Happy Campers

The last weekend before school started and we finally had time to take a short camping trip. We ventured up to North Michigan Reservoir, which is one of our favorite places.  It is just past Gould on the west side of Cameron Pass.  The drive is breathtaking and one of my favorite parts of the trip is keeping an eye out for the elusive moose which live in the area.  No matter how many times I see them, each time is a thrill to me.   They are magnificent creatures. 

What I love about camping is that it reduces our busy lives back down to the basics:  food, water, shelter. There really isn't anything else that is needed, although beer and wine make the whole trip a lot more fun.   It feels good to wake up to the sunrise and anxiously wait for that first pot of campfire coffee to brew.  That single cup of coffee tastes so much better than anything ordered from a barista, especially when there is frost on the outside of the tents in the morning and your hands are freezing from the cold.

The first rays of the sun start to hit the campsite and we realize how fortunate we are for great weather.  By 10 am we were sweating from the heat.  Hours ago we had been freezing.  We are at the mercy of mother nature for our comfort.

We cooked some fabulous food on the grill and enjoyed smores made with Reese's peanut butter cups (our family secret).  For some reason whenever we go camping, salsa becomes our condiment of choice for everything.  As usual, we ran out and had to get more salsa delivered (thanks Nick and Rachel).


We were all thoroughly grimy and dirty at the end of the weekend.  We let loose on some ATV trails, and my daughter took insane pleasure in crashing me through mud puddles.  After the first day, no one really cares what anyone else looks like.  We are covered with mud.  We all still love each other, even if we all look like crap.   Isn't that what it's all about?

Thanks to all of my kids for going on this trip.  We hadn't all been together for awhile, and it was a wonderful way to say goodbye to summer and hello to the changing of the seasons.   A time to pause and take a deep breath before the insanity of our lives starts again with the new school year.   I wish we could do it more often.

Not to be bragging about my artichoke, BUT...

The monster plant

My artichoke plant is now about four feet high and has a dozen or more artichokes on it.   I like to play artichoke games with it... I give it a couple days and not look at it, and then when I venture out to the back side of the garden to have a look, it surprises me by growing larger.  Yes, it is crazy, and many will call me strange, but I believe I am the artichoke goddess.  I have mastered the art of growing artichokes.  Next year I am planting a few more of these for decoration, as they are gorgeous huge plants and so far I haven't killed them.  They would add a bit of green to the front of my house, where plants and grass have a tendency to turn brown in July and August.  

I also have three watermelons and one cantaloupe, also new items for me this year.  I'm not sure how they will taste, and I really don't know when they should be harvested, but one of these days I'll pick one of the watermelons.  

Close up of the "buds"

Envisioning a Vision

 

A couple of years ago a co-worker introduced the idea to me of creating a vision board, or vision journal.  What is a vision journal, I asked of her? She said that it is a notebook that she keeps where she does nothing other than paste pictures and words and thoughts that appeal to her in some way.  It is sort of a visual reminder of images that resonate with each of us, and the concept is that if you surround yourself with these images, some of them will help you move in the direction of achieving your dreams.  For the past two years this idea has continued to swirl around in my head, although I have never actually started the project.  It has been on my "to-do" list for too long, and this fall I intend to begin.  

Today I searched "creating a vision board" on the internet.  Isn't that the clear indication that I need one? I thought that my first step would be to get instruction on how to do it. As I searched for how other people had done it, I realized that that was the logical, organized side of me getting in the way.  My creative side told me that this is not the way to approach the project. Who cares how others have done it?  This is about me, and I should do it the way that appeals to ME.   

So this morning I intend to dig through some magazines and tear out pictures and colors and words that speak to me.  I may not even know why they appeal to me and that's ok for now.

The journey of my vision board will start with the single ripping of a page. 

Artichoke Frenzy

When I was sauntering through the nursery this past spring, I came upon an interesting artichoke plant.  It was only a few inches tall and I thought I'd give it a try.  I asked the nursery employee about growing artichokes and if I could ever expect to actually harvest one and she said that some people have luck with them the first year and some don't, and that if I covered it up for the winter and protected it, it might come back next year and produce an artichoke in it's second season.  I loved the look of it, so I took my chances, figuring the $1.79 was worth a try. 

I wish I had taken a "before" picture.  A few days after planting it, it looked sick and it's branches were laying on the ground looking fairly lifeless.  I kept watering it every day and it still didn't look like it had when I bought it.  Ok, so I figured I was killing it.

Then, a miracle happened.  It was like the little artichoke plant that could.  It started growing and growing, and it went from near death to thriving in a matter of weeks.  It must like our bright Colorado sunshine and the water I was dousing it with daily, and it zoomed up to a couple feet tall.   I was happy with the progress it had made and it became a large ornamental fixture in the corner of the garden. If it never produced an artichoke I was happy because it was a huge commanding presence of a plant and looked really cool.  Then disaster struck.  Ants moved in.  For some reason they loved the artichoke and were using it as a high-rise condominium. Normally I wouldn't use pesticides in my garden, but I couldn't help it.  They were taking over my gorgeous plant and I nuked them all. It was chemical warfare.  I sprayed and sprayed until they were banished from the artichoke village they had created.

Last week we were out of town.  One of the best parts about coming home after a week away in the summer is coming home to see what changes have happened in the garden.  That is, if you are lucky enough to have a house sitter that watered it, which I was.  In the past I have come home to a dried up garden, but not this time.  When I went to the artichoke corner of the garden, what an amazing sight !  My artichoke had actually sprouted an artichoke!   

One of the most rewarding parts of gardening for me is when these unexpected successes happen.  I always know that when I plant zucchini I will end up with a gazillion of them, in fact you can't really kill them off.  But, the artichoke was a victory for me!  

I can't wait for the day that I lovingly pick the artichoke, prepare it with butter and lemon and savor every last bite of it.

Good Morning Sunflowers

Living in a rural area, I get to experience views on a daily basis that I often take for granted.  As I was driving down one of the country roads near my house yesterday morning I was greeted by this awe-inspiring field of sunflowers.  All of their heads were turned to the east to salute the morning sun.  They beckoned me to visit with them for awhile before I headed further down the road.   What a relaxing start to my morning task of running errands.  While I didn't "stop and smell the roses" I did "stop and smile at the sunflowers".  I am truly blessed to live in the sticks. 

His and her movies

I really hate action movies.  I am talking about the Schwarzenegger Terminator-type movies which are limited to about ten words of dialogue, however include over a thousand guns, bombs, and explosions.  For the life of me, I really can't understand what men see in these.  I don't even have an appreciation for the special effects.  In my opinion, the way that men think these movies are artistic masterpieces just shows that they are mentally inferior to women.

My husband and I have come up with a flip-flop type of arrangement.  If I see one of his movies, he will see one of mine.  This has led me to watching some Star Wars type movies that I hated and barely could keep my eyes open for.  Occasionally I can stomach sitting through one of these blockbuster movies, if the actors involved are good looking.  Most often, however, I would prefer to bring an itty bitty book light to the theatre and read a book while the movie is playing.  I am not impressed with brawny men with no brains.

Sometimes movies come along that we both can enjoy.  Yesterday we saw "Inception", a movie for both men and women.  I crave plot and story line, twists and turns in the story, and using my brain to figure it all out.  I certainly got my money's worth - in fact, my brain was tired at the end with the focus required to keep the story straight.  My husband loved it for the same reasons, as well as it had enough action, guns and explosions to increase it to a "10" on the male scale for action.  Leonardo di Caprio is one of my favorite actors, which added points to the female scale from the beginning.  I recommend this movie for couples.  It is one of those rare movies that appeals to both genders. 

Ironically, the previews which played before the movie highlighted the difference in our viewpoints of what is good.  First, we saw a preview for a movie which involved a lesbian couple with two teenagers, who end up meeting their sperm donor father, resulting in a complex and comedic family situation.  It looked awesome in my book.  I leaned over to my husband and said, "I want to see that."  Then came the preview for a new Stallone/Schwarzenegger reunion movie.  My husband actually sat up straighter in his seat, eyes fixed on the explosions on the screen and said to me, "We have to see that."  We??

Here we go again.  Maybe I can learn to sleep with my eyes open.   The things we do for love.

New life ?

I spent this morning redesigning my blog page. Judging from my last blog entry, anyone reading my blog will notice that I haven't posted for a couple months. Life got in the way. It shouldn't be that way, but I let it happen. Baseball games, softball games, kids, work, clients, pets....just a few of the distractions I was dealing with over the last few months that seemed to get the better of me. I always put my own need to write second behind these and a hundred other things.

Not that I wasn't writing things in my head. Words were forming constantly as if my brain was telling me, "put this down on paper". Everywhere I went this pesky voice was stringing words together into sentences, begging me to write. I ignored that that voice because there was always something else to do or some other item to check off the to-do list. I am really ashamed. Around the beginning of June, my son and I sat down and made a goal list for the summer - tops on my list was to post on my blog three times a week. I didn't even do it once!

So this morning, my son told me I should blog. I was a bit testy and told him "I don't feel like it". But you know what? I really did feel like it, and my little bit of anger was misdirected at him, as he was pointing out what I already knew. I had not followed through with goal #1 that I set for myself. Instead of thinking about the laundry that needed to be folded and the floor that needed to be swept, I needed to blog. He was right and I knew it. I am happier when I am writing. Why does it always take a 12 year old to point out the obvious?

My first step was to play around with my blog a little bit and give myself an updated look for it. I'm breathing new life into it and I wanted a fresh page to work on. I am a cool color person, so the blue is more inspirational to me that the old colors that I had. I also decided that I want the writing to be the focus, so I aimed for a simplified background that lets the writing be the art.

I'm jazzed to start up again. Let the writing begin!