All Flowers Keep The Light

Other wildflowers we saw up in the mountains a few weeks ago

Wild Roses

Blue Lupine

Scarlet Gilia

I don't know what these are called but I see them all the time.

Arnica

Another unknown; planted on the grounds of the Grand Lake Lodge.

This Election Year More Than Ever

"Don't boo, vote."
-Barack Obama

"Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good: 'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"And so we shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with enthusiasm."
 -Martin Luther King, Jr

Making Peace With My Memories

This is a photo from 1974 of Sullivan's Lounge and Grill in the 1400 block of Court Place in downtown Denver.  Every building you see in the photo is now gone except for the old Victorian house that still stands behind the iron fence at the right.  At the time the photo was taken I used to go to Sullivan's on St. Patrick's Day and for lunch with my mother as it was across from her work.

Sullivan's was one of my dad's drinking places when I was a child and Danny Sullivan was always good to me. My dad would take me with him when he drank at Sullivan's back when the bar was on the corner of 14th Street and Court Place. (If you look down the street to the left of the white building you will see the empty space where the building the old bar used to be in stood.) My dad would order me a Roy Rogers and a packet of Beer Nuts and himself a beer. When I had finished my drink and snack he would give me a quarter to play the bowling machine (The kind with a metal puck as the ball.) while he ordered more beer and continued his discussion with Danny. This is bittersweet to admit but this is actually one of the best memories I have of my father.

A Short Story About Store Bought Tomatoes

Store bought tomatoes are crap.

The End

Why I Will Never Be Rich

Because I would never think of this. They are packing peanuts, people! Packing peanuts!

TGIO (Thank God It's Over)

When you wake up in the morning and the light hurts your head
The first thing you do when you get up out of bed
Is hit the streets a-runnin’ and try to beat the masses
And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses.
- ZZ Top

(Unfortunately they won't help with the bad taste left in your mouth by the whole thing.)

I Am Learning To Sew- Project 32

A wearable cross body clothespin bag for my sister. I did this in one afternoon and still can not believe I did so. All that practice is starting to make a difference.

Sunshine And Rainbows

The house across the street from me is for sale. This happened  the other night while someone looking at  the house was driving away.  Is it a sign? Did they miss it?

Flim Flam Man

Well, the first day of the Republican Convention was the let down I expected it to be. Same old same old. Big promises from Trump and company but no delivery. Blaming the other guy for the problems created by themselves. Melania Trump plagiarizing Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic Convention speech.





What I find most disturbing about Trump and his cronies is the contempt they exhibit for others and especially the American people. That "We can say and do anything we want because they are too stupid to catch on and because they are that stupid, they deserve to be fleeced" attitude. In the end Trump is nothing but a flim flam man surrounded by power hungry enablers.





"Hands off the man, the flim flam man.
His mind is up his sleeve and his talk is make believe.
Oh lord, the man's a fraud, he's flim flam man.
He's so cagey, He's a flim flam man.

Hands off the man, flim flam man.
He's the one in the Trojan horse, making out like he's Santa Claus.
Oh lord, the man's a fraud, he's a flim flam man.
He's a fox, he's a flim flam man.

Everybody wants him, the people and the police
and all the pretty ladies disarm.
Oh yeah, the beautiful gent, you know he has hardly a cent.
He pays his monthly rent with daily charm.

Hands off the man, the flim flam man.
His mind is up his sleeve and his talk is make believe.
Oh lord, the man's a fraud, he's flim flam man.
He's so cagey, he's an artist.
(Flim Flam man)
He's a fox, he's a flim flam man.
Don't believe him, he's a flim flam.
Ole road runner, he's a flim flam.
Don't believe him...."

I Am Learning To Sew- Project 27-31?

I haven't posted any sewing projects in a while so I though I'd catch up today. I've been working on alterations this summer and have refitted a number of my husband's shirts for him. An example of this below.

Front, before.

Front after.

Back before.

Back after.

I have also altered the hems on some of my trousers and a pair of elephant pants my sister owns. It feels good to use my sewing machine for this kind of work. I like that whenever some piece of clothing needs repair I can say, "Hey, I can fix that!"

TGIF

Note to World.

Old Postcard From Loveland, Colorado

Give me your beach lovers, your sun-baked,
Your boaters yearning to water ski,
The happy children on your teeming shore.
Send these, the families, the sun bathers to me:
I lift my lamp beside the blue water.

Donald Trump Can "Relate" to Black People Because He's a Victim Too

-MOTHERJONES.COM headline

What a maroon.
-Bugs Bunny

(Mother Jones article here.)

Rocky Mountain High

Tis the land where the columbines grow,

Overlooking the plains far below,

While the cool summer breeze in the evergreen trees

Softly sings where the columbines grow
-Where the Columbines Grow by  A.J. Fynn  (First Colorado State Song)


We were up in the mountains last weekend and were delighted to find the state flower, Rocky Mountain Columbine,  in bloom.

A line of columbines

I've always thought Columbines look like starbursts or comets shooting across the sky.

The most beautiful ones were under the Aspen trees.

My New Machine

Emergency back-up for when the power goes out.

Colleen Explains It All

To the people upset by the phrase "Black Lives Matter" and counter with "All Lives Matter." In theory all lives do matter but as long as there is racism and bigotry in this county white lives matter more than black lives. Maybe you would not get so upset if you thought of the "Black Lives Matter" slogan as a shortened version of the phrase "Black Lives Matter Just As Much As White Lives"......or....maybe you could stop pretending that you don't know what "Black Lives Matter" means and just shut the hell up.

Enough

I woke-up this morning to the news that 5 police officers were assassinated in Dallas, TX during what had been a peaceful protest rally against police violence. All I could do was cry. When is enough, enough? Stop the violence. Stop the hatred. Stop the political bullshit. This country is in serious trouble. It's time we all start showing each other the respect we each deserve just for being fellow human beings. So stop. Just stop. Please, stop.

The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History

Theodore Roosevelt's interest in natural history began at eight years old when he saw a dead harbor seal in the window of a grocery store near his home. The animal so fascinated him that he ran home to get a notebook and a ruler so he could measure the animal and write about its appearance. At twelve he donated a snowy owl he had stuffed to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

This book is not only a history of Roosevelt's work as a museum naturalist but a short history of the creation of the field of natural history in this country and an introduction to the other naturalists who influenced, worked with, or were rivals of Roosevelt. Engrossing story written by a modern naturalist whose insights adds much to the story.

Happy Birthday Frida Kahlo

"Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair" (1940)

 

 

The song lyrics at the top of the frame are from an Mexican folk song and translated say, “Look, if I loved you it was because of your hair. Now that you are without hair, I don’t love you anymore.”

July 5th: The Day After Independence Day

For those of you across the pond, now I understand why some of you may not be that  thrilled with our holiday.

Happy Independence Day!

Crime Blotters

Blotter: a book used in a police station for writing down information about people or events
- Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary

I've just discovered that The Denver Post publishes crime blotters for Denver and its surrounding counties.   Let's see what small crimes have been happening in the area.

1. Adams County: Man wakes up the whole neighborhood

2. Arapahoe County: Drunken man's pants abandoned him

3. Aurora County: Road rage suspect breaks out baseball bat 

4. Denver County: Angry defendant breaks door handle

5. Douglas County: Teenagers follow, harass woman at home improvement store

6. South Jeffco (Jefferson County): Thieves fail to steal camper

 After reading them all, I see Arapahoe and Douglas Counties have the most creative one sentence descriptions of each reported incident. My favorites are "Suspicious man turns out to be extra shady" and "Creepy kids in Lowe's."