moments of grace

This "betwixt and between" season has always been a favorite of our family. Like Turner's "liminal moment," fall is the boundary season. It both reminds and anticipates. This last week some of us enjoyed a break from the busyness. Time with family, time with friends, time in nature. It was lovely...

The birthday girl below about 13 years ago (at The Happy Apple Farm)

The youngest turns 14!

celebrating in Denver

dad and oldest daughter--in her typical pose :-)

she's the girl amid the trees below

beautiful tea with good friends (pumpkin bars, scones, yummy grilled chicken salad, English tea)

our backyard this morning

perfect day for Farm and Art Market at The Margarita
and colorful purchases

dawn.

inspiration

"All things therefore are charged with love, are charged with God and if we know how to touch them give off sparks and take fire, yield drops and flow, ring and tell of him." 

(Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Sermons and Devotional Writings)

friends

It's been lovely to soak in time with friends and family this summer...afternoon coffee at Agia Sophia where a good friend presented beautiful necklaces from a recent trip to Italy, outdoor poetry readings coordinated by a former student, and hiking one of the many spectacular waterfalls in our area.

listening to local poets read their work

                Dorothy Falls in Queen's Canyon

Seven Bridges

This trail is perfect for a quick hike (round trip just over 3 miles). One of my daughter's and I did it in the afternoon. You really do criss cross  7 bridges over South Cheyenne Creek.

Catamount Falls

hiking happened after all--the day after the 4th on a beautiful blue blue sky day...we hiked the loop from Crystal Falls to Catamount, then back to the tiny town of Green Mountain Falls.

the oldest and the youngest of our 4 daughters.

Summer 2010 Hikes--St. Mary's Falls

I've been wanting to take the girls on this hike since last summer. It begins on an aspen shaded trail that slopes gently upward next to Buffalo Canyon Creek. The last mile is rather steep, but a good trail, with awesome views of the city and the Broadmoor Hotel around almost every bend. Round trip is about 6 miles.

The trail marker is about 1.5 miles from the parking area

The girls sitting by the falls to their right.

I tried with shoes after this attempt!

Colorado Springs and the Broadmoor Hotel (pink roofs) from the falls.

A zoomed in picture of the Broadmoor Hotel

more may

Yesterday, while walking into a nearby school gym for a daughter's club bball game, I was overcome by pink and white...another favorite if fleeting may moment...And yes it snowed today.

may-ness

May is usually a crazy month--the push to the finish line of another school year. And it's always triangulated (to use a favorite term among social scientists) by deadlines in grad school, deadlines as a teacher, and cheering and guiding my own children to finish well.

 So I love mornings like today, this first of May. There is a paper to finish, papers to grade, a final to write, and a basketball game and piano recital to attend this afternoon....but the sun is shining through the aspens. I can spot summer in the dappled leaves quivering in the slight morning breeze, and I can breathe...

April Snow

       Easter lilies with a backdrop of snow

We awoke to first a 2 hour delay, then a snow day....serendipitous in my book (though I am ready for sun and warmth). I do love an unexpected day at home!

March dawn

Spring Space part 2

Did I say Spring???

Spring Space

I've long been a fan of the transition times...the hint of change (of weather, of clothes, of pace) that's almost but not quite yet. Typical of Colorado in the spring, this spring break began with a Friday snow day!, then several long warm days in a row. This spring break I have decided to take the "break" part literally, which for this teacher and graduate student means a break from planning lessons and grading and research...all rather heady work. It's been physically cathartic to clean out closets and our garage piled high with stuff for goodwill (long overdue). And fun to find long forgotten treasures that point to summer, like our camping stove and the hammock still in great condition that I might just finally hang. And it's been lovely to linger on my front porch with a cup of green and ginger tea and watch my 13 year old ride her bike to the old fashioned ice-cream, candy and soda shop or chat with my 16 year old who savors porch time too. And if my mind drifts to that half-asleep place in the warm late day sun, so be it...I have no urgent deadlines...

And January Evenings

taken Jan. 31st...

January mornings

one of the best things about january in colorado is our pink morning skies...

Autumn

"Autumn Day" by one of my favorite poets.

Lord: it's time. The summer was magnificent.
Lay your shadows upon the sun-dials
and o'er the isles allow your winds to vent.

Command the final fruits to be full and fine;
give them two more days in the southern sun,
push them to completion and then run
the last sweetness through the heavy wine.

He who now has no house, will build one never.
He who is alone, will long so remain,
will awaken, read, lengthy letters pen and in the lanes will forever restlessly wander, when the leaves are driven.

--Rainer Maria Rilke (tranlated by Doug Sutton)

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And in its original German,

Herbsttag

Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.


Befiel den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gib ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein.


Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.

---Rainer Maria Rilke


both poems from here

Fun Summer Hikes part 6--Lily Pad Pond

--in Breckenridge, Colorado where my good friends, Linda, Natasha and I spent a few days.

Fun Summer Hikes --part 4

I took two of my daughters back to Stanley Canyon Reservoir. They did great! Hiked up to the lake in less than 2 hours. If possible, the wildflowers were even more colorful than before.