Our first snow of the season

Yep, it's here today. A white blanket is settling over our valley and is forecast to grow thicker as the day goes on. The ground is still warm enough that the most accumulation is on fences and grills and such. I love this photo - I took it when I got up around 6:30 and the flash captured the many snowflakes falling around me!

Here's another one I took just before starting my blog updates, about 20 minutes ago. It's been snowing steadily and is still building up out there. I think it may be a good day for a fire in the wood stove.

Catching Up - Making space for deck and tree

I love trees! I've had a lot of experience at not being successful at growing trees. It amazes me, here in the mountains, how trees planted by human hands and tended with great care can fail so easily but trees that grow happenstance on bare mountain ledges and among what appears to be nothing but rock will flourish.

Over the first half-dozen years of living on this property I planted at least a couple dozen aspen trees and none survived. About 10 or 11 years ago, shortly after my sister and niece moved to Colorado, I found a volunteer cottonwood tree coming up in the yard. Unfortunately, it was coming under the deck. I really didn't expect it would survive. The young shoot was in an area that would not get much light and would get even less moisture. Lack of moisture is the biggest challenge in getting new trees to grow and establish themselves in this neck of the woods. I let the little tree go and watched it closely, hoping it would survive. Low and behold! It thrived and grew year after year. The trunk arranged itself in a shape that would clear the edge of the deck and it has become a most handsome tree.

This year for the first time, the tree trunk grew too close to the decking. I didn't want to lose the tree and I didn't want the deck ruined. By the time I noticed the encroachment, the tree had lifted the deck about an inch off its base. I called fix-it man who knows trees and knows decks. He came yesterday and re-sculpted the edge of the deck to accommodate the tree. The finished results look to me just as I had hoped - a modification that was done on purpose to preserve both the deck and tree and let them live in harmony.

The face board had also been warped from the tree pressing on the edge of the deck. The repairs were successful on that front, too. I know cottonwood trees are fast growers but it's hard to believe this tree is only around 11 years old. God's creations amaze me every time I stop to consider them. I'm grateful for the shade and enjoyment this tree has brought over the years!

Catching Up - Bread baking on Thursday

Thursday was a beautiful fall day. It was a bit chilly in the shade with temps in the low 50s but we had lots of sun. If you know the mountain weather, a sunny day feels warm as long as you keep out of the wind and shade!

The aspen across the valley from the house had an especially brilliant golden glow on Thursday. I kept stopping to look and enjoy them while I was working in the kitchen.

I was down to only two slices of bread left on Thursday morning so set about baking a couple loaves. I wanted to try the soft oatmeal sandwich bread recipe that my sister found in an old cookbook and had said it turned out very well. My first go-round with it at high altitude was less than perfect but I'm happy with the flavor and will give it another shot. I think I let it rise too long, maybe on both the first and second risings. It wasn't intentional but the dough seemed to balloon way more than expected between times that I checked it, after rising very slowly just prior to the ballooning process.

The dough loaves were picture perfect when I took them from their rising spot and waited for the oven to finish pre-heating. But within less than 10 minutes, the dough dome began to deflate. The dough didn't fall any further after I put it in the oven so the bread isn't terribly dense but it must be a bit more dense than it should be. The flavor is wonderful. I shared a loaf with friends at dinner on Thursday night and they agreed that it is a delicious bread recipe. Thanks for sharing, Kristine! I'm going to make it again without any changes for high altitude, except to rise for a shorter time and see how it comes out. Here's a picture of the first results.

More glorious fall colors

The Virginia Creeper is starting to turn to fall colors and is just stunning this year. There are about 80 shades of greens, reds, orange, yellow, maroon, and wine colors.

The creeper also has an abundance of berries this year. Although the berries are poisonous to humans, they're eaten by chickadees and woodpeckers, squirrels, chipmunks, mice and skunks. Deer like them, too, but the berries are inside the fenced part of the yard so I don't know if the deer will find them.

The cottonwood tree also started turning in the past couple days. It looks like the cottonwood is going to be the same brilliant yellow-gold we've been seeing on the aspens. So far, I don't have any leaves turning on the birch tree.

I finally got a photo of my helper nephew yesterday. We've had a fun week together but he's going home today. His papa called last night to say they were home from vacation, had a great time, and would be by today to get Snozzie. Thanks for keeping me company this week, Snoz!

Tragical aspects of relying on technology

Despite my love of hand crafts and my yearning for Back to Basics living, I have to admit that I'm very much attached to some technology. Take, for instance, the Kindle. I love to read. (I love to hold a book and feel it in my hands and the Kindle still provides that experience in its own way.) When I first heard about eReaders, I was sure I wouldn't be enamored of them in any way. Then I spent some time with my brother and his family in Florida. They're all Kindle folks. My niece let me use her Kindle while I was there. By the time I came home, I was thinking on how to justify buying one for myself.

So... in February I did buy one and quickly became attached. So many books in my hand at one time! So many free books available for the Kindle! There are still some types of books I would prefer to have in hard copy but the Kindle is great for so many reasons. It has even been a big influence in falling asleep quickly and naturally so the benefits have extended beyond my reading entertainment.

Alas, this past weekend brought all of my dependency on the Kindle into a new light. I had been reading my Kindle on Saturday morning while I had my morning coffee. (Yep, there's even a free version of the ESV Bible for the Kindle - yay!!) I keep my Kindle in a cover so I closed it up when I was done reading and went about the housekeeping. Later in the day when my chores were done, I picked up the Kindle to enjoy some more reading. I opened the cover and this is what I saw:

Anyone familiar with a Kindle will instantly recognize that this is NOT a good thing to see.

I tried doing a forced reset and then turned it on...

Still not right. Hmm...
It turns out that Amazon has an amazing customer service setup for Kindle customers. I went to the Amazon website to research the support that was available. I've grown used to finding options of having a live chat, emailing support or calling their toll-free number. But Amazon has an option of "Call Me Now". Notice that's not for ME to call THEM, it's for Amazon Kindle support to call ME. I decided to try that option. I clicked on the button and my phone immediately started ringing. I thought, "what bad timing - I've asked them to call just at the same time someone is calling me." I picked up my phone and the Caller ID said it was Amazon calling me. How could that be? I'd barely clicked the "Call Me Now" button when the phone started ringing. I answered and there truly was a real person on the other end.

Long story short, Reilly of the Amazon Kindle Support Experience was very nice but was unable to rectify the problem via the phone. He said they'd replace my Kindle and it would arrive by Wednesday. He emailed me a label to return the defective Kindle via UPS at Amazon's expense. I'll have to spend time reloading books onto my new Kindle but that's small beans compared to my original fears that I'd lost it forever and wasted the money I'd spent to buy it. Happy Ending, indeed!!

House update on a rainy day

Here's the latest on the house situation:

• A young couple with two babes (one infant, one toddler) viewed the house on Friday. Their realtor said they loved the house. The official feedback is "Somewhat Interested - It would take quite a bit of work to get it updated and finish the upstairs."
• There was a showing on Saturday and the feedback is "House too unusual for this buyer."
• There was a showing this morning (with only 45 minutes notice beforehand at 9:45am!!) - no feedback yet.

Shortly after Snozzie and I returned from our vacating the premises for the showing, the rain clouds started to leak, slowly at first, and the finches began to gather on the (nearly empty) thistle feeder. The rain became quite a downpour for a few minutes and the birds stayed on the feeder so I decided I'd better refill it for them. Most of the birds flew to the other side of the railing when I reached for the feeder but there were two yellow finches that I had to nudge with my finger to get them to relinquish the precious hardware. I have one finch who is quite verbal with me, approaches me closely and seems to complain a lot and, on occasion, even seems to carry on a friendly greeting & conversation with me. I'm sure this was one of the finches who required the extra prodding.

As soon as the feeder was refilled, the birds were ready to go. In fact, two finches (probably the same two I had to nudge OFF the feeder) were sitting on the feeder bracket and had to be nudged into moving so I could hang it back up. I'm sure they would have landed and started eating if I had merely held the feeder up by my hand.
It took awhile for all the birds to either get their fill or find a place on the feeder. Here's the initial scramble. There are 18 birds on the feeder and 3 on the bracket....

...several hanging out on the bistro table... (aren't they just the cutest little guys??)

...and one on the chair

I do believe the one on the chair is the sassy/chatty one I mentioned earlier. He gave me an ear-full today, too.


Eventually, a couple birds vacated the feeder and the ones that were waiting to be seated found room at the feeder.

I took the Gazanias down from their hooks and set them on the deck floor so they could benefit from the rain. One of the plants has just burst again into bloom. The other one is still working on some buds so it may look as beautiful again in a few more days.

Fall Foliage - Colorado Rocky Mountain Style

Today is a gorgeous day and the house was scheduled to be shown for a two-hour time block. Hmm... what a great excuse to head to the hills and admire the colors of nature from the changing leaves. My "nephew" Snozzie is my companion this week while my brother and sister-in-law are in PA visiting friends and relatives. He accompanied me on the adventure but I didn't get a good photo of him, as he was not willing to sit still for long. Jack Russells are like that!

I'm praying and hoping that this is my last autumn in Colorado. I'm ready to head east at any moment. I just need to have the house be sold. I took the route most familiar to me for good foliage viewing - the route to my sister and brother-in-law's home before they sold it and moved to PA.

For almost a week now we've been seeing the yellow patches on the mountain side grow as the aspen trees have started to change. Here's the view from my house as I look to the higher elevations.

There's not a lot of captioning to do for the rest of the shots. I took a LOT because this is turning out to be a stellar year for the deep gold colors. Not a lot in the rusts or oranges so far but one of the best years ever for the trees being in all their glory at the same time and being such brilliant shades of yellow.

Enjoy the view. I'm looking forward to one of my PA bloggers posting fall colors from that neck of the woods! This panorama doesn't do justice to the breathtaking beauty but it's kind of cool, huh?