Sunday signage

(Welcome to our cabin!)

This is the cabin where we stayed in Grand Lake, Colorado.  We found it online via TripAdvisor and it was a gem of a find at a reasonable rate.  Grand Lake caters to tourists and there are cabins within the town that are kind of crowded together.  This cabin sat a little outside of the main portion of town but was still within walking distance of the western-style boardwalk where there are shops, restaurants, and art galleries.

The cabin was lovely and rustic, as these places tend to be.  One of the things that puzzles me is why they bother with a television in rustic cabins.  There was no cable (or internet connection).  Granted, we could have watched DVD’s or videos, but one of the reasons I like to get away is to leave all of that behind.  Even on a rainy day I’d rather spend it reading, doing a puzzle, talking with the people I’m on holiday with, or just watching the rain.

But I guess it makes some folks feel more comfortable to have a television around, even if there is nothing to watch.

(A view through a cabin window)

There are so many things I love about Colorado that I hesistate to start a sentence with “one of my favorite things about Colorado” because there are so many favorite things it almost dilutes the word favorite.  I’m going to risk it, though, and tell you that one of my favorite things about Colorado are the aspen trees.  I adore them.  I could spend all day watching the aspen leaves shiver (or “quake”) in the breeze as the sunlight plays on their leaves.  I want to see them in the autumn.  I want to see them in the winter snows.  In fact, I’ve added that to my list of things to do before I die:  See the aspens throughout the seasons.

The cabin we leased was located within a stand of aspens.  I could have spent days just watching the trees, the quaking leaves, and the play of light in between and on the trees.  Who needs television when you have aspens to entertain you?

I’ve tried capturing the aspens in photographs, last year and this year.  So far I have not come up with a photo that matches what I see.  I think that’s true of most photographs, to be honest.  It’s hard to capture or improve on what Mother Nature has created.  Or what our mind’s eye beholds.

In other news…

(Relaxing on the deck just before sunset)

I haven’t done or posted a self-portrait lately (other than that glimpse of me in the window from a post a few days ago).  I’ve been feeling kind of round and fuzzy and not quite in shape physically or mentally.  I was feeling in great shape when we came back from Colorado but my focus has gone from self-care to vegetable care.  Even house-care has fallen by the wayside.  Almost a whole week went by without one load of laundry being shoved into the washer by me.

I’m also feeling sad.  Anniversaries are not always good things.  It was at this time last year that I put aside the usual harvest activity because things were going terribly wrong with my mother.  It was not unexpected but… it was.  Denial has a way of getting its hooks into you no matter how well educated you might think you are in regards to the situation.

Anyhow.

Life is feeling fuzzy right now, blurry the way it does when you have tears in your eyes.  I’ve stepped out from behind the camera, the sunglasses, and the fuzz a few times before in my blogging adventures.  I’m sure I’ll do so again.  When things are not quite so round and fuzzy.  But for those of you new to my blog and tired of looking at my feet, you can find the me from one year ago here.

Today should cheer me up more than a bit.  We’re having friends over for fish tacos on the new patio and deck.  It’s first little party since we almost-finished the patio and I’m looking forward to it.  They are fun people so it should be a fun time.

There is still some landscaping to be done around the patio.  Once we complete that, I’ll take a final shot of it and fit it into a little slide show I’ve made of Project Patio.  Or, if it doesn’t look like we’ll get the landscaping done this year, I’ll wait for a pretty day and shoot it as is.