Growth and Change

So, where have I been the past few weeks? I went camping again with Dempsey and the cool girl who now also feeds him treats and is nice enough to let me call her "my girlfriend" . . .

When it comes to the "man's best friend" kind of loyalty, I see where I stand here . . .

The latest trip was the Fancy Pass loop, up in the hills somewhere between Minturn and Leadville. Fortunately the turn for the forest road was before the sinkhole. You can't just cover an old railroad tunnel . . . nice going long retired CDOT engineer.

Again, it turns out that Dempsey is quite the little trooper, very willing to hike for hours over whatever kind of terrain happens to be under foot/paw.  There was quite a variety on the hike with some rockiness over the passes, alpine lakes and meadows, and even some random mining-like equipment left in the middle of nowhere.  We have our next trip planned, sans Dempsey.  We'll be heading to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort for Zak and Melissa's wedding, some hot springs soaking and possibly another hike up a 14er.

Not surprisingly the garden continues to grow and I keep making new discoveries as the season goes by.  After a slow start, the creeping, viney plants, the pumpkin, watermelon, and cantaloupe finally got to growing and grow they did!  I'll have to get a shot of the area the pumpkin took over towards the northeast side of the garden . . . but at last it did its job and made a pumpkin, well three actually.  

This picture is a couple weeks old and now the smallest of the bunch is up to a whopping five pounds.  The largest is probably big enough to turn into some sort of horse drawn carriage . . .

Ok, maybe not that big, but the pumpkin is way bigger than my hand!

Every once in a while, something gets overlooked in the harvesting walk of the afternoon.  I'm still not sure what to do with oversized vegetables besides start my collection of veggie fetish photos . . .

Look at the size of that watermelon . . .

There's the shot of the pumpkin's supporting foliage.  For reference, that is a second story window in the background . . .

Of the raspberry bushes that were donated to me, a couple survived and one is making fruit by the handful, probably not my hand, maybe a small child's hand . . .

The sunburst cherry tomatoes or whatever they are have been making garden snacks for me and Dempsey daily.  He discovered that he likes tomatoes and cucumbers and if left alone in the yard, he will find the ripe ones and very indelicately harvest them.

More updates to come, but think furniture shopping . . .

Heart to Heart

Dear blog, I know it has been a long time since we last checked in with each other. This does not mean that I have forgotten about you or that I don't love you anymore . . . I do, I have just been busy. I remember the good times we've had, but also the times you taunted me with your unblinking stare, your demands for attention, your lack of self-motivation to simply update yourself. So blog, I am here to help. You will not be merely lost in the passing of time. Even though I have changed and you have not, I still care. Here's your stinking update already . . . Me

Early AM . . .

There is a whole lot of difference between making a right turn out of the door in the morning instead of the usual left to head north . . .

First and foremost, I have found that my neighbors to the north love to drench the sidewalk along with their weeds that serve as a "lawn"... I'm usually not in the mood to dodge and weave my way down the block. Dempsey is also very dainty and does not like getting his paws wet, except for special occasions.

I'm not sure what has been going on mornings of late, but I was starting to get convinced that the zombie apocalypse was starting in my neighborhood. I have been seeing an odd cast of characters stumbling around the streets during the wee hours. Changing my route had kept me safe... Dempsey sure wouldn't protect me.

It is hard to believe that August is already here. What happened to July? I think there is going to have to be some sort of recap in coming days. There has been a whole lot going on in my life and times...