My 'Backyard'

Living on the high plains, I am fortunate/blessed/grateful to have Rocky Mountain National Park in my 'backyard'-- a short drive (pretty much straight up) to a place where I can put a lot of things in perspective just by being in the beauty.

Maple Mahogany

Unfurling maple leaves surround chartruese clusters as May finally arrives.

Maples in May momentarily look autumnal.

 But mahogany and amber quickly transform into shades of green.

We walk in beauty. Beauty is above and around us all the time.

Suddenly Shade!

Last week (yes! only last week) most trees were still delicate traceries silhouetted against a slowly greening land.

I was actually worried. Where were the leaves?

Yet there were positive signs. Warmer temperatures prompted me to (at last) put my snow shovels back into the garage. Every day color popped back into the landscape – grape hyacinths, crocuses, tulips, daffodils – and, next door, my neighbor’s irises. It was like that moment in The Wizard of Oz when things went Technicolor.

 But so very few leaves.

 There were buds and hints of foliage.

 On the great maple that stands in front of my house, chartreuse clusters were surrounded by mahogany somethings. Today the latter, which yesterday were outlines – mere potential -- have finally exploded.

The outlines have been filled in. Looking out my study window I see them unfurled. The leaves are back! Already the mahogany is beginning to fade to green.

 And suddenly we have shade as well as shadow.

 And just in time. Just in time.

 Amen.

The people cat

My cat Herbie loves people.

All my friends know the story of the one time he got out and I got him back into the house by ringing the doorbell. He wanted to see the company. 

It took him a long time to learn to ignore doorbells on television. 

When I use the speaker phone he jumps up on the counter to listen in. 

Even today when the carpet cleaner brought his big, loud machines into the house, Herbie followed him around, leaving only when the machines were switched on. 

Just last week, he discovered yet another possible source of human companionship. Shooed off the bed as I was making it, he inadvertently stepped on the bedside clock switch that turned on the radio. Voices erupted. Herbie was mesmerized. I turned the radio off and Herbie wandered away, disconsolate. 

Now I wonder if he will try to find that switch again. 

Anything for company.

May Day!

You can usually tell what season it is by looking at the footwear by the bench near my front door. It’s the best place to sit when I put something on my feet before I go outside. 

Right now, there is quite a collection. I have one pair of everyday shoes to wear with jeans, one pair of nice shoes to wear with slacks, two pairs of sandals (one grungy, one nice), and one pair of boots for snow. 

Think about it-- Sandals and boots. 

It is the first day of May 2013. And today -- here in Loveland, Colorado -- the earth, the trees, the lawns, the streets, the sidewalks, and the barely blooming tulips are – all of them – covered with several inches of soft, wet, gloppy snow. 

According to Wikipedia, Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me". 

Mayday indeed!