My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
I’m entering into my third day on the prairie. Yesterday was my first morning here and I woke to a clear sky with a slight haze on the horizon. The haze caused the rising sun to be a bright orange glob. Clouds moved in by mid-day and rained steadily into the night. As you can see the sun again decided to rise today and offered a good start to the day. This road leads on to their property with the Prairie House directly behind me. So, this is what they wake up to every day.
The Prairie House
This is a shot of the house with the Front Range in the background. Longs Peak is just to left of the image. Dan has added a room to the original house and a sunroom/porch was added to west side. I think their place is wonderful. I am amazed at the quiet here and realize how appealing the isolation can be. The chicken coop, where the lovely ladies are, is just to the left. So, this mornings breakfast was a fresh two egg cheese omelet with a side of guacamole. Now, on with the day!
“One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Do it now.” Paulo Coelho
Therefore we need to stop and take it all in.
I drove out to County Road 15 to visit my four tree friends I hadn’t seen in several months and I was hoping to watch a sunset with them. My ulterior motive was because I needed to get out of town and listen to some quiet. With very little wind made for even more quiet to take in. Some friends or the trees, Meadowlarks, were putting on a beautiful concert for us and filled me with some of that joyful stuff and giving me goose bumps. My four friends sit along the road in an unplowed field. One is right along the road and the others sit off a short distance. Along with them are a couple of large clumps of bushes. I need to find out what kind they are.
I’m not sure who told them I was out there but I was blessed with more visitors than just the trees and Meadowlarks. Two large formations of honking Canada Geese flew over and added to the concert. A Red-tailed Hawk stopped by, perched its self on a telephone pole and kept an eye on me. Using my binoculars I watched a great Horned owl fly from one of the trees to a telephone pole before taking off to the north. It must have been dinner time for those guys (gals). A white-tailed deer stopped as she crossed the road to check me out then bounded over the fence. I assume she went to tell someone about the strange dude. Fifteen minutes after the sun set behind the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains the sky began to take on slightly orange glow then pink and then turned bright red. We had our colorful Colorado sunset.
Front Range Sunset
It was a good evening. I enjoyed seeing my four friends. I enjoyed the concert. I enjoyed the sunset and felt it was all well worth my time and money. I’m glad I left when I did because as I drove away the fragrance of skunk began to drift in my window. Those were visitors I did not want to encounter. 🙂
As I post this image the sun is shinning. However, the wind is picking up and dark clouds approach from the North. The temperature is a nice 58 degrees, yet they are predicting temperatures in the teens tonight and near zero the next two nights. The daytime highs will not be much above freezing as Old Man Winter moves in. So, I decided to post this bright and cheerful image from Saturdays walk. Stay warm!
PS: It’s now noon and temperature is at 28 degrees. We dropped 30 degrees in 4 hours and had light snow. Brrrr!
… is on it’s way. Temperature tonight is expected to be in the high 20’s then low 30’s on Tuesday night. But, this past week and the weekend have been gorgeous. Yesterday was 74. Yesterdays sunrise was gorgeous but I only saw it from my bedroom window. Just couldn’t get out the door. Kids on campus wearing, shorts, flip-flops and tank tops. People were biking and playing football at the city park. I took advantage of the weather and made a couple trips to the nature areas. I’m making chili soup today. Stay warm.
Paul shared a post about spending 30 minutes in the morning watching the wildlife and the sunrise. He described it as, “quite, cool, peaceful, orange … perfect.” “Perfect” always gets to me. It caused me to remember my early mornings of the past years. After showering and dressing I would spend most mornings reading the “news”. I started my day by filling my head with news about war, local and world crimes, political bull crap. On some pages I could see images of the next car they wanted me to in debt for, or see the competitive prices of potatoes and carrots between the local grocery stores. Then one morning it dawned on me reading the “news” was not the way I needed to start my day. So, I stopped reading the “news”, or watching it, over 20 years ago. And, I don’t miss it.
This past Monday morning one of the regular customers walked in to the coffee shop and wanted to know if we all new the latest news. Seems we had a rowdy weekend in town. Without asking, he passed on his latest “news”. A riot broke out at a large party on a cul-de-sac near campus. Luckily no one was injured. The next “news” he shared was about a shooting where a police officer was shot and wounded and the suspect was killed. This is not how I wanted to start the morning. The news he so desperately wanted to share was bad news and not good news? It seems like 1 in 20 stories in the paper are about good things.
I prefer to spend my mornings in a quiet and contemplative place. I have sacred place in my home where I sit and watch the sun rise. I quietly sip on my personally made latte. I read, journal and enjoy my time. Or, I can find a secluded place outside of town and watch the sunrise. I can listen to the sounds of nature rather than the trash truck. I can feel the coolness or warmth of the air and allow it all to penetrate my soul. With each of these, I feel I’m filling my mind and soul with better images to start the day
