Sweetie is officially a learned scholar and finished with school.

Ok, the trip was fine, the beach was great but I'm glad to be home.  

The free (via Amtrak rewards) ride to Chicago was easy and a little boring, but we did go over the Mississippi River as it was cresting at historic levels.  Looking down I could see the distance from the train wheels to the water was a little close for comfort.  One benefit of traveling in a sleeper is the "1st Class" waiting area at the Chicago station.  Wi-Fi, Snacks, Movies and (the best thing) Clean Bathrooms.  The rest of the trip South was nighttime rain and wooded acreage.

I had a great conversation with the treasurer of the National Association of Railroad Passengers on the way up from Jackson.  I told him I was a member but not that I had let the membership lapse.  Then I pumped him all I could for news  about the future of train travel.  One good thing that came out of that conversation: when I got home, I read the latest newsletter and found that the bus service portion of the Amtrak trip to LA was restored to Raton.   Hopefully, my letters of complaint encouraged the reversion.  4 hours on the bus to Raton, a ratty abandoned depot, is much more attractive than 8 hours on the bus to Albuquerque with their new Greyhound/Amtrak station.

See the logo?  Denver didn't participate in the festivities.  Rail travel has definitely evolved into a hobby horse for me.

Most of my Amtrak trips have meant getting up at 4am to catch a 6am bus, then traveling for 4 hours for the connection.  This time, though, I'll be boarding at 8pm.  What a luxury.  Bye, bye - back in a couple of weeks.

There's a lot of artwork at DIA, including a whole area of Native American art.
This 'floating baby' one caught my eye.

I went to DIA last night to pick up Sugar and saw "Notre Denver" again.  I love this gargoyle that protects the Frontier baggage area.   Hopefully, it'll help Frontier get through this bankruptcy and back to normal. Last night, I got it that he's in a Samsonite suitcase - there used to be a Samsonite factory not too far from DIA.    Great public art. 

I went to the new REI prototype store.  Eco-prototype.  I'm not sure about the details but I read that it's remarkable somehow (in a lot of ways).  Frankly, I preferred the feel of the other store better but I respect the change.  These solar light fixtures fascinated.  They are under openings in the ceiling so they are skylights but there is a stick of light hanging down inside, probably for night time.  The covering fabric reminded me of Denver International Airport tents.

Last week we got a letter from the Boulder Planning Department telling us that our outside light fixtures are not kosher since they don't have covers on them.   They are about 21 years late in letting us know but what the hay?  I had my suspicions about the letter since it was stuck in our box with no stamp and it wasn't on city letterhead, but so what.   I do wonder if someone from the city drives around after sunset to see which citizens are using light bulbs illegally.

The next day, a neighbor stopped by while I was outside pulling weeds and introduced himself as the HOA president from across the street (their HOA, not mine).  He said that we would be getting a certified letter in the mail to remind us that They own the strip of land next to the street and We don't.  Yes, we know that - we have been mowing the strip since for 21 years for the privilege of having our mailbox there.  He said it was a friendly way of making sure that we know that We don't own it but They do. Please, take it! I'm tired of mowing it!

That adverse possession case has gotten people spooked around here. Paying property taxes and having a deed to the property isn't enough these days.

Today I heard a sound that I haven't heard for months - bees buzzing in a tree.  They happened to be in one of the peach trees that came up as volunteers from some long ago sheet composting .  The buds have started opening and I wonder if we'll actually get some peaches this year. 

Peak Soil has a write up about Colorado HB1270 which is making its way through the Assembly. This will make it harder for HOAs to restrict some energy efficient tools, such as retractable clotheslines.
Delightful! I don't have this problem since a lot of my neighbors built up around me - and my clothesline was there when they bought their properties. I'm all for this kind of homey energy savings.

If you really want to get involved with helping the planet through better clothes washing techniques, check The Laundry List.


photo from apartmenttherapy.com

Lately I've been spending my free time at my other blog or out in the garden or knitting for newborns for the Women's Auxiliary project.

I just joined a listserve about local gardening and got a heads up about this event at Denver Botanical Garden: 'IN YOUR FACE: Ethics and Urban Ecology'. It costs $18 for DBG members, $21 for non members; April 1 at 7:00PM. Call 720-865-3580 to register. I'm not familiar with this guy, but just felt like giving a plug for the DBG.

Join the Hunt for Bees! The Great Sunflower Project is working to 'track and value the goods and services provided by natural ecosystems' so they are looking for volunteers to help them track bees in urban settings. Sounds like fun, eh? Go to their website to sign up and get a free pack of wild sunflower seeds to get started.
photo from: http://www.greatsunflower.org

Ok, for two weeks I've had this song "Hello" sung by American Idol contestant David Cook,(originally by Lionel Richie) playing in my head. Since he's able to do that, he's my fav. 

Look what I found when we were walking the dogs.  Isn't it sweet?  I heard a story today about a dolphin helping some stranded whales find their way back to the open water after hearing the whales' distress calls.  Spring is here, and the radishes and carrots have broken ground and the turnips are showing their true leaves.  The lone crocus in the garden is already spent and little green tips of grass are showing through the old mat from last year.  Very sweet time of year.

The Doglady at Scottish Terrier and Dog News posted the question, "Why do Scottie girls look like old men?" Here are a couple of my Scottie friends. Isn't it obvious who is a girl and who is the real old man?

Sweetie, who is a milk and honey afficiondo, says that this locally produced milk is better than all the rest. You can practically smell the hay when you drink it. The website says Thornton, but the bottle says Fort Collins. Wholesome Milk Products.

This is some of the bizarre public art that welcomes folks to Denver at the airport. The blue horse is new. The eyes are lit with red lights. Inside, this fella with the skull and weapons is part of a mural, the message of which I can't decipher. And lastly, the gargoyle watches over the baggage area.
I don't fly so don't ask me why. I've never seen this kind of art in train stations. Sorry about the photo line up - they're all supposed to be on the left.
photos from citynoise.org and flydenver.com

My laptop is 'vintage', meaning that even the Apple store doesn't have the replacement parts. It stopped responding to my efforts to turn it on after a few months of occasionally being coaxed into starting up.
I took it to the Mac Shack where I bought it used. They charged $45 (!) to diagnose the problem as being the logic board.
Today I took it to the Apple store where they didn't charge me a thing but told me they couldn't get the parts anyway. The Apple genius said that it could be the logic board or something else and which is cheaper to fix, but "you could take it to the Mac Shack and they would charge you 1/2 hour of labor to actually open it up and tell you the exact problem." Good to know.

picture from homepage.mac.com

A pickup truck pulled up to park beside me and this caught my eye. Where he goes, the dogs go, too!
(click to embiggen & see the beautiful faces)

I'm almost finished effusing over Costco but I have to mention these chips: Rice Work Salsa Fresca. It's not so much about the price, it's just that I haven't seen them for sale anywhere else. They are so good. Two bags good.

I don't get to Denver that often but I do enjoy the ubiquitous web cams.




I realized that rather than make this into a garden blog, I should just start one. The link is upper and left.

I stopped by a Wal-Mart in Englewood today to pick up some cheap army toys for a little friend (special request). After I swiped by credit card, the console asked for my zip code and I just didn't feel like cooperating with their marketing program so I entered a false one. My card was rejected! No way that it was for lack of funds, it's one that I hardly ever use and it worked at the gas station just minutes before. I paid cash and left.

More often than not, I don't provide extra information about myself during retail transactions. Cuts Deluxe doesn't need to know my phone number. Uh-uh. I don't mind them not knowing when my last haircut was. I didn't mind giving the information to my membership retailer, since I trade that for lower costs and higher interest rates and rebates. Maybe Wal-Mart was looking out for my safety by asking for my zip code but I would rather take my chances and not have them know where I live.

More Costco-love.  Isn't this like a modern-day cathedral?  High ceilings, vast spaces, with no piped in music like the smaller stores.  Nothing to distract a person from all the amazing deals like the glasses that Honey got.  The difference in what we would have paid elsewhere covered our membership cost.  I really like the white ceiling bouncing around all the sky light.

The vote is in:
Enough with the cold and snow and grey skies! At least this one feels like a spring snow.

Bravo, Uno! A beagle wins a fancy dog show!

More Costco love, this time for Columbus Italian Dry Salame. Not even sure the cost, but by the time we get to that department, we've saved so much money that it doesn't matter!

I have this perfectly good cold frame that we added onto the south side of the house when we built it but I haven't used it much over the years.

This is the year. I have the seeds and I've signed up for a class with Boulder Going Local, more for the encouragement than anything else, and I'm going to do it!

First I have to confront those prickly thistle remains that thrive in the dry heat and neglect.

Oh, to cold-frame-garden in the mode of Helen and Scott Nearing! I see lots of greens and early carrots in our future.

Why I love Costco:

I had to be convinced to join Costco by my younger who had just moved out to his own apartment. He did a good job of selling me a membership but the card mostly languished in my wallet for several months. Somehow, though, I was infected by Costcolove.

This Gerties's Artichoke Tapenade is something I would never have tried for the price ($11+ for a jar) but Costco offered it to me for around $8 and I took it! We plowed through most of the jar in 1.5 days.

There's more, including their 2# tubs of Krinos Kalamata Olives (pitted, no less!) for around $6. I can't find them for less than $9/lb any where else. So yes, I'm in love. I visit monthly and would go more if it wasn't over the hill in another town.

Gardening this time of year for me is basically

1. making sure the kitchen scraps get to the compost
2. stirring the leaves around
3. getting dear hubby to clean up around his shed
4. picking up stuff in the yard that was deposited by chinooks
5. thinking about how to keep the deer out of my food garden
6. reminding myself that I should use the cold frame this year
7. dreaming up projects for dear hubby to do

Good workout, eh?

Still here. Good thing that asteroid missed us.