May 31, 2003
Garden
As soon as we moved into this house ten years ago, we converted this area into a dog run. It was the cheapest place to put up the sort of wood fence that I wanted to protect the world from our dogs and vice versa. We had too many dogs at the time, and two of them looked like big, scary Doberman Pinschers despite being cream puffs in reality. Seven years of being a dog run took its toll of an area that had been bleak when we moved in.
Last summer, we were visiting a friend who had done some extensive landscaping, and we were finally inspired to do something about what I privately considered "the pit." For the past three years, we have used the new dog run to the east of the house, which was built as a side-effect of horse fencing our last two acres. We now had people entering through the west side of the house, which was rather embarassing. Last fall, Jack started to pave the porch area (previously dirt) and built the frames for the flower beds. Thursday, we hired a guy with a bobcat to move the twenty-five tons of Colorado White one and a half inch gravel into our courtyard. A friend came over and helped us with laying the groundcloth in areas where we wanted to make sure the grass and weeds wouldn't try to grow. In three hours, the guy with the bobcat did what it would have taken us months to do by hand. plants.jpg I went on a buying spree at K-Mart yesterday. Fortunately, I had my friend along to restrain me so I only bought what I can comfortably plant in one day. As you can see, I am sticking to garden standards: alyssum, salvia, petunias, potentilla, chives and mint. I hope that the potentilla (which the Internet informs me is also known as cinquefoil) will grow up to provide a bit of a buffer for other plants over the years. I came home and immediately had to protect my new plants by putting them into a nook of the porch, and leaning a pallet so that they wouldn't be shredded by strong west winds that came with a weather front moving through. There is another bed on the east side of the courtyard, but I plan to focus first on the west bed, the one in the photo.
May 30, 2003
Microdoc News
The weblog Microdoc News is an Online Magazine about exercising personal power in the Information Age
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Wildflower guide
I've been checking out various online wildflower guides, and the best I have encounted so far is Wildflower search, a service of the National Wildlife Federation. It allows you to put in a variety of parameters, including geography, color of flower, shape of flower, and climate type. Unfortunately, I am still having a difficult time identifying some of the profusion of wild-flowers around here.
Colorado white
25 tons of Colorado White. This was delivered in two loads by a nearby landscaping supplies place on Wednesday. We looked at several places in Colorado Springs, but went with the nearest supplier to cut down on delivery fees.
May 29, 2003
Beeswax
Beeswax, the rubberstamp company, has added some new images to their online catalog. I didn't think I had seen any of them at the Denver rubber stamp convention, but when I skimmed through them, I noted that I bought the Angry Koi shown near the bottom of the page.
Perfect rose
From a friend's garden.
Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.
Dorothy Parker
May 28, 2003
Fotolog
In the past week I have put up the following photos at my fotolog: some scenic shots, a hummingbird in our cottonwood, and a wildflower photo. These are different from the photos I post in my weblog.
Pastoral
Smoke and Rags enjoy their late afternoon snack yesterday. Some days Rags marches down, but other days he seems more excited, and canters to meet me as I open the gate. One day, he cantered through, and was eating grass before he stopped cantering.
May 27, 2003
Stealth
I think I saw one of these this morning. To find it, I Google'd the words stealth delta wing jet, and this popped up without too much fine tuning of the query. One of the interesting things about living so close to the Air Force Academy is that we see our own preview of the air show during graduation week. Many pilots seem to prefly their air show routes a day or so before. There is a downside when you wonder if you will ever be able to hear yourself think again.
Morning Mist
Yesterday morning, I went out to walk the dogs before the fog lifted, and took this photo on the way up the hill to the north of our house.
Potato Peeler
I fixed potato salad yesterday. I have small hands, and the first potato peeler that I found, probably one that came with a group of utensils, seemed very awkward. Fortunately, I searched though the utensil drawers and found the OXO Potato Peeler. This is the best potato peeler I have ever used. It fits comfortably in a small hand (why are so many kitchen tools so large?) and is efficent to use. Peeling vegetables is high on my list of disliked kitchen chores, but this peeler may change my mind. I think it may have been a Christmas gift this year.
May 26, 2003
Hummingbird
A broad tailed hummingbird , like most (99%) of ours around here, flies to the west feeder. I didn't realize until I started cropping the digital image that I had caught its little wings in motion. When you don't believe in magic, hummingbirds are the next best thing.
Fountain
Jack wants a fountain for our small courtyard garden and I had a hard time visualizing something that would work in our rustic surrounding until I saw some boulders turned into fountains at a local landscaping place. The fountains here give an idea of what they look like. Of this grouping, I like the one in the middle of the page the best.
May 25, 2003
05/25/2003 16:50:00
Jack's results:
 | You belong in I Will Fear No Evil. Your body is your prison, and you would trade everything you have, even your sex, for a new lease on life. |
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05/25/2003 06:25:00
I hardly ever do these, but I couldn't resist this one. He lived in Colorado Springs, you know. (via Unix Gal )
 | You belong in the Cat Who Walks Through Walls. You are creative and cunning. Your works often feel empty to you, though others love them. You suspect that the universe and everyone in it are just characters in someone else's story. |
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Cactus
BDC (before digital camera) it would never have occurred to me to take a photo like this. I love the little buds coming off of this tiny cactus, less than three inches high. The nice thing about the digital camera is that the incidental cost of silly photos is almost zero: the space it takes to store them on my fixed disk.
May 24, 2003
05/24/2003 06:42:00
 Explanation | Mileage
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Newsmonster
I had occasionally been using the Amphetadesk news aggregator to read RSS feeds. However, the first time I tried firing up Amphetadesk after I installed the MSIE6 update and Paint Shop Pro 8, Amphetadesk failed to boot. I looked around at other aggregators and NewMonster weblog manager was the first I was able to install and get working. This program works with Mozilla by apparently becoming part of the browser.
I like it a lot, although it has made my Mozilla installation more fragile. I have to reboot Mozilla more frequently because it seems to lose its ability to connect to the Internet, but it seems to do no harm to my data.NewsMonster is not a Mozilla sidebar function, but runs in a separate, new window of the browser on its own. This would be annoying, but you can minimize it at any time. It presents its findings in two lists: one is a list sorted by date of all articles, and the other is a list of updated weblogs with the number of items in the update. It seems easier to figure out what's new than it was with Amphetadesk. I also like that I don't have to switch back and forth between my browser and my aggregator.NewsMonster (as well as other aggregators) allows you to "discover" whether a weblog supports an RSS feed. It seems to do this better than Amphetadesk did.NewsMonster is a fairly complex program, and I think I have just scratched the surface so far.
Lody
I don't worry about Lody, our Smooth Collie, staying with me on our walks. She tags along a few yards from my heels. She was rehomed at the age of five through no fault of her own, and I occasionally sense a grim determination in her: I may have lost My Person once, but I will be damned if I lose another.
On those rare occasions when she notices wild-life, she comes at once when I call her, seemingly relieved that I did so before she forgot herself and acted like a dog.
May 23, 2003
Jack
Jack is not a morning person. He told me this morning: I was feeling really well-rested until I woke up.
I try not to be too cheery in the morning since I feel as though I have overslept if the sun is above the horizon when I wake up.
05/23/2003 06:12:00
The J-Walk weblog advertises truthfully: "Stuff that may or may not interest you." Check out an amazing device that he found called the Conference Bike.
05/23/2003 05:58:00
Hard work. I am near the end of the process of transferring three yards of top soil into two flower beds. It took two truck loads of topsoil, but fewer hours than I expected. Next week, we have a guy with a bobcat coming to grade and spread 20 tons of large gravel in our courtyard. Then, it will be time to plant. We have made a lot of improvements in our ten years here, but this is the first real landscaping we have done.
May 22, 2003
Copper Moon, Golden Gate
In yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day, the Golden Gate bridge is shown in a multiple exposure photo with the eclipsed moon describing an arc overhead. The photo is titled Copper Moon, Golden Gate.
Today's photo is a montage of the eclipsed moon.
Walk Fotos
I've uploaded a few more photos from my walk with the dogs yesterday to Fotolog. Each time I go there, I am amazed by the variety and eloquence of the photos.
05/22/2003 05:28:00
Dudley Doofus. I have been experimenting the past week with letting him off the lead on walks when we are far from the distractions of the road, wildlife and other dogs. He seems to finally have developed some responsibility for keeping track of where I am on our walks and not getting too far from me. It is very reassuring to see him turn his head and check where I am.
May 21, 2003
05/21/2003 08:29:00
Another weird wildflower. I am going to have to see if I can find my guide. We seem to have a profusion of wildflowers this year: generally I don't recall seeing many before June. Perhaps they are making up for time lost to the drought last year.
May 20, 2003
05/20/2003 09:47:00
I can't believe how cold it feels this morning. When I fed the horses, I noticed that Rags was shivering, and put a horse blanket on him. I don't blanket my horses very often, and can't remember the last time I put a blanket on Rags. I blanket Smoke, the old horse, several times a year, but Rags generally doesn't seem to get cold. I suppose Rags has deacclimated because we have had so much warm weather before this cold snap.
05/20/2003 07:54:00
This mandala started as a photo of a cottonwood branch in late winter. I've added some new ones to my gallery of mandalas, and put dates on the entries in case you have looked at the gallery before.
May 19, 2003
05/19/2003 08:13:00
This Denver Post article warns that this may be a peak year for miller moths , a spring/summer nuisance here in Colorado. The insects flock around outside lights, and will get inside as well. Soft yellow lights are supposed to be less attractive to them.
05/19/2003 05:24:00
I took this photo last night around 8:00 in the evening. I find that if I wait on the deck with my back to the wall, I can usually take a photo of a hummer within two or three minutes. I used this photo for this mandala, using the process I learned yesterday. ( More mandalas. )
May 18, 2003
05/18/2003 11:51:00
This mandala of a sunrise was made by graphically manipulating one of my digital photos. I used this Paint Shop Pro 7 tutorial which was based on a Photo Shop tutorial at Earth Mandalas. Here are some more of my mandalas.
05/18/2003 05:52:00
I took this photo of one of our cottonwoods silhouetted against the early morning sky several days ago. I love the lacy look and fresh bright green of the leaves before they are fully grown.
05/18/2003 05:47:00
Outlines Rubber Stamp Company in an angel company which unfortunately (from my point of view) does not sell unmounted images. There images, including some gorgeous images to be used as mandalas, are designed to be cut and layered and have an abstract graphic quality. The provide a great gallery of ways to use their images.
May 17, 2003
05/17/2003 05:44:00
I up loaded a few more photos I took yesterday to my Fotolog, including some of flowers, both wild and domestic.
05/17/2003 05:34:00
The hummingbird feeder on the west side of the house was empty this morning. I filled it, and as I was trying to hang it up again, a hummingbird came and drank from it as I was still holding it, then perched on it quietly and looked at me calmly, my huge face less than two feet away.
05/17/2003 05:13:00
Since I took photos of the other horses this week, I decided I had better take some of Hap as well. It was a challenge, as there was no one else around to hold him at the time. Hap understands being led to the arena to roll in the sand, being led around to cool out after exercise, being turned loose and allowed to graze around the arena, but not being led to the arena and standing with the lead line hanging loose. I got great photos of him with crummy backgrounds, and great backgrounds with Hap looking like a dork. This is my compromise shot.
If you look hard, and use your imagination, you can almost see the golden dapples that he has when he first grows his summer coat. Those purple things on his front feet are called bell boots. Theoretically, they prevent Hap from pulling off his front shoes. I don't know if they really work, but at least they give me the illusion that I am doing something about the problem.
May 16, 2003
05/16/2003 05:12:00
One of the minor, ongoing tragedies of life is that nothing else tastes as good as that first cup of coffee in the morning. I've accepted this, and no longer drink massive amounts of coffee trying to reproduce that first taste, but it still hurts.
05/16/2003 05:05:00
This time of year doesn't seem to present as many fabulous sunrises as late winter, nor am I awake to see them. However, I was up in time to take this photo yesterday morning, before the sun rose. It was taken from our deck, facing slightly northeast.
05/16/2003 05:01:00
I am fairly certain that the two "real" trees by our house are some variety of cottonless cottonwoods. While I was trying to find out more information about which variety of cottonwood is planted here, I found this site about Southern Rocky Mountain trees. Although this area is a little to the south of this part of Colorado, there seems to be a lot of overlap on tree species. (I am still trying to find out what variety we have.)
May 15, 2003
05/15/2003 05:08:00
Science Fiction Weekly interview with Terry Pratchett. He discusses forthcoming books, his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, and talks about how he got started as a fantasy writer.
05/15/2003 05:05:00
Lily, after my lesson on Wednesday. She is almost completely slick now with her winter coat shed out. I took three photos of her at the time, and a minor miracle occurred: she had her ears pricked forward for each. Generally horses seem to carefully time their actions when having photos taken so that their ears are back, making them look either dorky or mean. Although my trainer, who had the reins, was doing a variety of things to encourage Lily prick her ears, this doesn't always work.
May 14, 2003
05/14/2003 16:38:00
Someone just sent me email about which soft block carving material I use for my eraser cuts. I usually use a product called Safety-Kut from NASCO. In answering her question, I found this Safety-Kut Printmaking Activity / Lesson Plan at their website.
05/14/2003 05:17:00
Jack and I put up a new hummingbird feeder yesterday on the west side of the house. We have had feeders on the east side of the house for years. We briefly discussed how long it would take for the hummers to find the new feeder. It was a very short debate, because the first Broad-Tailed Hummingbird had found it within two minutes or so. The article at the link mentions the wing whistle of the males, which is deafenening. There have been mornings I have had to put my hands over my ears as I walk by on my way to feed the horses.
05/14/2003 04:55:00
Smoke enjoys his hours of grazing in the new field, even though he has no working molars left. A horse's teeth keep growing through most of his life, wearing down as he eats. Around age 20, the growth stops, and the teeth start wearing away. One of the biggest challenges of caring for the elderly horse is keeping him from starving after he can no longer chew his food. Fortunately, Smoke is doing fine on twelve pounds a day of horse chow and Equine Senior.
May 13, 2003
05/13/2003 16:46:00
Around 2:30 pm this afternoon, I was driving with a friend along the Old Denver Road, where it parallels the Santa Fe trail. I looked over and saw a guy on a horse leading two mules.
05/13/2003 16:27:00
On days when I am home in the afternoon, I let Rags and Smoke graze on the new pasture for a few hours. Pasture is a grandiose term for the collection of weeds intermixed with the occasional blade of grass in the meadow to the east of our house. However, the horses seem to enjoy it, and Rags, at least, never comes up for air. That mark on his shoulder is the brand of the stud where he was born. He came from a line of racing Appaloosas, and has a lot of Thoroughbred in his pedigree. His markings are standard for a chestnut varnish Appaloosa. He has spots, but you need to know where to look for them.
05/13/2003 15:45:00
Kathryn Cramer is an editor, writer and anthologist who writes prolifically in her weblog. Her sidebar contains a very up-to-date list of weblogs by science fiction fans and authors. She has a lovely essay where she describes her swings that seem to hang from nothing in the forest.
May 12, 2003
05/12/2003 20:27:00
For dinner tonight I made chicken vindaloo. I had to go to a little Indian market to get the fenugreek . It was considerably more complicated than most of the things that I make, but turned out so well that it became a "keeper." I found the recipe on Recipe Source.
05/12/2003 10:35:00
Blockheads Rubber Art Stamps provides mounted and unmounted images in a variety of categories including nature, garden, Asian, and vintage images. One nice feature is that they provide plates of images with an option to trim them for you for an extra charge.
05/12/2003 09:46:00
We have two "real" trees on our property, as opposed to all the shrub trees out in the horse field. Here is a photo of one of the real trees unfurling its leaves. I believe that the trees, which are close to our deck where we hang the hummingbird feeders, are one one of the reasons we see so many hummingbirds, since they provide nearby perches.
May 11, 2003
05/11/2003 05:58:00
I found these Colorado bluebells in the lee of a shrub up on the plateau behind our house. We seldom see the huge displays here as in other western states, but they have their own shy charm. The weblog, Sensitive Light, has incredible photographs of bluebell woods. (via Anita LoL. )
May 10, 2003
05/10/2003 05:56:00
Thursday, I took this photo of our house from the north. The shrub trees are still mostly bare of leaves, but the pasture is greener than it has been in several years.
May 09, 2003
05/09/2003 07:46:00
The Burden of Sentience is a weblog with a cool name.
05/09/2003 06:55:00
This Christian Science Monitor article discusses recent findings regarding cosmic evolution.
05/09/2003 06:21:00
Paghat's mail art pages, (via RSM's Surf City Links. )
05/09/2003 05:54:00
The Hotel Hummingbird is back in operation. Yesterday evening, I counted five or six either perching or hovering near our feeder at one time.
May 08, 2003
05/08/2003 09:49:00
I am starting to see a lot of wildflowers on my morning walks.
05/08/2003 06:31:00
Just For Fun has a gallery with samples using their rubber stamp images.
May 07, 2003
05/07/2003 18:34:00
I've always loved lists of group names, as in this list of groups names for birds. The next time I see several hawks riding a thermal, I will think "kettle of hawks." Here is another list of animal congregations.
05/07/2003 05:54:00
Gorgeous carvings by a member of the Carving Consortium, an online group devoted to soft block prints.
May 06, 2003
05/06/2003 05:57:00
Camouflage horse. In the morning, after he finishes his breakfast, Smoke suns himself on the east side of the barn. Smoke doesn't like to be groomed, or he wouldn't look quite so scruffy. There seems no point in making an issue of it with a 26 year old horse.
May 05, 2003
05/05/2003 06:08:00
This tiny flower grows along the dirt track on the plateau to the north of our house. It is one of the first that we see in the Spring.
May 04, 2003
05/04/2003 10:39:00
It is going to be a hectic few days, and I may not be able to post much. With very little warning, we found that my parents-in-law were going to be in town for a few days. Since my sister-in-law has a full house, they are staying with us. They just left for Mass, so I am going to run over to the barn and play with Lily for a bit.
05/04/2003 10:37:00
Why I keep Dudley on a leash when we are not on our property. I took an early morning walk Saturday, and saw this small forager. I know it isn't a very good photo, but I didn't want to get too close.
May 03, 2003
05/03/2003 07:32:00
Morning mist. I took this from the plateau looking toward the Palmer Divide.
05/03/2003 05:18:00
Dan's Squawks of the Parrot natters about stuff, including political stuff and technical stuff.
May 02, 2003
05/02/2003 08:03:00
Fight The Bite Colorado provides West Nile virus prevention education.