Constantly facing the risk of overexposure
I’m particularly grateful this year for Lilacs. Whether you see them bloom depends greatly on when the snow falls. When the last snow storm of the season hit (I guess I don’t know that for sure), the blossoms were already starting to bud. The snow only took out the blossoms on the north side this year. As this next photo shows, the snow didn’t get them all.
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.”
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.
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.
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 …
‘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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
There’s a new growth area at church. There is a rectangle between the church parking lot and Iowa Avenue that is turning into a large vegetable garden. Until now it has just been dirt with a few weeds for squatters. As a Christian fellowship, the folks at church are quite hopeful about the potential for becoming better friends with residents in the community.
The idea has been around as a seed, but now we can look to a group that knows what they’re doing and wants to work with us. UrbiCulture Community Farms is working with us to make the garden grow. Their people know how to set up the raised beds, run water to ’em and generally stack the deck in favor of fresh vegetable success, Their whole existence is driven by a desire to get good, nutritious food to people who don’t have it – at the price they can afford. At Celebration, that sounds like loving our neighbor as ourselves. The seed of the idea seems to have sprouted and is starting to take root.
There are a few photos below and there are a bunch more here.
