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Seedlings

phioto of radish seedlings in raised bed of Celebration Community Garden
I see radishes!

Snow fell. Snow melted. We planted seeds. Now the seeds have sprouted.

This is very exciting to me. So, like any proud papa showing of endless pictures of his kids doing nothing in particular, I’ll probably be posting shots with observations like “Oh, look! Now the Carrots are above ground.”

 

photo showing new garden with new fence
The new fence is in!

Another sign of progress is the fence. I hope it feels to everyone like a well cared for and worthy garden. I think that the fence carries the sense of stewardship and commitment. I hope that its perceived that way rather than as proof of exclusivity and exclusion.

 

Lilacs

Oneof my favorite rites of spring is the celebration of the blooming of the Lilacs. There’s an old Lilac bush in our backyard that is willing to over-perform if the weather conditions are right. This spring, the freeze/thaw cycles literally nipped most of the Lilac clusters in the bud. This survivor made me happy.

May Snow Showers

Of course people in Denver explain Denver weather by stating that its Denver. In other words we tend to try explaining changes we don’t understand by blaming them on things that don’t change.

So hey, how ’bout that May Day snow storm! I heard they were forecasting 20 inches of snow for Estes Park.

Wait! That’s not Denver!

This is Denver …

A Shakespeare Festival

Buses deliver actors to Clock Tower Square
The square fills with people
DPS students overwhelm the DCPA
Melees and monologues become the order of the day

On Friday, April 26 2013, the Denver Center for Performing Arts was overtaken by Denver Public School’s Shakespeare Festival. There was a tremendous amount of student participation and it was great fun for spectators like me.

(and if you’re just starting to wonder, ‘William who?’ click here for a quick and dirty summary from Wikipedia)

Starry, Starry Night

Dee works for FasTracKids, a child enrichment company. One of the centers that operates according to FasTracks principles had their kids paint Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. The way they did it was really clever. They broke the whole painting down into 20 rectangles and had different kids paint each of those rectangles. Each rectangle looks really good and the combination of all of them looks great as you can see from the image at the top. Look at a few more photos below.

Snow

Lookin' Out My Front Door
Lookin’ Out My Front Door

‘April showers bring May flowers’

I’ve heard that all my life. But I’ve one modest question, Why, this year, do all the April showers have to be snow showers? I sort of remember this Colorado from when I moved here some forty years ago, but I haven’t seen much snow in April for the last twenty. There are a great many people who think this snow is abnormal. I even know skiers who are whining about the late snow.

As hard as it is on the Lilacs, it makes great pictures. Somehow, I’m always surprised and fascinated by the way the snow soaks up colors.

Baseball and Hockey

Six days before the game, our friend, another Steve, calls and asks if we’d like to go to the hockey game. Our home team, the Colorado Avalanche, were hosting the St. Louis Blues. He explained that he had the responsibility of filling a suite. (Wouldn’t you like that job! I know I would.) We knew it would be a bit of a rush since we had already made plans with family to go to the Rockies game together, but Yes! It sounded like fun. The Avs aren’t going to the playoffs this year and the Blues need just one win to clinch a playoff slot but we were sure it would be a good time.

We’d had plans to go watch the Colorado Rockies get a little revenge on the Arizona Diamond Backs for several weeks. They went something like this:

  1. Meet downtown before the game for a little lunch.
  2. Walk over to Coors Stadium.
  3. Enjoy the beautiful spring weather.
  4. Boo the Ump.
  5. Cheer our guys.
  6. Go home with a winning feeling.

Sure the D-Backs beat us last year (who didn’t?), but the Rockies are hot out of the gate this season. The scenario almost worked.

Its a party
Hapless youth
Play ball!
Cummon Rockies
We’re winning
Lets get to the game
Its slipping through our fingers

We had fun before the game. The weather was perfect. The Rockies got on the board first and stayed ahead into the ninth inning when those sneaky snakes from Arizona took the game away. We told ourselves the day was really about family and friends and headed for the Pepsi Center and the Avs. We met some new friends, reacquainted ourselves with others and watched the Avalanche serve the Blues a pretty convincing defeat. As a bonus, because the Avs had  called the day ‘Military Appreciation Day’, we got to applaud the service of some veterans and some new inductees.

The thing I keep thinking about is that who wins is never a locked down certainty. The Rockies were supposed to win (at least in my mind.) They lost. The Avs weren’t supposed to win, but they did. Its been said before, but I guess that’s why they play the game.

Before the puck drops
New friends
Swearing in the inductees

One final word. More important than being our ticket to the Avs game, our friend Steve is a lawyer who heads up a non-profit organization called the Justice and Mercy Legal Aid Clinic. If you’re intrigued, or even just curious about a lawyer who believes in Grace, click here.

Florida V – Orlando to Fort Lauderdale

“All good things have to come to and end and its the same with the wild wood weed.”

Oops, sorry, that’s in a song, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with the end of our trip

Dad At Epcot
Dad At Epcot

to Florida or, really, anything else about us. We found ourselves heading back south  to Fort Lauderdale, and from there, home. We made a point to drive down the Atlantic coastline as much as possible. We stopped a couple times to get our feet wet. Wiser people than me have noticed that there’s something about the beach that makes some people lose their minds. (Just kidding.)

One last thing: Thanks, Dad, for going with us.