Quotes for a Pandemic

"Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day."

--unknown

"The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also."   

--Harriet Ann Jacobs

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places, but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."  

-- J.R.R. Tolkien

"Going out into nature was one outlet that I had, which truly allowed me to calm down and not think or worry."

 -- Richard Louv

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God."  

--Anne Frank

"When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate.  When life is bitter, say thank you and grow."   

-- Shauna Niequist

I hope these favorite photos and the quotes will give you some hope and inspiration as we continue to stay at home during this COVID-19 pandemic. 

My state of Colorado is relaxing some restrictions tomorrow, with our governor's executive order called "Safer At Home." You can read what that entails here. However, the county I live in, as well as a few other counties in Colorado, will continue restrictions until May 8th. 

 Be safe, happy, and healthy!  

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My First Summer in Colorado

It is hard to believe it is August 1st, and that in another two weeks school begins again here in our community! Where has the summer gone?  This is one of our neighborhood community pools, and the first one that will close for the season in mid August. Would you believe I've only visited it once? It has been a busy summer!

When my brother and sister-in-law were here for my granddaughter's christening a few weeks ago, we took a trip with them up to see the nearby Red Rocks Amphitheater. You can read more about this spectacular outdoor theater on a  post about my visit this summer for a Josh Groban concert...click here.

...and then went on to one of our favorite breakfast places, the Country Road Cafe. Just look at the size of their pancakes--it takes up the entire plate!

My husband chose an omelet from their menu--another winner!

We next visited the charming city of Golden, Colorado...

..where we visited the Coors Brewery.

Next on the agenda was a ride up...

......Lookout Mountain, one of the taller foothills, at elevation 7,322 feet.

(This photo and all photos in this post can be enlarged for easier viewing by clicking on it once, and then again for full size)

Our ride this time was much less perilous than when we went with one of my husband's New York City co-worker in March. You can read that post on this link,.

This time the weather was beautiful.....

...as were the views.

 Buffalo Bill's grave is located on the top of Lookout Mountain.

I told you about our fun family excursion to the ski resort of Breckenridge on this post...

...but did not have a chance to show you the beautiful soft fields of South Park, that we passed on our way back home.  South Park is a high altitude grassland basin, approximately 10,000 feet in elevation in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado!

It was raining heavily at this time of the day and the misty pastures and hills of South Park...

...reminded me of Ireland!.

Back at home, we have been seeing mule does and their fawns that were born in May or June. A mature doe will often have twins, as this one does.

The bucks are now growing their new pair of antlers. During spring and summer, their antlers are growing at up to a quarter of an inch per day! Right now they have a velvety appearance, but soon they will harden to a bone like consistency. I saw these bucks in an open space field near my home.

They are a magnificent sight and one that I doubt I'll ever tire of seeing!

The real star of this blog post, however, is my sweet granddaughter, who is also growing by "leaps and bounds" this summer! As she grows, so does all the baby equipment that is all over my home. She is beginning to sit up on her own and began having her first taste of solid foods. I had honestly forgotten how much work taking care of a baby can be. It has been a full-time job for me these past months, as I watch her every day, Monday through Friday, while my daughter and son-in-law are at work, but I am loving every minute of it!  It may mean I have less time for myself, and certainly less time online, and this summer has been mostly about nap time and bottles, diapers and lullabies. Would I have it any other way? Never!

My two grandsons have also kept us busy, as my husband and I sometimes babysit for them on the weekends. Here they are playing with their Daddy's Matchbox cars--something I was glad I saved over the years!  It has been wonderful to see them often and watch them grow. Time passes too quickly. and I am savoring all these special times with my grandchildren.

My first summer in Colorado is slowly slipping away, but it has been a golden one for me so far and one I'll always cherish.  I am looking forward to enjoying more sights around this beautiful state before summer ends and I'm looking forward to seeing what a Colorado autumn will be.

Has your summer been living up to your dreams and expectations so far this year? I really hope so!

Please join my blog's facebook page on this link to see more of what I've been doing this summer.

Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill

In a prior post about the Miller Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado, I promised I'd show you a trip my husband and I, and one of his New York Co-workers took up to the top of Lookout Mountain. If you look closely you can see the mountain in the distance on the photo above, on an uncharacteristically overcast day in Colorado.

With an elevation of 7, 581 feet, Lookout Mountain is one of the larger foothills which overlooks Golden, Colorado.  On a clear day, the Denver metropolitan area can be seen clearly from the mountain 12 miles to the east.

From the town of Golden we drove onto 19th Street, which briefly goes through a residential neighborhood, and then leads to a section Lariat Loop Byway to the top of the mountain. The Lariat Loop Byway is a 40-mile route built-in 1914. This byway is a combination of two historic routes: the Lariat Trail Scenic Mountain Drive ascending Lookout Mountain and the Bear Creek Canyon Scenic Mountain Drive. In combination, these routes were part of several of the “scenic circles” developed and promoted by Denver in the 1915-1920s to help Coloradans experience the mountains in proximity to the Denver Metropolitan area. These roadways were designated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. A video about the interesting sights that can be seen along this byway can be viewed at this link.

Two-Stone Pillars in the photo above mark the northern entrance to the Denver Mountain Parks and the Lariat Trail.

As we begin the drive I could see threatening clouds on the horizon, but the view of Golden was amazing. A part of the Colorado School of Mines football field can be seen at the bottom of the photo. The Colorado School of Mines is a distinguished engineering and applied science university.

Even though the clouds hung low, the views were beautiful.

We actually passed through the clouds at this elevation...

...and it began to snow!

Our road view changed from foggy...

...and misty...

...to a snowy white-out!  it was too late to turn back, we had to keep going.

We finally reached our destination at the top of the mountain...Buffalo Bill's Grave and Museum.

As you can see from the photo collage above, the parking lot and look out to the valley had hardly any visibility and the walk up to the gravesite was slippery, but we continued to walk up anyway.

Buffalo Bill's grave and that of his wife were covered with snow.  It had a stone marker and the gravesite was surrounded by an iron fence,

Some close-ups of the plaques on the gravestone. Click on the photo above to make it larger, and then again when it opens, so that you can read the inscriptions.

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846 -1917) was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), in Le Claire, but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US Army as a scout. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill became famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes, which he toured in Great Britain and Europe as well as the United States.

The Pahaska Tepee Cafe and Gift Shop was a welcoming place near the gravesite to buy a cup of coffee and warm up a little. The building was named "Pahaska Tepee" after Cody's hunting lodge of the same name outside of Yellowstone Park. Pahaska was a native American nickname for Cody, that meant "longhair."

Unfortunately, the Buffalo Bill Museum was closed on Mondays, so I bought this fascinating retrospective book about the museum collection in the gift shop.  It is also a biography of Buffalo Bill called: Buffalo Bill: Scout, Showman, Visionary written by the museum director, Steve Friesen.

Information about the book from its website:

"William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was America's first celebrity. He lived during a time of great geographic and technological expansion, a time when American mass media became dominant. Cody was there at every step, the right person at the right place at the right time. It was through those brilliant efforts that Cody the man became Buffalo Bill the celebrity and, eventually, Buffalo Bill the legend."

I enjoyed learning more about Buffalo Bill, beyond the myths and legends I knew about him. He was the ultimate frontiersman and showman and brought the lure of the American West to all parts of America and Europe through his "Wild West" exhibitions. To watch a fascinating historical video about Buffalo Bill, with scenes from his life and his Wild West show go to this link on the Biography.com website.

Someday I'll return to Lookout Mountain on a more scenic day, and drive more of the Lariat Loop Byway.  There is quite a bit to see and do and I know you'll also enjoy learning more about this area of the front range of Colorado!

Cape Neddick (Nubble) Lighthouse, Maine

On my visit to Portsmouth, New Hampshire last year, which you can read about on this link, my husband and I were taken on a side trip by his co-workers over to Cape Neddick Point, which is at the north end of Long Sands Beach in the village of York Beach, Maine.  There we were able to view this beautiful lighthouse on Nubble Island, called both the Cape Neddick and the Nubble Lighthouse.

I was so excited to have the chance to see this lighthouse, as a photo of it in winter, lighted for Christmas, was my computer's screen saver for many years.  To actually see the lighthouse in person was a memorable treat!

The Nubble Lighthouse station was established in 1879, and the present brick and cast iron lighthouse was built in 1879.  It was automated in 1987, retaining its fourth-order Fresnel lens that was installed in 1928.

The height of the lighthouse tower is 41 feet, but because of the additional height of the steep rocky islet on which it sits, it stands 88 feet above sea level. Nearby are the 1879 keeper's house, built in 1879, the 1902 oil house storage building, and the boathouse, rebuilt in 1978 after a storm destroyed the original one.  When the light was automated in 1987 the last Coast Guard keeper was removed.  In 1998, ownership of the Nubble Lighthouse was given to the Town of York through the Maine Lights Program. In all, the Maine Lights Program was awarded ownership to twenty-eight other Maine lighthouse, all former US Coast Guard properties. More about the history of this well-loved lighthouse can be read on this link.

The lighthouse is not open to the public, but it can be easily viewed from Sohier Park.  I stood at the edge of this park and took a video of the Atlantic Ocean's waves crashing on the shore, the lighthouse on Nubble Island and then the rest of Cape Neddick Point. If you watch my Youtube video you can see the bucket pulley system that was set up to ferry supplies back and forth to the island at one time.
You can watch the video on YouTube at this link. As you can see it is a beautiful place to visit!  Did you see the bucket pulley lines?

photo source



This bucket system, installed in the 1950s, was never intended for the transport of people, but around 1967, Coast Guard keeper at the time, David Winchester, put his two children in the bucket each morning to send them on their way to school. The photo above caused quite a stir when it appeared in newspapers. The district commander saw the photo in a Boston paper and made arrangements to board the children on the mainland during the week. Soon after that, it became policy that families with school-age children were not sent to the Nubble.

An informational placard about the lighthouse in Sohier Park.

I have to admit I was envious of the people who live in this gorgeous house at the beginning of Cape Neddick, as they have a clear view of the lighthouse from their eastern windows. I would love to sit in those Adirondack chairs that I spied in their backyard and stare out at the ocean. I don't think I'd ever tire of that beautiful view!

We also spied a seasonal lobster house nearby that was getting a jump on the Christmas season with this lobster crate Christmas tree in front. They have a webcam on the website of their view of the lighthouse, that you can view on this link.

Although our visit to Maine was very short, we could not leave without having New England clam chowder and a lobster dinner. Both were delicious -- just look at the size of those lobster claws!

As the day ended we drove back to New Hampshire where we were going to leave for New York the next morning. Our last view of Maine was this beautiful sunset.  All of New England is special and we really hope to be able to re-visit these areas again one day.

On the home front, we are still trying to sell our home in Brooklyn. The market has unfortunately been very slow. We live in a very nice middle-class family neighborhood, but it just may be that not many families are looking to buy a house right now, or can't afford one.  If we see that this trend lasts until November we are going to begin packing at that time, even if we don't sell, and leave our house on the market.  We're sure it will take us quite a while to pack, and sell the furniture we are not moving with us, so our timeline is that we probably won't be able to move until the winter.  Driving across the country in winter will be an experience I'm sure! Our granddaughter is due in February so we would like to be in Colorado by the time of her birth and settled. Please keep us in your prayers that all these plans fall into place and that sooner than later our house will sell. It's going to be a big move -- Thanks!

Plus, don't forget to enter the BlogHer and Blue 365 $500 gift card Sweepstakes on my prior post.  I had a lucky winner in the last sweepstakes that was linked to my blog!