March 25, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
[Spring arrived
last Friday. It’s on the calendar and the TV
weather folks announced it. The past three months were called winter;
it must be true for the same reasons. However, this year spring
followed fall. We know winter showed up other places, but not here.
We have few reminders of the season: Our wood
piles remain pretty much as they were last fall; we’ve not used our
snow shovels since December; we kick up dust walking up the road to get
the paper in the morning; and the guy who plows our drive has left town
(work? vacation? bored?) for a couple of weeks. And March is our
snowiest month!
Robins have flitted about our meadow and
gardens for the past week, a flock of migrating crossbills has been
raiding the feeders, pasqueflowers are in bloom, and the dogs have
carried ticks into the house. Spring has arrived, but winter never made
an appearance.
Not that we’re complaining about mild weather,
though we know what the lack of moisture can mean for the fire danger (the county has already
instituted a fire ban—i.e., no open fires); for the pine bark beetle infestation
(drought-weakened lodgepole pines are easy prey for the spread of these
tiny critters that have already killed off thousands of acres of forest
in the state); and for our home water
supply (if the water table drops too low we’ll run out of water
at the house). In truth, we need precipitation and lots of it soon, but
our weather forecaster friends say we’re unlikely to make up the
deficit this year.]
March 26, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
The paragraphs above are how we had
started, yesterday, our winter newsletter. Then something
happened since we put the writing aside. We woke this morning to 5" of
new snow with another 12"–18" likely by tomorrow morning. Schools and
businesses are closed all up and down the front range, roads are an
adventure, and, with schools in our area on spring break, the
snow plows have not been as quick to clear the roads on the bus routes.
The sweet smell of wood fires drifts among the snowflakes. Any
tracks in the snow are most likely those of squirrels and birds
seeking food and shelter, or folks on snowshoes. This is a great day to
settle in, clean closets and drawers, and finish the newsletter.
Looking back over the past three
months is a study in contrasts: a trip to warmer climates and new
territories followed by a return to the comfort of familiar routines.
The contrasts provide balance in our lives and a perspective on how we
live.
1. WINTERING IN
ARIZONA
We are still basking in the
memories and glow of our Arizona
road trip in January and February. It was a great trip for many
reasons. The photos of
our visits with family and friends, of our hikes, of the mines and
ghost towns we poked
through, and of the solitude we found in many areas along the way are
reminders that we are already looking forward to returning next winter.
In our future travels, we are
committed to do more birding and rockhounding (along with hiking and
photography), old interests we renewed during this during the trip and
which
we’ll continue to learn more about in the future. If you have any tips
or suggestions, we hope you’ll pass them along any time.
2.
WINTER ROUTINES
• Hughes continued to greet tourists at the
Visitors Center in Nederland a few hours a week. While fewer people
drop in during the winter, the folks who stop often have unique stories
to tell and interesting perspectives on our town and their travels.
On very quiet days, he puts on some good music and reads. The Mystery
Book Club provides a guide to good writers and intriguing mysteries, as
well as forum to discuss a wide range of reactions by a group of
informed readers. Among the best of recent reads are Jason Goodwin’s
dark mysteries set in 19th century Istanbul featuring clever
detection by the resourceful Yashim Togalu, a eunuch of the Sultan’s
court (start with The
Janissary Tree); Frank Tallis’
complex mysteries evoke pre-WWI Vienna featuring psychoanalyst Max
Liebermann (start with Death in
Vienna); and works by long-time writers Raymond Chandler and
Walter
Mosely. (If you’d like a list of what the group has been reading for
the past eight or nine years, let us know and we’ll send a list.)
McGinty’s Wake continues to make music and perform occasional
public appearances; a low-tech video of one of one of our contra dance
gigs can be found on YouTube.
• Judy’s running routine was put on hold
for a month after returning from our Arizona trip. She had a minor
biking accident that banged up her knee enough to require physical
therapy. (Yes, she did run injured and won big in Sedona before
returning home.) She has since returned to spring
training with the Boulder
Striders in preparation for the
Bolder-Boulder on Memorial Day. In addition, she and Sophie returned to
brighten the
lives of patients at Boulder Community Hospital on Monday mornings.
When Sophie—who, like Bella, usually spends much of her mornings
snoozing—returns from 2–3 hours meeting and greeting hospital folks,
she seems to run out of steam and takes the daily walk to the mailbox
or to the woods with all the enthusiasm of a reluctant bride.
• Together we “work” as often as
possible at the local movie theater on Friday nights, exchanging
selling refreshments and sweeping up after the movie for free tickets
and refreshments. Also, to our delight, after nearly 17 years living up
here we have found a small core of bridge enthusiasts who, like us, are
retired and can play in the late afternoons to combine three rubbers of
bridge with very tasty dinners and snacks. March, of course, is
birthday month around here. This year, Judy had a birthday lunch with
two other women in the neighborhood who discovered they share the same
birth date. Judy’s present this year were new—and greatly
improved—binoculars for bird watching. In addition to three feeders, we
hung seven new birdhouses around: two bluebird houses from the Audobon
Society, a woodpecker house from Colorado cousin Ken, who makes them as
a hobby/business, and four birds-nest gourds that grew in one of our
gardens last year. None of the seven has residents yet, though today’s
snow (which has reached more than a foot by noon today, and continues
to fall at a rate of about an inch or two an hour) may encourage some
to find at least a temporary haven against the harsh weather. In the meantime, the siskinds and the
juncos gorge themselves without fussing (left) but when the flicker
comes around (right), everyone else scatters. In nature, size does
count.
3. NEW
THIS WINTER
• The
sudden death of Judy’s cousin Kim took Judy on an unplanned trip to
Nashville for services and to be with her Colorado cousin and her
family during this tragic time in their lives. She met not only family
she had not seen in several years, but met Kim’s wide network of good
friends who where there for support and to grieve the loss of someone
who had touched their lives during the 18 years Kim lived and worked
there as a musician, songwriter, and poet. In fact, one of Kim’s
friends generously opened her home to Judy to stay with her while she
was in Nashville.
• While Judy was in Nashville, her
cousin Steve (who drove down from Illinois) squired Judy and others
around town, and she met Emily, the voice of Steve’s GPS unit, who
flawlessly and efficiently led them through unfamiliar areas of
Nashville. Judy was so impressed that she is sure that having a
companion like that will make our road trips a greater pleasure.
Instead of having to stop and look up a phone book for directions to
the nearest Trader Joe’s, or where the closest cheap gas is (and how
much), or the most direct route to cousin Bob’s house in Tucson, we can
simply ask Nancy,
our Aussie-speaking navigator. She will even alert us to traffic
snarls down the road and reroute us to avoid delays like we had in New
Mexico on our way back from Arizona last month. With some extra
accessories, she can even guide us while hiking in the backcountry in
areas where signage is missing and trails are faint. We’ll introduce
you to Nancy when we see you next. She’s quite something.
• In an effort to do our part to help
the economy move forward, and to respond to the goal of a cleaner,
greener, and more energy efficient nation, we decided to take advantage
of a Boulder County initiative (ClimateSmart
Loan Program) to assist homeowners with energy improvements. By
providing a low-cost loan that we'll pay back through an assessment to
our property tax bill, we are going to have installed a solar
photovotaic system that will generate nearly all our electrical
consumption. The 15-year loan is not a personal loan but “goes with the
house,” so that we’ll pay back while we live here, and the next owners
will continue to have the assessment on their real estate tax bill
(until the 15 year period is over) while they enjoy the benefits of
lower, nearly nonexistent electric bills. It’s the first program of its
kind in the country and makes a good deal of sense to those areas
committed to energy efficiency. And those who are here 15 years from
now will thank us for our foresight and investment.
We continue to wonder if and when we
will yearn strongly enough to move to more level ground and a warmer
climate. We do run that question around from time to time. We
occasionally see a house or an area down below that we think might be
just the thing for us to settle into as we head toward our “slow-go”
years. But each time the thought of relocating worms its way into our
minds, we step back and look at where and how we live and think we’re pretty lucky to be enjoying our home
and surroundings. Besides, we’ve got all that wood to keep us warm and
more to cut and split. It also keeps us young. So while we would love
to have you come for a visit, there’s no rush. We’ll still be here and
the hospitality will always be warm.
Permit us one
last Arizona sunset image. They were spectacular and part of our winter.
