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Sunday, June 27, 2021

Book Review: Love People Use Things



I received an advance reader copy of this non-fiction, self-help category book entitled Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus due for publication release July 13th, 2021 by Celadon Books. The authors are best known as The Minimalists and have shared their philosophy of living with less to millions through documentaries. podcasts, newsletters, and prior books.

In this new book, Love People, Use Things, Joshua and Ryan go into more depth beyond simply teaching one how to declutter to show how minimalism makes room to reevaluate and heal the seven essential relationships in our lives: Stuff, truth, self, money, values, creativity, and people. They use their own experiences along with those of other people who they have met along their journey to provide a template on how to live a fuller, more meaningful life.


While I heard of The Minimalists and may have read a few Facebook posts they wrote or saw them interviewed on TV, I never really paid much attention to them or their books before. Now, after reading Love People, Use Things, I have to admit I am intrigued by their premise that once we have fewer things in our lives we can make room for the right kind of more. That personal relationships and our creativity often suffer when we succumb to the idea that having bigger, better, more up-to-date, more status symbol-type things in our lives.  Part memoir, part confessional, part collection of rules and guidelines this book gave me quite a bit to ponder.  I was shocked to read in their book how many possessions the average person owns, the amount of debt many people occur, and the lack of savings many have toward retirement. In the constant quest to acquire things many actually only add stress and unhappiness to their lives. That often overflowing collections are relegated to storage units--a growing and almost uniquely American phenomenon.

One of the exercises The Minimalists use is to advise someone very dedicated to removing clutter from their lives to pack up all their belongings as if they were going to move and then to unpack only the essentials that one needs in daily life progresses.  This extreme exercise teaches what possessions we have are really important, as often much never needs to be unpacked. That made me reflect on when my husband and I moved from our house in Brooklyn, New York to a house in the Denver suburbs almost nine years ago. We had lived in our Brooklyn house 36 years, just a few years after we were married.  When packing to move I was surprised by the amount of stuff we had accumulated over the years. It was all organized and much of it was hidden away in closets, basement and garage storage, and in drawers and cabinets. I discarded, donated, sold, and recycled much, but as you can see from the photos above a lot also moved West with us. Upon reflection, after reading this book, I would have pared down these boxes even more. The Minimalists made me realize that it is better not to keep things "just in case," or "maybe I'll need it someday." More often than not that never occurs or the object will have become outdated or out of style. An example of this is the much  smaller size clothes most of us keep in the back of our closets "just in case we lose weight." Even if we do lose that weight we often find we don't reach for the old or even remember that we saved it!



Other exercises and suggestions in this book are how to get out of debt, the best investments to make, how to withdraw from constant use of electronics and smartphones, how to increase our creativity and utilize our time, how to improve our relationships with both ourselves and others.  

When you read Love People Use Things you will most likely find, much as I did, much to think about beyond decluttering the possessions we have. It is a self-help primer to ridding ourselves of emotional baggage, of being driven to acquire more material things, and encouragement to instead enjoy our relationships, experiences, and have a life with fewer distractions.

If you'd like to learn more about The Minimalists go to their "Start Here" page on their blog to learn most about them and their social media sites and prior publications. 

Disclaimer: I was provided with an advanced copy ( ARC) of the book Love People Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works by Celadon Books in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was provided

#LovePeopleUseThingsBook  #CeladonReads  @CelandonBooks  #partner. 

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Sunday, June 20, 2021

The Cottonwood Tree, "Pioneer of the Prairie"



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A lovely Cottonwood tree in a local park gives beauty and shade. There’s a type of Cottonwood tree for nearly any region, with different hardy types in Zones 2 through 9. The Kansas Legislature designated Cottonwood as the State Tree in 1937, calling it the "pioneer tree of the prairie." Here in Colorado they are one of the largest native broadleaf trees found along the front range

What else do Cottonwood trees give us this time of the year?



They give us lots and lots of cotton-like seed fluff, flying in the air like downy snow!


Perhaps because we had a lot of rain this spring or the weather became very warm all at once, there seems to be more Cottonwood fluff than ever this season. It has been coating the ground in many areas and...



Covering my clothes as I sit in the parks watching my grandson play Little League baseball.




Like willows, cottonwoods have separate male and female trees. In late winter, the cottonwood’s reproductive season begins. The male and female trees each produce dangling catkins. Pollen from the male trees is transferred to the female pistillate catkins by wind.

Leaf buds appear on cottonwood trees in the late winter or early spring. The air becomes redolent with the scent of bud scale resin. Leaves appear, then later in the spring, the seeds ripen and capsules split on the female trees to release a snowfall of cotton-coated seeds.



Members of the Poplar family, cottonwoods were important to Native Americans who used all parts of the tree. The bark provided forage for horses and a bitter, medicinal tea for their owners. Sweet sprouts and inner bark were a food source for both humans and animals. The Cottonwood tree trunks became canoes.
Many parts of the cottonwood tree are medicinal. A compound called salicin, which is found in the leaves, buds, and bark of cottonwood, has been proven to lower fevers and reduce inflammation and pain. The resin has been used to waterproof boxes and baskets, and the bark has been used to make buckets for storing and carrying food. Cottonwood wood was important in the 1800s and 1900s for making paper, boxes and crates, packing material, sugar barrels, and kitchen utensils.




A cottonwood tree can grow 6 feet (2m) in one year! It can grow to be more than 100 feet tall and almost as wide. In the wild, cottonwood grows along rivers, ponds, and other bodies of water. It also thrives in floodplains and dry riverbeds, where infrequent rains transform dry land into waterways. 




Their rapid growth is also a negative, because the wood is brittle, leading to breaking branches.  As you can see in the photo above this Cottonwood tree was rotting from within and had to be cut or else it may have eventually collapsed and caused damage. 

An eagle pair was nurturing an eaglet this spring in Colorado's Standley Lake, and the eagles' nest was on a webcam, attracting thousands of viewers. One day the nest, indeed the tree, was gone! It turns out the Cottonwood tree supporting the nest split in half and the tree and nest fell. Sadly, the eaglet did not survive, but happily, the Eagle pair made a new nest on another tree and there is hope new eaglets will hatch.


The Cottonwood tree is an asset in wildlife areas where its hollow trunk serves as shelter while the twigs and bark provide food. Beavers use cottonwood for food and building materials. Deer eat leaves and twigs. Native butterflies, including the larvae of western tiger swallowtail, Lorquin’s admiral, Persius duskywing, and many kinds of moths, feed on cottonwood. Cottonwood resin is called “bee glue” because bees gather it to seal up their hives to protect them from invading insects and microbes. It is an ingredient in propolis.  Roosting turkeys eagles and other birds live in them.



In autumn the Cottonwood tree's leaves turn golden yellow and add beauty to the fall.



One of the most amazing Cottonwood trees I've come across since moving to Colorado was at the Royal  Gorge Route Railroad! Look at the size of its trunk! We could not get the entire tree in the camera lens it was so very tall.  If you like to read about this very scenic train ride click here.

Wishing everyone a Happy First Day of Summer and a Happy Fathers' Day!


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Friday, June 18, 2021

The Maidens Book Review


 I received an advanced reader copy of Celadon Books' summer must-read, the new thriller "The Maidens," by the New York Times bestselling author of "The Silent Patient," Alex Michaelides.
The Maidens' psychological suspense will keep you reading late into the night as it takes you on a spell-bounding journey into murder, Greek Mythology, and obsession. 

Protagonist Mariana is a recently widowed psychotherapist whose niece Zoe goes to St. Christopher’s College in Cambridge, which is the same college Mariana and her beloved deceased husband, Sebastian, attended. Mariana receives a frantic phone call from Zoe that her best friend in college, Tara, has been found brutally murdered and pleads for her help. The grieving Mariana dreads returning to the college where she and Sebastian first fell in love, as feels she was somewhat responsible for his tragic death, but she also wants to console and protect Zoe. As she spends time with Zoe, she learns of a charismatic ancient Greek Tragedy professor, Edward Fosca, who has formed an exclusive group among his students called The Maidens. When another student is murdered, Mariana becomes convinced that Fosca is involved with the murders and becomes determined to prove his guilt at all costs. 

The Maidens was a page-turner, with a fast pace and short chapters. I suspected quite a few of the novel's characters were capable of the murders and was kept guessing in suspense, right up until the end, with its shocking twist. I have to admit that I wanted a bit more resolution at the finish, but I enjoyed the possibility that perhaps a future novel's red-haired character was given a glimpse in one of the last paragraphs? Don't miss out on this summer's must-read!

Celadon Books sent me an advanced reader copy of this highly anticipated, newly released novel "The Maidens," in exchange for my honest review. The book release date was June 15th, 2021. Look for it at your local bookstore or retailer, or you can buy it here.

@CeladonBooks #TheMaidens #CeladonReads #Partner


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Sunday, June 13, 2021

Meeting a Fellow Blogger in the Mountains

I was happy to receive a message on my phone that a blogger who lives in Manhattan was going to be visiting Breckenridge, Colorado, for a week and asked if my husband and I had some time to visit.  She wasn't sure how far away we were from that pretty ski town but we told her it was totally doable and set a time and date. I was a little worried that she would feel a bit of a headache and tired from the high elevation--NYC is at sea level and the town of Breckenridge is at 9600 feet (2926 m), and gave her some high altitude hints and told her to take her first few days easy.   We set off for our visit by driving west on Interstate 70 up into the Rockies!  I always love the view you see in the photos above as we approach the Genesee area. (All photos and collages will enlarge when clicked on)


The drive up is always beautiful, especially when the mountains are still snow-capped.



When we drove into Breckenridge I saw that the gondolas that go up to the ski lodge were not moving.  We found out that this was a shoulder season between winter and summer activities at the lodges so they were on a break until later in June.

 


Pat on the left, Carol on the right


Here we are! Carol Zwick of the blog "Buttercup Counts Her Blessings" and I was meeting again after quite a few years!  It was so good to see her and we had a lot to talk about.


We had lunch together at a local bistro in Breckenridge and we then decided to take a drive over scenic Hoosier Pass into Fairplay.   The pass is located on the Continental Divide at the northern end of the Mosquito Range, at an (elevation of 11,542 ft (3,518 m))




We went to the town of Fairplay, located in South Park, at an elevation of 9,953 feet (3,034 m). We were told not to miss their dramatic new sign at the junction of US 285!  The sign gives homage to the fact that the town was founded during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush days.  The town was named by settlers who were upset by the generous mining claims given to the earliest prospectors and promised a more equitable system for its residents


We visited the South Park City Museum in Fairplay. I love this outdoor museum that consists of actual Gold Rush era and pioneer buildings that have been restored and preserved. There are forty-four authentic buildings filled with over 60,000 vintage artifacts that were donated by local Coloradans, and that portray most of the economic and social aspects of boomtown life. Seven of the buildings are on their original sites; the others have been moved from abandoned camps and ghost towns in South Park.  We were told that soon another building would be added to the museum--a county jail!  I've blogged about South Park City Museum before--click here.


The gold and silver mining aspect of the South Park area is shown in many exhibits...



...as well as what everyday life was like during those times from 1860 to 1900.



I could have spent hours examing all the authentic vintage artifacts! Each building has displays!



There are also displays about the Native Americans who once lived and hunted in South Park. The displays above are arrowheads and spear points found in the area.



After our visit to the South Park City Museum, it was time to drive Carol back to Breckenridge. We returned over Hoosier Pass, enjoying the mountains vistas until we reached her hotel.




It was a wonderful day in the Rockies!  We enjoyed seeing Carol again and catching up on New York City news, and I know she enjoyed seeing a part of Colorado she's never visited before and learning some Colorado history at the South Park City Museum.



What is new around here? This past week I enjoyed wonderful birthday celebrations with my family! My husband and our youngest granddaughter and I all have birthdays in early June, so there was lots of cake and lots of fun.  My roses began to bloom on my birthday--always a pleasure to see, and it is the baby fawn season! Aren't they cute?

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Sunday, June 6, 2021

Reservations Needed for Rocky Mountain National Park


When my husband and I drove a scenic byway called the "Peak to Peak" on our way toward Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), this portion never fails to take my breath away! It is always exciting to see the park's snow-capped mountains in the distance!  We pick up the byway in Black Hawk and drive north to Estes Park, which is the town right outside the eastern entrance to RMNP.


If you view the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway map on this page, you can see that along with the beautiful scenery, there are many scenic stops along the way.  One of our favorite places is the Carousel of Happiness in Nederland--click here--to read that post, and another is "The Little Chapel on the Rock" which you can see in another post--click here--that I wrote about the Peak to Peak drive.



On this drive, we did not make any stops except for this one to see a historical marker for the former 1885 homestead of Enos A Mills, a naturalist, author, lecturer, and nature guide, who is considered the Father of Rocky Mountain National Park for his work in the effort to preserve this area as a natural park.


We have visited Rocky Mountain National Park many times in the past-- my eight prior posts on the park can be seen under this blog label link. On this visit, we saw this long line of cars at the entrance and realized why RMNP was going to revive last year's reservation requirement again this year.  Because of the COVID pandemic, the park put a reservation system in place in 2020 to control overcrowding.  It worked so well that the decision was made that this year from May 28 to October 11, 2021, visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park will need a timed entry permit and an entrance pass to visit the park.  The full reservation information can be read on the park website on this linkReservations can be made on this linkA limited amount of reservations are available at the park entrance but they sell out fast, so pre-ordering is the best method.  Many visitors have been unaware of this new rule and have sadly had to turn around without visiting.

RMNP is one of the four most visited national parks.  In 2019 the park saw almost 5 million visitors! During the pandemic in 2020, the number was reduced to 3.3 million, and the decrease and timed entrance allowed for better parking at trailheads and crowd control. In fact, it was so popular, it may become a permanent feature during the peak season.




Since we live just about a two-hour drive away from RMNP we usually like to visit off-season, so we were able to enter the park with our lifetime Senior Pass before the reservation system was required on May 28th.  We heard that the main road in the park, Trail Ridge Road, had been plowed to Rainbow Curve at that time, so we wanted to see the snowpack at that point.

 


The Rainbow Curve viewpoint is at 10,829 feet elevation, just below timberline, the transition zone between a subalpine fir and spruce forest, and the alpine tundra of grass and delicate wildflowers.


We took a lot of snow photos! It was already melting fast as the weather was warm. Trail Ridge Road continues on higher, but the complete road had not been plowed open as yet on our visit. It's fully open now. The road travels above the treeline, at 11,500 feet. It then winds across the tundra's vastness to its highest point at 12,183 feet elevation. One-third of RMNP is alpine tundra, which is rare in the lower 48 states, and weather can change quickly at this elevation.  It's normally windy and 20 to 30 degrees colder than Estes Park or Grand Lake. The sun beats down with high-ultraviolet intensity. The vistas sweep north to Wyoming, east across the Front Range cities and Great Plains, south, and west into the heart of the Rockies


We also took many photos of the very snow-capped Longs Peak--the highest mountain in RMNP at 14,259 feet (4346 m).




By later afternoon the weather changed and it became very overcast. We drove toward Bear Lake but the parking lot was so crowded by then that we decided we would walk around Sprague Lake instead.


We always enjoy the walk around Sprague Lake and its views.


A pretty view on our way out of the park


After leaving the park we had our first inside restaurant meal in 14 months! We stopped in to "Smokin Daves BBQ" in Estes Park for dinner. It was so good!  We were very hungry and ordered a lot but the portions were so big we had to take half of it home for the next day's meal.  It was a thrill to feel safe to eat in a restaurant again since we are both fully vaccinated.  It was so good in many ways to feel normal again. So much that we once took for granted we now relish with new gratitude!

June is a busy month for us with three family birthdays and our grandsons playing in Lacrosse tournaments and Little League baseball games, so if I have been late to visit your blog I hope to visit very soon!  Meanwhile, stay happy and healthy my friends!

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