sometimes I find the English quite perplexing.

This portrait was hung in a public washroom

along the River Thames!

5.  In the Mirror

Angel and I in the Mirror in July

Would she cooperate in September?
Nope, no purring kitty on the massage table ~
Angel was having more fun under the table
 or crawling behind my clothes!

          Can you see her head 
          directly below my camera?


             




Angel is my friend Kathi's
"massage associate,"
and she insists on spending time
with me every time I have a massage.

6.   Garden

Some Surviving Poppies in a High Country Rock Garden

7.   Lock

 

An Old Lock On An Old Door
Central City, Colorado

On An Old Mine Building

Given the condition of this building,

the lock is quite funny!

8.   Nails

An Old Building
Riddled with Nails


This is old in Colorado 
~ A Clerk/Recorder's Office Dated 1862

9.   Lamp

Lots of Little Lamps
at the Ameristar
Black Hawk

10.   Street Sign

Slow Down!
Construction at the Twin Tunnels on I-70

Okay ~ Technically these are highway signs.

Street Sign, London

Somehow street signs are more fun in England!

11.   Game 

Gracie's Favorite Game

Pay Attention to Me Please!
Gracie will paw you with increasing urgency,
until you relent and pet her.
She will play this game hour after hour.

12.  Outside Your Window

Black Hawk, Colorado

We stopped at a stop light,

and this was right outside my car window.

October's List:

O is for ?,  6 p.m.,  Morning,  Something you bought,  Light,  Close up,  
Favorite,  Lunch,  Childhood,  Your Sky,  Color,  Your shoes

Thanks to Jill (Greenthumb) 

and her Made with Love blog 

for setting up the scavenger hunt.

The Lansdowne Letters: What's a Teacher to Do?

Did the beginning of the school year fill you with excitement? 
It was always a fun-filled and hopeful time for me as a student and a teacher. But I'm imagining what it was like for my father in the fall of 1960, when he flew into the northern bush to teach in a one-room Indian school.

My School

Photo by D. B. MacBeath, Fall 1960

© M L (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved


 He walked into an empty classroom to prepare for kindergarten and four grades of students ranging in age from five to eighteen, many of whom did not speak English. Because of weather delays, Dad was a week behind opening school. Some of his students had already disappeared 
into the bush for the winter traplines, their parents assuming there would be no school that year. Dad had no idea how many students would show up once school opened. 
 But if there is one thing teachers do well, it is problem solving, and my father didn't let the unexpected stump him. 
Dad wrote on Sunday, September 18, 1960: "My school starts tomorrow. I finally managed to borrow some old homemade seats from the Father. I wish you could have seen us transporting the seats across to the mainland. "I hired two of the mission Indians, (the Dept. pays for things like this), and they hauled them from the island to the DOT dock in a big 18 foot freighter canoe which belongs to the Father. "I wish you could have seen that canoe. They put five double desks 
and four chairs in it the first time, and the second trip, 
they added a large table.
"There couldn’t have been more than 
three inches showing after they got into the canoe, 
and the water was quite rough. They asked me if I wanted to come too, but I wouldn’t have gotten in that canoe 
for a hundred dollars. "I followed them in my little canoe; at least I tried to follow them. However, when I was a little more than two thirds across, I met them coming back for the second load. By the time I reached the DOT dock 
and had tied up my canoe,
they had loaded the second load 
and were starting back.  

"I would have liked to have gotten 
a picture of the whole thing, but of course my camera wasn’t loaded, and I didn’t want to hold up the operation while I dashed up and loaded it. We were in quite a hurry 
because the wind was rising, and we were afraid 
that the water would become too rough."

Mainland, Lansdowne House
Photo by D. B. MacBeath, Fall 1960
"This shows the Hudson's Bay Post in the background.
Center. MacMahon's house is to the left and Mitchell's is to the right.
In the foreground is the only rock in Lake Attawapiskat
I haven't run into with my canoe.
The plane at the dock is the plane I came up in."
© M L (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Enlarged View

© M L (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Dad also made the rounds of the Hudson Bay, the Department of Transport (DOT), and the Nursing Station scrounging card tables and chairs from the avid card-playing community in Lansdowne House. He had desks for his students but would he have any students for those desks?” Even in the swirl of meeting new people and getting his school functioning, Dad contended with the loneliness of leaving my mother and we five behind. Dad also wrote: “I will be so glad to get you and the children up here next year, Darling. 
You will love it. We will buy a large freighter canoe and an outboard 
and go on fishing trips and picnics across the lake.  
There will be electricity, 
and I think there will be running water, 
but I am not sure. Well, I just heard the plane coming in, 
so I had better sign off.” I am always humbled by the struggles and sacrifices my parents endured to give us a good start in life. 

Chasing Rainbows

I'm always on the hunt for rainbows.
You never know where they might pop up.
I came dashing down the stairs yesterday,
and there were rainbows all over the wall.

But sunshiny, rainy today, 

we were treated to the real deal.

"Pull off!  Pull off!"  

I shouted to the Ever-Patient Terry

as he drove through Breckenridge traffic.

He complied, even though he had been

slowing and stopping repeatedly

as I hunted for fall leaves.

This magnificent rainbow appeared out of nowhere.

People were bailing from their cars

to catch the rainbow with their cameras and phones.

I had to tinker with the pictures a little
to capture the rainbow as it was in the sky.
The colors were so vivid they hurt to look at.

The rainbow vanished in no time at all.
When one appears, you just have to stop 
and take in the unexpected and ephemeral beauty.

Here's my absolute favorite rainbow song,

by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole.

Enjoy!

You Tube ~ Mountain Apple Company Inc

Rocky Mountain High

Sorry if you're looking for
John Denver or Mary Jane.

Tenmile Range from Boreas Pass Road

I'm talking about the incredible
Rocky Mountain high you get
walking among Colorado's glorious aspen
when the days shorten and cool
and the nights lengthen and chill.

 Aspen Trees Overlooking Goose Pasture Tarn

Just South of Breckenridge, Colorado, USA

Yesterday Terry and I hiked along
Boreas Pass Road near Breckenridge.

The aspen leaves are peaking,

and they are glorious.

Aspen Stems and Leaves

Boreas Pass Road,

This year there are a lot of aspen

sporting rich orange and red leaves

among the more typical yellow.

This may be a genetic trait,

caused by the orange and red aspens

having two anthocyanin pigments

that the yellow aspen do not.

The Ever-Patient Terry

Boreas Pass Road 

Aspen Leaves

Boreas Pass Road,

Bald Mountain

(13,684 feet/4171meters)

with Boreas Pass Road 

above the aspen in the lower right 

From New England Drive, Breckenridge 

Boreas Pass Road

Aspen, Boreas Pass Road

Terry Along Boreas Pass Road

Overlooking Goose Pasture Tarn

Boreas Pass Road

Colorado Gold

Boreas Pass Road

Boreas Pass Road

Boreas Pass Road

All of my life I have struggled with acrophobia
or fear of heights.
I have come so far over the years,
but yesterday I had a full-on attack.

In a fit of enthusiasm,
I started down a gravelly slope 
along a dead tree 
trying to shoot

the color beckoning on an adjacent slope.

All of a sudden the drop-offs registered,
and I thought I would shoot down the gravel

like a skier on a jump.

I sank to the ground,

braced my foot against a knob on the left side of the trunk,

and plunged into complete irrational and dizzy panic.

A guide friend told me long ago,

that when you sit on your butt,

it's all over ~ you've got to stay on your feet.

I was shaking so badly,

I thought I would dislodge the trunk.

Tree Trunk Pointing Steeply Downhill

Boreas Pass Road

The E-P answered my panicked pleas 
and calmly reached for me.

At one point I was lying on my belly
and clinging to the roots.

I wouldn't let go of those big fat roots for anything.

Finally, I went for it,

pulling myself and squirming above 

the dead roots of the tree,

as Terry dragged me to my feet and safety.

Yours Truly

Covered with Dirt from the Belly Squirm

Damn I was pissed!

Haven't licked acrophobia yet!

Poor E-P.

He knows another rock, ledge, or tree is waiting somewhere,

just for special me to have an irrational panic attack on.

And he knows I'll go for it.

It's one of the many reasons, I call him the E-P.

Idyllic

Not So Much

Traffic snarls clogged the Boreas Pass Road repeatedly

as other enjoyed the leaves on their wheels,

not their bellies.

Looking Through Aspen

Above Goose Pasture Tarn

We couldn't believe it!

John Denver's Rocky Mountain High

came on the radio when Terry started the car for home.

Okay, I guess you get John Denver after all!

You Tube ~ Masassa2009