Living far away from my childhood home, I don’t see family and friends from Europe nearly as often as I would like, excepting this year, when my husband and I were blessed with two rounds of visitors, resulting in multiple excursions to Denver’s airport. Our friend Susanne came for an impromptu stay in April, … Continue reading The Gift(s) of Guests
At the height of summer, after an evening of sustained rains, Fountain Creek is a ruddy river. The mountains remain shrouded in layers of clouds. Instead of paths there are puddles, the air is pregnant with moisture, and the vegetation with dewy droplets. Slightly sluggish avian and insect activity accelerates with the rising sun. Alas, … Continue reading Summer Sorrow
Cheyenne Mountain State Park opened its gates in 2006. Even though this coincided with our return to Colorado Springs, it originally did not engender curiosity enough to make us pay the $7 entrance fee, when the area offers a host of alternative outdoor playgrounds, all free of charge. That changed a few years back, when … Continue reading A Stroll in our State Park
Out-of-town visitors to Colorado Springs often think of the present-day Hollywood actress when Helen Hunt’s name comes up during my tours as a volunteer docent at the Pioneers Museum. Both share a name and a relationship to California, but Helen Hunt the First (1830-1885) was a trailblazing woman and writer during our town’s infancy, in … Continue reading The Original Helen Hunt
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is North America’s largest and most ubiquitous heron. This long-legged and long-necked slate gray and blue wading bird is hard to miss. Tall, slender, elegant, it often stands motionless, statuesque, at the water’s edge, seemingly at ease. But appearances are deceptive. With the speed of lightning it thrusts its … Continue reading Great Blue Hunter
tanja britton 