An Evening Near Boulder, CO

It's a snowy day outside and inside. This day it was warm outside and inside. Someone (who will remain nameless) did something that meant a lot to me. I was back up in Boulder county this evening, with easy views of the mountains. It felt so comfortable to be back in the area that I spent so much of my time in CO.

Allison Kraus/Robert Plant Concert

@ Red Rocks. I've been a fan of Allison Kraus since my early 20's when she did a cover on Keith Whitney's song "When you say nothing at all". Always have to go with the fun hippy attire for concerts:)

Uh...yeah. I recorded with my digital camera. I think this sign was posted pre-digital camera age.

Here's Alison singing one of the songs from the Raising Sand album with Robert Plant. Robert Plant is singing backup just behind her, slightly to the right. Allison has a haunting voice that is effortless and she plays the fiddle. Robert doesn't play an instrument to my knowledge. His voice is his instrument and he is quite the showman. Charisma.

An incredible painting of something. I love the colors. I think it's an abstract painting of the concert. I wonder if the artists were given free admission.

Rain is getting big!

Took Rain shopping one afternoon early in July. She quickly wore out, so I attempted to carry her. She cooperated, but it was like carrying around a 40lb sack. She's heavy! Ironically enough, rained while we were out shopping.

Take Me Out To the Ball Game

My friend Mike Mulligan graciously invited me to a Rockies/San Diego Padres game in late June. Let's see here....This is now my 6th time to the ball park, and these were fantastic seats

I, like millions of other people, really like Matt Holiday. Here he is playing "nanny-nanny-boo-boo" with the pitcher and first baseman.

Mike and myself enjoying the game. The funny thing is that I thought the two teen-age boys sitting behind us were a boy/girl couple. One of the boys must have been pre-voice change. I thought they were pretty stupid for a dating couple, until Mike told me that they were all of 13 or 14 years old. Then I had to laugh!

Mr. Willie Taveras hitting the ball and taking off for first base. I don't remember if he made it or not. The Rockies didn't end up winning this game:(

Sheryl Crow @ Red Rocks June 9th

Are you Strong Enough to be my man...:)

12th Row seats at Red Rocks were awesome! My best seats so far!

Sheryl and her band definitely rocked out! From superior instruments, a full band, back up singers, and an incredible light show synchronized to the music...she had it dialed in.

Sheryl Crow is so rock 'n roll bad ass!

Brandi Carlile @ Red Rocks June 9th with Sheryl Crow

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories
don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...
I was made for you

I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do...
I was made for you

You see the smile that's on my mouth
It's hiding the words that
don't come out
And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head is a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through
like you do
And I was made for you...

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...
I was made for you

Tiny Town, CO Part II

I enjoyed walking around the outer perimeter of Tiny town taking these pictures through the fence. Unfortunately, it is only open on Saturdays and Sundays during the months of May and September.

Trinity in front of the main sign. We walked around taking lots of pictures. People probably wondered if she was the new 24 hour surveillance the way she was sniffing around.

There is a life size train located in the parking lot for Tiny town. I thought you train lovers might like a picture of it, and Trinity is my favorite model:)

A blurry picture of me and Trinity that shows how much fun we had. I think Trinity was mainly just happy to be out of the car and I was happy that even though I couldn't find the trail-head, I found something equally interesting to photograph.

Which Chokecherry photo do you like better?

These two photos were of a nice smelling shrub-like thing. I especially loved the bright colors of the man's running outfit in the last picture. That's why I included 2 photos that are almost duplicates of one another. Let me know which you like best:)

Mesa Trail Part III

 

 

 

Love the pattern of this first wildflower, the way it sprays out from the center. Almost considered doing a focused black and white on this one, but the color is such a shame to throw away. I encountered huge boulders along the trail. Would have liked to try to scale this one if I had my handy spidey shoes with me:)

Mesa Trail: Part Deux

 

 

 

 

The first photo is of the Doudy-Debacker-Dunn House remains. The first inhabitant of this house, Sylvester Doudy, was an original settler of the area. He built a wooden section of the house in 1858 that has since been destroyed. Next came John Debacker in 1869. He purchased the house and surrounding acreage for $500.00. I wonder if that was expensive back in the day. Now, that wouldn't even buy you a month's rent! He built this 2 story stone edition in 1874 that remains standing 'til this day. Must have done a real great job! In 1901, John Debacker retired and handed the property over to his daughter and son-in-law. They occupied the place well until John's death in the 1950's.

'Kay...history lesson over:) More beautiful unknown wildflowers (at least to me). I have to get a book for identifying flowers. I just love it too much not to. I especially love the flowering plant in my last photo. What a gorgeous subject it makes!

Mesa Trail Part I

Woke up this morning to surprisingly clear conditions. At first I was hopeful that the predicted rain had moved out of our area earlier than expected. As it turns out, this morning was just a break in the clouds. So...I did what any sane normal person would do with a beautiful morning. I got out of the house as soon as possible and drove toward the South Mesa Trail in Eldorado Canyon near Boulder Colorado. Ann and I hiked the northern end of this trail on Friday, but I've never explored the southern end.

As you can see, with all of our rain the fire danger is extremely low right now. The second photo shows a map of today's tromp. I didn't complete the whole southern end of the trail this morning, but I made it to the southern end of the Big Bluestem. That doesn't look like much distance on this map, but the whole time I was traveling north, I was going up hill. It was a lot of fun and as you shall see, I saw some beautiful wildflowers. The third picture in this post is of the start of the trail just as it passes over a small creek. Lovely!

By the way, if I weighed 15 tons, I don't think I'd want to move faster than 5mph

Trinity on Boulder Creek Trail

 

 

 

 

Went hiking with Trinity this afternoon on the Boulder Creek trail in Boulder Canyon. We parked at the Elephant Butte area and hiked a short distance up the trail before it started to rain on us. Didn't appear to be a passing phenomenom so we turned around. But not before I captured some othe these photos of my beautiful Shepherd. This was also my first attempt at having her stand. I tried to stack her like she would be stacked at a conformation match. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. She did fantastic staying in the pose, but I didn't quite capture her angles in my imperfect stack. I'll keep practicing because this dog strikes beautiful poses in the back yard on a regular basis.