Unexpected Surprise on a Hike in the Rocky Mountains

When is the last time you were the recipient of a totally unexpected good deed from a stranger?  Ours happened yesterday, and the story is worth re-telling.

We set our for a hike in the mountains, and, never having tried the area around Ward, Colorado (elev. 9000+ feet) we decided to try that area.  One of our guidebooks had suggested the Brainard Lake area as especially promising.  We drove into Ward, one of the hardscrabble Colorado towns not frequented by tourists.  If you ever wonder where the 1960s counterculture went, just take a trip through towns like Ward.  I stopped at the general store (advice from locals is always welcome) and found a friendly attendant who suggested if I did not want to purchase a map, I could take a look at the store copy.  As I said, the old counterculture is alive and well.  She suggested the Sourdough Trail because it is a loop (hikers end up where they began) and she also suggested that the entrance fee for cars to Brainard State Park is $9.00, but we could probably park just outside the park entrance for free.  I love insiders' advice!

So we headed up, up, up to Brainard State Park, and left the car outside the entrance.  Cost savings:  one map and one parking fee.  The hike to the Sourdough Trail was an easy two miles; the trail was well marked; and, best of all, we were the ONLY ones on the trail.  We stopped several times just to listen to the silence.  The Sourdough Trail was wonderful, proceeding through aspen groves, pine forests not yet ravaged by the pernicious beetle that has hit the Western Slope so badly, and came out into a huge meadow full of wildflowers just about lunchtime.  After lunch in our paradise, we decided it was time for a little yoga in the wild.  Perfect!

We faithfully followed Sourdough trail signs and cam out at Camp Dick campgrounds, which did not look at all like we remembered.  We hiked on down the road, assuming we would arrive at the entrance and our car and found that the trail had not been a loop at all!  When we found a campground host, he got out his map and we found that we were over 9 miles from where we had entered.  After a 9 mile hike, we had 9 miles to go?  Major panic.

Then this friendly stranger from Yuma, AZ, working here in the summer, asked if we would like for him to drive us to our car.  Would we like it!  We were overjoyed.  After we returned to our car, we went back to the store in Ward, and this time we purchased a map.  It turns out that there is a loop, but it involves switching to the Wapiti ski trail halfway around the loop.  If we had only known....

It was an adventure.  And we lived to tell about it and to hike another day.

Blessed Event?

Yesterday morning Noreen noticed a deer on the berm, just a few feet from our bedroom windows, so she  rushed outside to shoo it away.  The deer seemed resistant and acted as if she did not want to leave.  Noreen came back in saying, "those deer are so persistent!  I couldn't get that one deer out of the yard."

Fast forward an hour or so when the furniture repair people were arriving to return some furniture we were having fixed.  The truck driver said, "look at that little bitty deer."  I no longer jump when I hear mention of wildlife in our neighborhood (unless it is really wild) so I just commented that we get a lot of deer around here.  When he said he had never seen a deer so small, I decided I had to take a look.  So here is what I found:

This fawn had just been born!  No wonder the Mama had been hanging around!  Either she had heard that there are good eats at this birthing station or she had just given birth and was reluctant to get too far away from her fawn.

This baby was so still and so serene that I thought something must be wrong with it, and I started imagining all kinds of bad scenarios such as its having been abandoned by its mother, and the like.  It was even willing for me to rush inside and grab the camera and then comfortable posing while I shot pictures.

I continued checking on the fawn every 30 minutes or so, and, sure enough, in about an hour the spot was bare.  Mama must have rescued Bambi!

Some animal faces are so homely that I say it is a face that only a mother could love.  In this case, I'd say this is a face that everyone can love.

Progress on the mint

The mint is growing well, and it's a good thing, as the Kentucky Derby is not far off!  This year we have four varieties of mint--spearmint, peppermint, orange mint, and basil mint.  Sounds like the basis for some awesome mint juleps!

The Spring Garden

The spring garden is alive and well, and we are enjoying its bounty daily. 

I am still learning what can grow when in this new environment, so the picture represents both fall and spring plantings.  The carrots on the left were sown in October, and made it through our strange winter very well.  We have been eating the carrots from March on.  On the other hand, the beets sown at the same time did not make it through the winter, and the beets on the right were sown in March.  The Swiss chard in the pots at the rear were planted from seedlings in October, but they appeared dead as winter yielded to spring in February.  Then they started growing again!

The roses and clematis in the back of the picture (the front of the garden) came through the winter perfectly, and the climbing roses have already produced one profusion of fragrant flowers, and are now forming buds for the second bloom.  The big surprise was the Lady Banks rose:

 This profusion of blossoms was a wonderful surprise!  We planted an identical rose near the house which has to date produced one or two puny yellow flowers.  This plant--only a year old--was a riot of blossoms for several weeks.  How ironic that it is safe (from the deer) inside our fenced compound, since this is the one rose that deer will not nibble on!

The peach tree had many blossoms that are now tiny fruits.  The challenge this year will be to harvest the bounty before some critter does (as happened last year).  

The nectarine tree (planted bare root last year) had several blossoms which are now tiny fruits, but the apricot tree is still in its youth, and not yet producing.  I have big hopes for next year!

The pole beans are growing vigorously, and the peas began producing tender little pea pods almost as soon as the plants were out of the ground.

Hot weather is beginning to set in, so the spring harvest will take place over the next couple of weeks, and tomatoes and peppers will soon take their places.

Fiesta!

After a long respite, the blog is back!  And what better way to bring it back than the river parade at San Antonio's Fiesta!

 

Almost everyone has heard of San Antonio's famous river walk, the most impressive man-made tourist attraction of any city anywhere.  In fact, the San Antonio river is real, but before some genius dreamed up the river walk it was just a sleepy little muddy stream.  Now it is a year-round tourist destination, with all its trendy shops, hotels, and restaurants.  Well, not exactly a year round destination, as the city fathers drain the river in January to clean out a year's worth of gunk so that the rest of the year it can look pristine.  Don't ever make the mistake of a vacation to San Antonio when the "river"  is just a smelly trench through town!

 

And what is Fiesta?  A week-long party celebrating San Antonio culture--and the best event is surely the annual river parade.  Imagine a parade made up exclusively of people like the Shriners--those men in fezes who ride little motorcycles and have a very good time doing so.  This parade is made up of floats with a lot of participants having a lot of fun.

And, there are a lot of spectators, also having a very good time (this year the crowd estimate was 250,000).

This rather large family of ducklings was hoping for bread crumbs from the merry makers, but instead all that was thrown from the floats was candy!

The most fun for me, of course is watching the reaction of the children to the parade, and one child in particular.

Lest it appear that the parade is all fun and games, it is important to note that each float is sponsored by a firm or an organization and highlights one of the children's agencies in San Antonio.  This year the Cavaliers, the sponsors of Fiesta, will donate over $200,000 to support children's programs in Bexar County.  To date the event has channeled over $2.2 million into such agencies as Boys and Girls Clubs, Eva's Heroes (an organization founded by Eva Longoria for children with special needs), and Child Advocates of San Antonio.

 

 

My Christmas Offering--Franz Biebl

Christmas is so many things to me, and one of the most special aspects of Christmas is the music.  Everyone knows Schubert's  "Ave Maria," but the version by the German composer Franz Biebl, though lesser known, is even more sublime.  This angelic song may sound ancient, but in fact it was written in 1964.  The Biebl version was first brought to wide public attention by Chanticleer, but I think this rendition by the St. Olaf Choirs is even  better.  Listen to it now, and return to it often.  Merry Christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKMPfkbIZ1c&feature=related

Wassailfest

One thing I have learned after a couple of years in New Braunfels--this town likes a party!  And, given the German origins of the area, the celebrations are usually called a Fest.  Wassailfest is the official welcome to the Advent Season in preparation for Christmas.

Even though the original settlers were German, the town embraces multiculturalism.  No matter that wassail is an English libation:  put together the popular warm English beverage and the German heritage and we have a new coinage--Wassailfest!

As thousands of people stroll the cordoned-off streets, merchants offer free wassail, service groups offer all manner of food for sale, and everyone seems to be offering the music of the season.  How multicultural is the festival?  Well, as we drank English wassail, we were served a German bratwurst wrapped in a Mexican flour tortilla!

Most of all, however, the Wassailfest is about lights, decorations, and music.  It seems as if everyone is making music--from choirs to brass bands to a steel drum orchestra.

A children's choir singing in front of the most-decorated house in the downtown area.

     

A local handbell choir

Another children's choir on the town green

Music came from both young and old

And, of course there was a "living"  nativity scene:

What made this manger distinctive is that, rather than the shepherds watching their flocks by night, in this case it was the angels keeping care of the livestock.

Even the courthouse, scene of serious county business, is decked out for Wassailfest!