October 18, 2007

closed for the winter...

Photo courtesy The Aspen Times

The Twin Lakes Trading Post has closed for the winter.

You wouldn't guess it by the looks of this funky little cabin, but my jewelry sells really well here during the summer months.
Twin Lakes is the last stop before driving over Independence Pass to Aspen, and tourists often pull over here to stretch their legs and look around this collection of rustic little buildings before continuing on to the trendy, wealthy town on the other side of the pass.
But any day now, the high country snows will close Independence Pass for the winter and Twin Lakes and Aspen will be cut off from each other until next summer. Most of the cabins will be buttoned up for their winter hibernation and this area will, for a while, be like the Colorado of old - remote, blanketed in white and blissfully quiet.

October 14, 2007

Snow

It's snowing in the Colorado high country this morning.




October 11, 2007

Porcupine Races


Ever feel like you are going as fast as you can and still falling farther and farther behind?


........I encountered a porcupine on the trail as I was trekking to town from my cabin.
I'd heard porcupines are very slow creatures, and apparently not too bright, because when the poor thing spied me, instead of running away, it stayed right beside me and tried to outrun me. I was strolling along at a leisurely pace and that frightened critter was haulin' as fast as it's short little legs could go and it couldn't even keep up with me. So, in just a
minute or two, I was able to out-walk it and left it on the trail behind me despite it's frantic efforts to get away.

So, with that in mind, I think I will just slow down today and enjoy the stroll. All this work I'm trying to get done will still be here tomorrow. It's not like it's going anywhere.

October 04, 2007

blessing the beads

Oh noooo, my neighbors have moved and taken their prayer flags with them!
My little cottage studio sits just beside the neighbor's back yard and the large window above my work table looks out over the wooden fence between us. A few feet beyond the fence is a tall wooden gate which was covered with tattered Tibetan prayer flags. I can just see the top of it over the fence. I loved watching the flags fluttering in the wind and was looking forward to the annual changing of the flags to bright new ones. Just days before they were taken down, I made an effort to get some photos, not knowing they would be gone so soon. I'll miss all those prayers blowing over the fence toward my little home.