Under a Red Roof

Elemental

May 24, 2017 in Exploring, Loving, Remembering by Colleen | Permalink

Driving north Friday afternoon, May 19th. May 19th, snowy Colorado cold, my heart cratered and crushed, the talented and beautiful Chris Cornell dead and gone, and me and the hubster with tickets to a Soundgarden show that will never come to be. Life is full of surprises, some magical in their beauty, some terribly sad.

And these photos, taken in my grandparents neighborhood, which, save a Halloween when I was a wee child and have zero recollection, I had never really walked. So, many thanks to Ms. Juni B., without whom we never would have had reason to so thoroughly explore and spy a Wiley Coyote live and in person. What a privilege!

There was much that brought us north – a party to celebrate the son of a bestie graduating from high school (woot!), my own sweet nephew’s graduation (double woot!), and to spend time with my Grandpa. My Grandpa who is ninety-three and has cancer tendrils winding ever more thoroughly through his body. My Grandpa who now needs an oxygen snake following him about the house. My Grandpa who cries tenderly over the loss of my Grandma and looks with love and bewilderment at her beautiful face at every stage of her life. My Grandpa who I spoil with chocolates and his favorite home made meals – hollandaise with roasted asparagus, biscuits and gravy, and take out from our favorite (and BEST) tamale place – Moreno’s on Morrison Road – red, always, always red. We don’t speak of the inevitable, but it hovers and dances while we laugh and listen to our favorite songs.

Tags: Colorado

For Troy

April 17, 2017 in Friendship, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

For Troy

Who is laying his child to rest today

Bright and beautiful and kind

Runner, reader, friend

All but twenty-one.

My meager arms are as big and wide as Texas,

Embracing you from afar.

Sending love, hope, and comfort –

Mere drops to your ocean of grief.

Play Date

March 3, 2017 in Loving by Colleen | Permalink

Look at our girl, the sweetest and most cuddly badass in the land! We worried that she and Jimbo wouldn’t like each other, but much to our delight, they were fast friends, playing like old pals within minutes. Though he has the endurance of a Husky and is forty pounds heavier, they are pretty evenly matched. They played for an hour and a half yesterday morning, darting, rolling, running, jumping, two of the happiest creatures in the universe, right in our back yard. Near the end of their date, when Jimbo would return to the stoop to pant by my side, Juniper literally ran circles around us, eager eyed, head held high. Come on guys, you aren’t tired, are you?

When I imagine her life before being rescued, the difficult days of a skinny (13 pounds lighter than today) and sick and pregnant pup, I am beyond grateful to know all of that is behind her, that I saw her cute face in a photo and set her world and ours to rights. She no longer has to scrounge for a meal or a safe place to rest. She is our Juniper Beulah, beloved and playful and free.

Tags: Juniper Beulah

Puppy Love

February 21, 2017 in Loving by Colleen | Permalink

We love you, Juniper Beulah!

Juniper Beulah

February 12, 2017 in Friendship, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

Say hello to our new girl! We have been wanting a dog for a while, but with all the work on the house and feeling like we needed a bit of down time, we thought we would wait a bit. Then the stars, as they often do, had other ideas. I saw her sweet face online (L.O.L.A.’s Rescue) and that was that. We submitted our paperwork about ten days ago, and she came home with us yesterday.

Her first two years could hardly be called wonderful. She was found sick and alone, emaciated and pregnant in Gallup, New Mexico (of course our girl would be from NM) late last year. Despite this, she is a lover! Sweet and cuddly and, not surprisingly, based on her history, quite an eater, gobbling each morsel like it may be her last. We are so happy to have her here with us and look with delight upon our future together.

Now to her name, because you know it’s not just a name: Juniper, for the hubster and I hiking and gathering berries, fragrant and sweet with our love of the West. Beulah, strange and old fashioned, I know, but you’ll be converted to it’s wonder, I hope, upon reading this passage from John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress:

Now I saw in my dream, that, by this time, the pilgrims were got over the Enchanted Ground, and entering in the country of Beulah, whose air was very sweet and pleasant; the way lying directly through it, they solaced themselves there for a season. Yea, here they heard continually the singing of birds and saw every day the flowers appear in the earth, and heard the voice of the turtle in the land.

In this country the sun shines night and day: wherefore this was beyond the Valley of the Shadow of Death; and also out of the reach of Giant Despair; neither could they from this place so much as see Doubting Castle. Here they were within sight of the City they were going to, also here met them some of the inhabitants thereof; for in this land the Shining Ones commonly walked, because it was upon the borders of heaven.

And I feel, too, like our Paris and Milo are meowing their approval down from kitty heaven. They have a new sister!

Juniper Beulah. Juni B. when we want to mix it up.