It's out with the old at what was the Bank of Boulder but lots of Christmas decorations are still up, including my wreaths and the Flagstaff star. That doesn't stop the major greeting card beast from barrelling toward Valentine's Day.

Yes, the red continues, but did you know that Christmas red is different from Valentine's Day red in the greeting card industry? Christmas is deeper, richer, full of meaning while Valentine's is brighter with the promise of the lighter pastels to come with Easter.

One way to get color in the house in the winter - use prisms. Most of mine catch the morning sun. The sun is too low to be broken up in the west window.
I've been reading gardening blogs this winter that list what's blooming in the garden. I can attest that nothing is in bloom in my yard and now that the snow is melting, it's all various shades of brown for a while. Indoors, a few colorful violets and a jewel orchid are blooming with a phalaenopsis on deck. I've been importing bouquets of color from my florist (Costco). The good news is dusk is lasting till 5:30ish.

This is why I'll never have a lush garden. They are totally oblivious to my yappie Scottie.

I haven't walked in this part of the yard for a few days but something has. Some serious digging has taken place around the compost heap.

Hey, more and more I'm liking Lucky's market. After a several year boycott, I was lured into the store last summer by their cheap! produce prices and realized that some - just some - of their stuff is actually affordably priced. I avoid some of the Sunflower brands that are imported since that defeats my purpose of buying local as much as possible. The seaweed salad and asian slaw are bringing me back for seconds. (The reason I boycotted is no longer in the picture.)

The farthest northmost full moon of the season (called the Cold Moon)as seen at 7 am on Christmas Eve. The sun is moving back north and the moon is heading south and soon the ground will be soft enough to dig again.

Lately Puppygirl has taken to waking me up at 6am with the alarm set to 'whimper'. Thank you, dear, for showing me some stunning morning skies.

The first day she did that I saw a blazing blue-white falling star in the dark western sky.The Geminids, I found out later. There is some planet up there - Mars, I suppose, since it's a little orangy. Over in the east, what I thought was Saturn is Venus incandescing in a huge way. The last few days, the bare trees have entertained.

More snow is expected this weekend but we have a few days to enjoy the December thaw.

Seasonal Affective Disorder. Though I don't believe it's a p$ychiatric condition, I do get have some reality on the Colorado winter letdown.

My take on it is: during the warmer months there is so much invitation from Life to join in, appreciate, feel, move, participate, breathe fresh air. Somewhat like a gracious and enthusiastic hostess making sure that all her guests are welcomed and satiated with all the stimuli that Life has to offer.

Come winter, the party is over; the hostess has gone home and it's up to me to provide my entertainment. To invite myself to go outside and get sunshine on my eyelids, to get plenty of fresh air, to make sure the birds are fed and heard. It's not easy being a summer girl in the winter but keeping summer alive becomes a game in itself.

It's been snowing off and on since a couple of days after my return home - even when it wasn't supposed to (like now). It would be knee-high if the first several inches had not melted into the warmish earth. It's all white now and I can't talk about gardening, so I'm just posting a mention of my new favorite blog. She posts great pictures like this one from flickr (posted by macdermotte there).

I'm home again and it's snowing which is fine with me. If I'm going to be in a cold state for the winter, better white than brown. I got a chance to refill the compost heap with bags of leaves that Sugar collected for me and he was able to finish the last bit of our new flagstone walkway before the weather changed.

My trip home on Amtrak was likely my last since they changed the connection point a few hours further down the line. The conversation on this trip was especially notable for me. I talked to 2 different parents who had lost a child, two widows who had lost spouses, a Katrina 'displaced person' and a young man who had just been released from prison after 12 years. The latter made the biggest impression on me. I saw him board at the Flagstaff bus station during the 8 hour connection ride from Albuquerque to Denver. The uniformed escorts didn't have guns, still I wondered if he was going to try to take us a hostages. At a snack stop before Raton, he originated to me that he had just been released and this was his first look at the outside since he was 17 years old. He was delighted to be able to open doors for himself. He was anxious about how his mom would accept him, hoping she would still consider him her little boy. I could tell he was nervous just being outside. When the bus broke down from an oil leak, I met the blind woman who needed to use my cell phone to call her children to come get her. Amazingly, she had to spend some time talking them into coming.

The last two months have shown me a gratifying expanse of humanity and now I'm back in Boulder with the 'most diverse bunch of middle class white people' you'll ever see. The struggles here are mostly internal.

Tom's Tavern is closing. Eating establishments come and go in Boulder but Tom's was there before I married my husband and after, during two pregnancies and as my children were becoming adults. What a legacy. Tom gave us all an authentic sense of belonging and attachment.

Coincident with finishing a major action here, my attention has shifted back to my garden and my dogs. I love this view of Griffith Observatory that twinkles every night plus the palm trees and all the flowers and birds but it isn't mine. And I don't want to make it mine. I thought I did for a while, working out the trips and the living aspect, but I'm happy now to just have it on loan on occasion.
I'll find out soon if the winter pansies I planted have survived the first few snows.
Meanwhile, there is a Los Feliz Christmas festival tonight on Vermont that should be entertaining.

No extrospecting allowed:

Unwind on a contemplative hike

Join city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) Naturalist Jake Davis on a tranquil, introspective hike from 4 to 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3. Meet at the Chautauqua Ranger Cottage, 900 Baseline Road. The hike will be followed by free hot tea, cocoa and conversation in the Chautauqua Ranger Cottage. For more information, visit www.osmp.org or call (303) 441-3440.

Wow- what a gorgeous Christmas Card. This one is to help pay for the Flagstaff Star. From the Chamber of Commerce newsletter:

"This year's card (above) was designed by local artist Sallie K. Smith... In the spirit of this community collaboration, join us on Tuesday, November 27 for the Flagstaff Star Card Reception at Mary Williams Fine Art Gallery (2116 Pearl Street)...

Cards are on sale at the Chamber Center, Page Two, Boulder Bookstore, Lucky's Market, Art Source International, Mary Williams Fine Art Gallery, Puddle Car Wash, and Art Mart." Now that's a motley group of businesses, isn't it?

I went down to Author Services for a visit. They haven't done tours for 3 years and I caught them on the first day. Great way to spend the afternoon.

I caught the Hollywood Dash over, walking the few blocks over and back. That strip of Hollywood can be one big mash at times but this afternoon, it was really quite lovely. The setting sun on the buildings & cool air offset the 5 o'clock traffic. The road was blocked off in preparation for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at the Kodak Theater. I guess celebrities were going to start arriving any time. Just a day in the life here.

I re-set my Amtrak ticket back about a week to return to Colorado the day after Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to boarding the train Thanksgiving evening and riding in what will probably be an empty train. Should be interesting.

This change allows me to have Tgiving with Honey before I leave him to fend for himself in Hollywood. He knows the route to Trader Joe's & In-N-Out and that the Vista and Los Feliz 3 have $5 matinees, so he should be ok.

Really enjoying Fall in the 90027 zip code. Really enjoying the neighborhood and the vibes.
......................later.........................
aaaaarrrrrgggh...they changed the train route so that the bus connection happens in Albuquerque, not Raton. That means a 7 hour bus trip to Denver. After all these letters to Congress to save Amtrak and all these trips back and forth this will totally bust my future plans. At least I got a few free trips with the Amtrak card.

I'm a joiner.
Technorati Profile

I wish Boulder Photo a Day would start posting again. His blog is a pleasure to visit.

I've been searching out local Boulder Blogs (which are harder to find than I thought).
Martin Acres Life is a delightful blog about life down there. It's sort of new but the fella shows a high interest in the area that's contagious.
I was drawn to Peak Soil by a story about a man who is developing his own CSA in local front and back yards. Brilliant! I wonder what he does about the deer?

Honey and I took a little nature break to go up Fern Dell Canyon in Griffith Park, then a bigger break with "Lars and the Real Girl" at the Vista Theater at Sunset Junction. I love that theater's Egyptian art deco theme. The cell phone pictures are pretty poor quality but I had to try. Only $5 each for matinee, too. The movie was really lovely.
Tonight the Santa Ana winds are picking up and bringing temps in the 90's for the next few days.

It rained a few nights ago in Hollywood and there is still a constant drip outside my window. The cool, moist air is really fall-like. Everything seems quiet and calm here - there are sirens every now and then, but not like in the past. The neighbors painted the front of their house and the building across the street spruced up the facade. I think someone found out about steam cleaners since the sideways don't have so many dirty spots.

Could it be that things are getting better around here?

I love Fresh Produce. Comfortable clothes in great colors and they have a great annual sale. Thousands come to a big warehouse-type building and strip down in a common dressing room to get the clothes at incredible discounts. So when I got a coupon for a store sale, I decided to help them with the overhead and check it out. Found a fine little blue cotton skirt that I love for about $15. Love it.

Yesterday, I made a detour to Wal-Mart in Superior to get some tee-shirts that I can't find anywhere else and breezed through the women's department. There, on sale was my skirt marked down to $3.50. Could it be? Same color, same style (maybe lacking a decorative stitch), ok, none of that stretchy material added to the cotton mix and, just like the FP version, MADE IN CHINA. I grabbed it and another one for good measure.

Now, I know that Wal-Mart is supposed to be evil, but when you're buying marked up goods from China either way, what is the difference which wealthy philanthropic family gets the profit? This time I went with the one who is offering $4 generic drugs and affordable walk-in health clinics.

Hi Dave.

Hazel Miller is such a classy lady. We went down to the Boulder Fall Festival just to catch some of her band and they didn't disappoint.

The dinner at 14th Street Grill was fine with that hefty turkey dinner sandwich. Don't know that I would go back, though. We do go back to Da Gabi in North Boulder. We just zip down the tapas menu and order most everything under $5.00 with a pizza for the hungry boys.

We just changed over to T-Mobile after years with Verizon. Aside from a few customer service problems, no reception at home, and iffy reception on vacations, Verizon was ok. T-Mobile works like a dream. We got the 5 favorites account so all our calls to our home line are free, to each other are free, and we're still saving about $50/month over the Verizon plan we had. It's a small luxury to be able to take a phone call on my cell while I'm standing in my kitchen or on my deck. Great customer service in the store, too.

I just completed a 'quality of life in Boulder' survey and sent it in, wondering what they are going to do with it. They wanted to know how was the sense of community in my neighborhood. What would the city council do about a neighborhood with a 'bad' sense of community? And they want to know my feelings about pop-ups. Why?

The back deck is finished and now the steps are being figured out as they are being built. You'd think that putting in a few steps would be simple but when you don't know what you're doing, it's really not.

We woke this morning to an unusual morning drizzle that soon turned into a real rain shower. This is harbinger of rains to come, I think. Fall is now here with weather cool enough to make me think about closing the window at night. All the flowers are in a rich phase of final bloom but trees are starting to turn color and drop leaves.

I put in some Helianthemum (sun roses) that I picked up at the Harlequin's Garden end of season plant sale. Great place for native plants.

Glad to see this one in the news:

"Exercise on par with drugs for aiding depression

By Amy Norton Wed Sep 19, 3:20 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Regular exercise may work as well as medication in improving symptoms of major depression, researchers have found.

In a study of 202 depressed adults, investigators found that those who went through group-based exercise therapy did as well as those treated with an antidepressant drug. A third group that performed home-based exercise also improved, though to a lesser degree.

Importantly, the researchers found, all three groups did better than a fourth group given a placebo -- an inactive pill identical to the antidepressant.

While past studies have suggested that exercise can ease depression symptoms, a criticism has been that the research failed to compare exercise with a placebo. This leaves a question as to whether the therapy, per se, was responsible for the benefit.

The new findings bolster evidence that exercise does have a real effect on depression, according to the researchers.

Doctors may not start widely prescribing exercise as a depression treatment just yet. But for patients who are motivated to try exercise, it could be a reasonable option, the study authors say...."

Simply taking a walk and looking at things helps, too.

So it's not "ostrichcize"
?

How I know my son is visiting: shoes taken off right in the middle of the hallway.

Boulder is a beautiful place with glorious skies and a mountain backdrop that never fails to satisfy.
Though some aspects of the city government are a little nutty, there are lots of great services provided by that same organization. I'm on a few of their email lists that help me keep apprised of what is going on around town.