Saturday, May 11, 2013

Anonymous Grumpy Cat

I regret to report 
that I am no longer living 
with the E-P.

Over thirty years in a relationship,
and it's come to this.

Consequently, 
I have gone over the edge.
I've come undone.



Cairn, Wetherlam Edge
Source:  Wikimedia Commons




The kind, sweet, gentle man 
I married almost twenty-nine years ago,
has morphed into an Anonymous Grumpy Cat!




This transformation, 
I now realize, 
was underway a couple of weeks ago
when he began asking me ridiculous questions.

For three nights in a row 
the Ever-Patient said,
"Would you like to have some of my foot cream?"

N1:  Would you like to have some of my foot cream?
N2:  Would you like to have some of my foot cream?
N3:  Would you like to have some of my foot cream?

I couldn't take it any more!
I was sitting in the bedroom 
carefully massaging magnesium oil into my feet
while he was observing me from under the covers.





"What's with the damned foot cream?" 
I blurted on the third night.
(In my defense, I am pointing out
that I was in serious pain 
and had been so for a number of days.)

"We've been married almost thirty years,
and you're suddenly offering me foot cream?
In thirty years you've never offered me foot cream!
What's with the damn foot cream?"

"I'm concerned," says the then Ever-Patient Terry.

"Concerned?  About what?"

"You keep spraying hair de-tangler on your feet every night."

"What?"

"You have all those cans of de-tangler in the bathroom.
You've been spraying it on your feet every night.
At least you're using it."

Does he seriously think 
I'm spraying hair de-tangler on my feet?
I know I've often told him 
that I'm a hobbit ~ but really?
My pampered tootsies
bear no resemblance to Merry's or Pippin's feet!

Even when riding on a bull elephant
in the jungles of Thailand,
when I most definitely was not a Fashionista,
my tootsies were pampered, pedicured, and poppy red.


  
                 Proof Positive:
                 No hobbit feet 
                 for me!

Source:  http://www.thisnext.com/browse/hobbit/

  
"It's magnesium oil ~ 
it's supposed to take away pain and stiffness.
N... told me about it."

"Don't tell me you've fallen 
for another woo woo idea
from a woo woo friend of yours."

"She is not woo woo!
She rides horses.  
She shoots guns.  
She carries a knife.
She's a Republican!
She can field dress an elk and will tell you flat out
that Sarah Palin could not field dress a moose on her own
because she's done it ~ with help!
She is not woo woo!"

He is often concerned about some of my friends
who are into reincarnation, spirits, and herbs.
He is uncomfortable when I say I'm half Druid.


Wheel of Reincarnation


He calls my friends "Woo Woo,"
or he hums the theme from The Twilight Zone.
He does not get true flower power.
He does, however, know 
when to stop a losing line of conversation.

"Well, I hope it works.  
My foot cream is here any time you want it,"
says the E-P turning out his lamp.

I should have known then something odd was going on.
Ridiculous!
Hair de-tangler on my feet?



     
The Guess Who ~ Live ~ Undun ~ 1983
You Tube/Guilded Cage


To be continued...

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Proof Positive! It's a ... !

Yesterday was a day 
of glowering clouds
and pounding rain.







I went on a hunt 
for a new camera
to no avail,
and I got to drive
home in lashing rain. 


Before the sky
opened up.
<<<




So this morning I dashed
down to Piney Creek 
to check on the water levels
with my trusty old camera.



You should have seen 
the look 
on the camera store 
clerk's face
when he saw 
how beaten up
my little 
Canon PowerShot was.

All the settings 
have worn off!

It's had a hard life 
tossed into stuffed purses and backpacks 
and working in all kinds of weather.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Scream.jpg 






I'm always insecure
walking under this old cottonwood
after a storm.

The second tree, 
in the middle foreground,
came crashing down ~
over the path ~
during a storm 
some years ago.

Park rangers had to cut away
big branches
blocking
the path.

I always think
Will I be able 
to run,
if it starts to fall?







This massive
cottonwood,
(of which you
see only
the center portion)
would flatten me like 
a train
running over 
a penny on a 
railroad track.

Do you see
how the
corrugated bark
soaks up 
the rain.
Some areas,
less wet and
more sheltered,
are light grey.

You can see
the fallen
cottonwood 
in the background.




Splat!
This tree keeled over last night!























When you get a good rain,
temporary ponds form in low areas.

There are berms and catchment basins
along Piney Creek
to control runoff from sudden rains.

I was standing on a large berm
when I took this next picture.

Normally this area is dry.
I have seen much bigger flood ponds
impounded behind this berm.





Yes!
The male cottonwoods are beginning to flaunt their catkins!



Cottonwoods are dioecious,
meaning either male or female.
Both sexes flower in the spring
before they produce leaves.
The males flower somewhat before the females.
Both sexes form clusters of flowers in catkins.

These are male catkins.  
See their flashy burgundy flowers starting to bloom.


Male Catkins



These are female catkins.
Their green flowers are larger than the male flowers.


  Female Catkins


Soon it will be time for cottonwood sex in the park!
More to come!!!

Meanwhile I thought of that cottonwood
I posted on last fall.
Male?  Female?
Time to check it out!

I hummock hopped 
across the soggy ground
to that tree 
I had photographed thoroughly
months ago.
It had toppled over
long before I ever turned up
in this neighborhood.






    Sweet little robin      
singing its heart out!
Boy or girl?
Can you tell?
The tree ~ not the robin!






This old giant has acquired a vibrant coat of green since I stopped by last November!   



Proof positive!
It's a ... !



Boy!



If you wish to see more 
of this venerable male 
check out my post

I'll keep you posted on
cottonwood shenanigans
in the park!


Proof Positive!
It's a Squirrel!
(on a better squirrel day in the park)

It's my story,
and I'm sticking to it!
 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Do You See What I See?


Picture of the Day:  Surprise!



     I've been trying 
     to get a photograph
     of this raptor
     that hangs out 
     in a stand
     of cottonwoods
     near Piney Creek;
     but every time
     I sneak closer,
     it flies off.

     This bird is proving
     a challenge to identify
     and to capture on film!






                      Mystery Raptor and Cooper's Hawk
            
It's the size of our great horned owls,
large and grey,
with a rounded barred tail,
so I'm thinking 
it's most likely a Cooper's Hawk.

But its identification
is not the point of this post.

As I was messing with my poor shots,
look what I spied!

 Do You See What I See?


Surprise!

Down in the lower right corner 
of the photo,
I swear I see a little squirrel
half out of a hidey-hole!
And neither the raptor
nor the squirrel
appear to be paying any attention
to each other!

I'm just going to have
to get that new camera
I keep thinking about!
X29 is simply not enough zoom
for pesky raptors and frisky squirrels!

I'd like to know 
if you see what I see?
I'd hate to think I'm suffering
from an over-active imagination.

Never a dull day in my park!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Trifecta in White

Colorado is synonymous with mountains.
And yesterday, 
after yet another spring snowstorm
earlier in the week,




             The Morning After the Storm 
                    Earlier in the Week



... the Front Range was draped
in a mantle of dazzling white.


Part of the Front Range of Colorado
The White Clad Mountains Tower 
Over the Foothills and the Metro Area



The Front Range, 
part of the Southern Rocky Mountains, 
rises 10,000 feet above the Great Plains.
It stretches from Casper, Wyoming in the north
to Pueblo, Colorado in the south.

Map of Colorado
The Front Range parallels Interstate 25 to the west or left.
I-25 runs north-south from the Wyoming border through Fort Collins
all the way south through Trinidad to the New Mexico border.


 The Front Range (in pink)




Panoramic View of the Front Range


Three majestic peaks anchor the skyline 
when you look at the Front Range
from the Denver Metro Area:
Longs Peak, Mount Evans, and Pikes Peak.

In the brilliant spring sunshine,
these three Fourteeners formed
the perfect trifecta in white.


 Longs Peak (to the north) 
Viewed from Aurora
Elevation: 14,259 feet / 4346 meters



Mount Evans (in the middle) 
Viewed from Aurora
Elevation:  14,265 feet / 4348 meters



Pikes Peak (to the south) 
Viewed from Aurora
Elevation:  14,115 feet / 4302 meters




Coloradans cherish the Front Range for its beauty
and for the recreation it provides year round.
Residents and visitors mountain bike, hike, climb,
and camp during the warmer months, 
and they ski, snowboard, and snowshoe
during the winter. 

Rocky Mountains
Looking West from Lookout Mountain, 
Golden, Colorado


Some Coloradans like to bag Fourteeners.
Fourteeners are mountains 
that exceed 14,000 feet or 4,270 meters in elevation.

Colorado has 53 Fourteeners,
although this number is open to debate.
For a mountain to be considered a Fourteener,
it has to have a unique summit 
rising more than 300 feet or 91.44 meters  
above its connecting saddle to a taller peak.

Fifty-three Fourteeners make the cut,
but traditionally one or two other peaks
have been counted despite their lack of rise.

I have stood on top of Pikes Peak and Mount Evans ~
but I haven't bagged them.
To bag a Fourteener 
you have to actually climb the mountain.

Riding to Pikes Peak 
on the Cog Railway doesn't count.

Fourteen Thousand Feet Above the Sea!


Nor does driving to the top of Mount Evans count.

The Mount Evans Scenic Byway 
Approaching the Summit


Longs Peak is never going to happen,
for this scaredy cat!
Nearly every year one or more people die
climbing Longs Peak.

Here is a very short video on climbing
Longs Peak using the Keyhole Route.
One look at this will show you 
why it will never happen for me.


I have bagged three:  
Mount Sherman (14,036 feet / 4,278 meters) 
Grays (14,278 feet / 4,352 meters)
and Torreys (14,275 feet / 4,351 meters).

Until, and if, things change,
I'll just enjoy the trifecta's beauty
with my eyes instead of my feet.