Magical stuff here

Road report: Ohio Pass is still closed. Remember that scheduled opening is May 31 and the road crews do absolutely nothing to expedite the clearing. Mother nature only - sooo, clearly still snow blocking the road - surely it will be open when Heather gets here (July 2). We had almost freezing temps here last night and a new dusting of snow appeared on the Anthracites and Whetstone. I realize it's hard to believe when there's record breaking heat in lots of places - just our crazy area!

Lots of people in town now. And vehicles of all sorts. This is some sort of old military jeep - with a gun holder - minus the gun, thank goodness. People are very peaceful here generally.

Back into Crested Butte to shop and eat. Big June sale on ski clothes and equipment. Bought some things and then enjoyed lunch at one of our favorite places - Secret Stash. Great as always, but, as always, watched groups of people walk up to the odd looking outside of the restaurant, look at the posted menu, and finally turn and walk away. You have to "know" this is a fabulous place.

Drop dead gorgeous flowers everywhere. It's magic around here. The elk have massed with a pile of babies on the next hill over this morning. Those babies are the size of large dogs at birth. It's a special thing to be able to watch them. They'll leave in the next couple of weeks for higher ground, if past summers are any indication.

The deer stay all summer, so we'll get to enjoy their antics and babies. They are loving the salt lick - making progress as you can see -indentations of tongue...
Had massive wind last week which knocked down some enormous aspen in our woods, including one close inside the fence. Out came the chainsaw and we quickly got that cleaned up - another new pile of logs. It's astounding how many downed trees there are in our woods. Could take us years to get it all up - Mark wants to hire someone to make a dent, we'll see.
Last post before my travels to the east coast. Baby Shower!

June marching by

We had a great visit with Mom and Dad here, and after dropping Mark off at our little Gunnison airport to head to Detroit (yes, again), off we went back to Colorado Springs. I stayed for a couple of days enjoying their area, and even got to stock up at the local Costco on my way out. Life has changed - after being used to having everything at our fingertips in Naples, no such things exist in this area. To have all this beauty and wildlife, I guess this is the tradeoff to keep our area unspoiled.
I came back to empty hummingbird feeders and pee on our newspapers left in the driveway (this happened last year when we left for a few days - we think coyote - marking territory, or making a statement on their opinion of Wall Street Journal).

My Earthbox with tomato plants seemed in good shape. This box thing is crazy. You don't water the plants - water in the tube that goes into the bottom - watering by evaporation I guess. It came with special soil, fertilizer, and very specific instructions on how to plant etc. I'm crossing fingers for great tomatoes - it's so hard to grow them in this area.

Went to pick up the weekly eggs and this month's mixed meat mystery bag. I'm so used to seeing the dairy cows inside there being milked, I just waved hi and went on with my business. Strange world I live in now...
Those are chickens underneath the farm equipment - not the best place I think - where is their guard dog?

Mom and Dad became converts to the magic spring water. So much so, that I took back with us our container to leave with them. That's Dad bound and determined to drink from the source - pretty nimble for 86! I'm actually going back over their way in just a few days - again- since I'm staying at their place overnight before flying back east for the big baby shower. Yup, I haven't talked about it much, but the big event is getting closer (Aug) and I'm soooo excited.

Finished all my paintings for the show. Huge relief. The last one is being framed as we speak. After I'm back from Tiffany's shower, it will be time to take them all and hang them at the gallery. We'll see if anyone notices...
Also finished another book in the midst of everything. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake - enthralling story at the beginning of World War II.

The water report - still incredibly high, but starting to come down. The only people enjoying the water are the kayakers and rafters.
Mark is back for the weekend, then off again - he has massive deadlines and no way to avoid Detroit. Hopefully all will calm down to a more reasonable schedule starting in July. 

It's so gorgeous here now in every direction, it's hard to pinpoint any special place, so I'm closing with a pile of pictures taken all over last week. Yippee - enjoying every minute...

Company, rushing water and elk babies

Sorry for the delay - time got away from me with trying to finish paintings, getting ready for company, and planting projects (trying to create a replica of those fantastic hanging baskets that  make the streets of CB so picturesque. I've done it all wrong in the past, so here goes one more time. I got a nursery expert to walk me through the process - right flowers, planting method, special organic fertilizer, regular fertilizer, special, special potting soil (with bat guano!) and watering instructions., Complicated yes, and why, you ask, are you not buying the already planted, big lush baskets? Because they cost a fortune and I need 4. Sooo, wish me luck...

Major animal days - everywhere I went around my own house I was disturbing animals. Elk showed up in our woods, where I could see them and they could see me, to lounge around for a couple house. I could not fill the hummingbird feeders (which upset the hummingbirds) until they went away. Then I went to turn on a hose under the deck, and this was disturbing the mama bluebird in her nest tucked under the deck. And finally, we have started a compost pile down in the woods close to our fence. Went to dump leftover veggies on the pile and disturbed deer having a morning siesta.  Okay, okay I understand we are just visitors here...

So here's the end of the elk story - BABIES. I am positive that the group in the woods were the very same that had babies that afternoon. There are two babies so far, and am watching them appear all over. This is a photo of one mom, one baby, and an auntie. Yup, I'll make up a story for just about anything...

My parents are here and we've been having a great time. Weather's gorgeous, but been too windy to paint outdoors - too bad. However, Mom's been giving me great advice on how to finish my last couple paintings. Sooo lucky to have her eye...

We went back to Soupcon last night. Remember I said only for special occasions?, well this counted. Great food as usual, and my parents enjoyed it a lot. In addition the place had a lot of guests in town for the big bike race that ends up going over the state (6 day race - 300 miles)!

Look at these tents - unbelievable - taking over the school parking lot. Main street was full  - what fun.

We made it up to Spring Creek Reservoir finally. I think the pictures speak volumes - this is the state of the water. Little Spring Creek!

Oh, the gorgeous days of June

Flowers popping up everywhere - gorgeous. It's the first wave of wildflowers with lots of purples - lupine included. (that's bluebonnet for the Texans out there). I had to take another photo of my daffodils. A few didn't come up but all the ones that did have bloomed. (and no deer bothered them at all)

We went to a restaurant in CB that we haven't been to in 30 years. It's the other French restaurant called Soupcon. In all those years it's gone through probably 4 owners, and somehow we never went back. Anyway, this owner/chef is fabulous, the food wonderful, and the place is darling (still located down an alley off Elk). Only in Crested Butte does this work... One drawback - well, it's not inexpensive, so we'll go for special occasions...

Baby animals abound. This darling foal is on a farm  I drive by on Ohio Creek Rd frequently. And the massive amount of calves are everywhere. Cowboys are out hard at work rounding up and moving herds regularly. I think there's only so much trampling and fertilizing each field can take.

No elk or deer babies yet. I have eyes peeled and camera ready. Also no sign of bear anywhere around us, but I suppose that doesn't mean a thing. (I have my spray with me and a friend gave me a whistle, which I won't take unless I see some sign of something - there's a limit  to how much I want to carry around for my morning walk.
Mark is in Detroit this week-  back Friday to pick up my parents and bring them over for a few days. Hurray, we always enjoy their visit and I'll get to paint with Mom. Terribly inspiring for me and I can only hope to someday paint anything as well as she does.Planning on getting her expert advice on my paintings for my July exhibit. Time is marching by, and I have to be done and things all framed in the next few weeks. Pressure....

Finally truly spring at Star Mt.

I've found the perfect word for what Star Mt. means to me. Querencia - a place where one feels secure, a place from which one's strength of character is drawn, the place from which we speak our deepest beliefs. Love this.

Things seem to be awfully busy the last few days. I've gone from helping an artist who's on the same volunteer art council at the art center in town arrange and hang her show that's up all June, to going to a special meeting of our homeowners association for fire safety. I'm not sure what I got out of it other than we're in a bad area if a fire ever started anywhere on Star Mt. Pine and aspen forests with sagebrush (flammable), lots of dead trees on the forest floor, and no water to draw on except a couple of springs make for a bad combination. The forest service, fire dept., emergency rep, and wildlife protection people were all there, which was impressive, but forest cleanup is pretty much on our dime unless it's immediately surrounding the house, and even then the monies that might be available don't go very far. It's already pretty cleared out around our house, thank goodness.
Went to Sherpa Cafe again, this time with friends Gail and Steve. They are pretty adventuresome when it comes to food, so they were all excited about the dinner. Hurray, they loved it, and we chitchatted with the owner/Mt. Everest guide while waiting for our Nepalese Tibetan food. He's guiding later on this fall if you have a yen to make the trek.

Lots of animal activity going on, and the noises have started in the night. One night was 20 minutes of an owl hooting and the next was a coyote howling. Shhh...  The bighorn sheep picture was taken in the same place we've seen them before,up Taylor, right behind two homes. Has the tourist association put them there? Really I think the homes aren't occupied at the moment and the sheep don't care about road noise.

Crazy oriole photos. We have broken two hummingbird feeders so far (a record) and tried a new kind and it drove the male oriole nuts trying to get to the sugar water. They have much better luck on the traditional feeders even though they're not meant for anything other than hummingbirds. Wacky.

Still high water everywhere but no flooding in our area so far. All the fishermen are anxiously awaiting the levels going down (including Mark).
Finished two books The Leap Years; women reflect on change, loss, & love by Mary Anne Maier. It was okay, a collection of authors' musings on life - some happy, some not. It is actually the first book I checked out at the local library. Haven't been to any library in a long time, but wanted to get a card here - guess I wanted to feel more permanent here. The other book was The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. Crazy title huh...it's part of a series that pretty entertaining- British (of course) 11 year old precocious girl who solves murders in the 1940's.