Colorado 2011

Sitting here on Mark's deck in my pink fleece at 9:30 in the morning.  The hummingbirds buzz around and fight for their territory around the feeders. "Flap" the resident deer eats clover, wandering across the meadow inside the fence.

Last night as I spread out my journals and books on the bed trying to decide what I wanted to do, a cool breeze blew through the open windows and the sound of the aspen leaves blowing was very magical.  I could hear rolling thunder in the distance and it began to rain.  My decision was made.  I packed up my writings, turned off the lights and sat on the bed mesmerized by the sounds and smell of the rain until I fell asleep.

This morning some very loud birds and cows were my alarm clock.  I was tired and wanted to sleep awhile longer, but it was kind of like my house in Texas in the winter -- with my windows wide open and the roosters down the hill continuously crowing.  It's better to just get up than shut the windows to silence them.

Oh my gosh, it is just so green here.  I am obsessed with the Texas drought and have been longing for someplace cool and wet and I am finally here.  Anna and I were laughing at the fact that there seemed to be a stark line from when we crossed from the dry New Mexico high desert and bad roads to the smooth new roads and bright green vegetation of Colorado.  I can't wrap my brain around how that is possible and I wonder if my mind was just playing tricks on me because I have such fond and loving memories of Colorado.

A bluebird lights on the deck rail. It is almost an unnatural shade of blue.  If I was an artist and could mix the colors and capture this on canvass, you would look at it and think I was embellishing the tint.  Bluebird sitting on the redwood deck, hummingbirds buzzing all around, greyish green sage, neon green grasses, sunflowers, white barked aspens with a backdrop of maroon mountains, snow capped and blanketed with gray storm clouds.  As much as I want to capture this place in words, it's simply impossible.  This is a place you have to see, hear and smell, all of which leave you breathless and with your heart skipping beats.  I guess it is possible to be in love with a place.