Mark and I drove to the our cabin last night. The traffic was lighter than we expected and moved well the entire way. It often gets jammed up on the weekends. I bought a new grill for the cabin at a silent auction fundraiser for Voz y Corazon the suicide prevention program MHCD has for latina teenagers. Latina teens are at the highest risk for suicide in Denver. The girls helped design that program and wanted a safe place to talk about whatever they wanted. We have professional artists, including Dwight Davidson, teaching the girls different forms of art. They talk about everything in these art spaces. Our clinical staff work with the girls around choosing life and teach them how to intervene with their friends who are talking about killing themselves.
Mark had to slightly dismantle the grill so it would fit in his car for the trip. The weather was great as the light dimmed over the mountains last night. He put the grill back together while I put food away in the kitchen for the weekend. We watched the first episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica before heading to bed. It rained hard last night and has been threatening rain all morning. So we are reading and relaxing at the cabin instead of our original plan of riding the 70 miles from Breckenridge to Vail and back.
Bemrose creek is at the edge of our property and is running high. We have had a lot of rain this year and I have never seen the mountains this green. It is great. There are warblers singing all around this morning as I sit on the deck writing this blog. We see three mountains from the deck, Mt. Lincoln which is east of the continental divide, North Star peak, on the divided and Mount Quandry west of the divide where our cabin is. Each still has snow. Heart shaped Arnica is blooming on the property, along with several types of legumes. This should be a good year for mushrooms. We have about 20 types that grow. One is the size of a pie and the animals love it.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Gay Pride
Mark and I walked to the bus stop this morning to ride the Colfax Avenue bus to the Gay Pride March. Colfax is the longest Avenue in the US and the bus is known to have the most interesting riders. Our bus was full of all kinds of people, the small elderly woman with a tee shirt made out of rice that said, "Live your life, everyone else's is already taken." The young guy standing next to me had a spiked dog collar and spiked wrist restraints. Two lipstick lesbians got on the very crowded bus and said, "Looks like we are all going to the same place!" Then the man who looked to be in his eighties got on with a rainbow shirt. I of course had my rainbow umbrella. They announced at the parade that 250,000 people were there.
The Parade starts every year with the Dykes on Bykes. They were as rough and loud as ever. I love the noise they make. They were followed by SQREAM, the Scooter Queers Riding Everywhere and More. This made me wish I was on my scooter. PFLAG, Church Groups, Bars, Clubs of all sorts, like the 4 wheel drive club, the rainbow cloggers, the Mile High Freedom Band and the Bear tones, four big bears who sing. The native american group, two spirits were here again. They were great. The Bunk house always has a truck and of course the politicians show up, which I appreciate.
Here was the finale. The longest boa on the planet. The last car of the parade had a drag queen with a pink boa that is 1.25 miles long! It was draped in five strands which allowed everyone to join in at the end of the parade with the boa draped over them. Mark and I were right in the middle of this. It was great walking down the hill of Colfax to Civic Center Park with long strands of boa flowing over people down below and following behind. Las Vegas Pride had a one mile boa last year, so this year Denver made history. They were selling sections of the boa as a fundraiser for The Center the GLBTI community center. Of course we had to have a section which I worn home on the bus.
We have had a lot of rain this summer in Denver and everything is green and the temperatures are cool. Our flowers and vegetables are great and we still sleep under a comforter at some point in the early morning.
Mark and I are training for the Triple bypass ride. Yesterday we rode from Georgetown where they were having a marathon, to Keystone over Loveland pass and back. This was a 56 mile trip where we climbed 6200 feet. It was great. Of course one's legs get tired after such a trip. We have been watching the DVDs of the remake of Battlestar Galactica. What a nice way to end a day of riding.
I love our little life in Denver. We are looking at long range vacation plans. We still want to get to Denmark while our friend Berengere is still the french ambassador to Denmark. She is living in a palace in Copenhagen. Our friends Anne and Gilles have moved into their custom built BIO home. They built an energy efficient home in the french alps. We want to visit. And of course we what to see Larry, Viny and Alberto in Tepozlan. I may wind up taking a trip alone to see them this year as Mark does not have as much vacation as I do.
The Parade starts every year with the Dykes on Bykes. They were as rough and loud as ever. I love the noise they make. They were followed by SQREAM, the Scooter Queers Riding Everywhere and More. This made me wish I was on my scooter. PFLAG, Church Groups, Bars, Clubs of all sorts, like the 4 wheel drive club, the rainbow cloggers, the Mile High Freedom Band and the Bear tones, four big bears who sing. The native american group, two spirits were here again. They were great. The Bunk house always has a truck and of course the politicians show up, which I appreciate.
Here was the finale. The longest boa on the planet. The last car of the parade had a drag queen with a pink boa that is 1.25 miles long! It was draped in five strands which allowed everyone to join in at the end of the parade with the boa draped over them. Mark and I were right in the middle of this. It was great walking down the hill of Colfax to Civic Center Park with long strands of boa flowing over people down below and following behind. Las Vegas Pride had a one mile boa last year, so this year Denver made history. They were selling sections of the boa as a fundraiser for The Center the GLBTI community center. Of course we had to have a section which I worn home on the bus.
We have had a lot of rain this summer in Denver and everything is green and the temperatures are cool. Our flowers and vegetables are great and we still sleep under a comforter at some point in the early morning.
Mark and I are training for the Triple bypass ride. Yesterday we rode from Georgetown where they were having a marathon, to Keystone over Loveland pass and back. This was a 56 mile trip where we climbed 6200 feet. It was great. Of course one's legs get tired after such a trip. We have been watching the DVDs of the remake of Battlestar Galactica. What a nice way to end a day of riding.
I love our little life in Denver. We are looking at long range vacation plans. We still want to get to Denmark while our friend Berengere is still the french ambassador to Denmark. She is living in a palace in Copenhagen. Our friends Anne and Gilles have moved into their custom built BIO home. They built an energy efficient home in the french alps. We want to visit. And of course we what to see Larry, Viny and Alberto in Tepozlan. I may wind up taking a trip alone to see them this year as Mark does not have as much vacation as I do.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
cycling in the mountains
I do not post often enough. This morning Mark and I rode from Bergen Park outside of Denver over Squaw Pass by Mount Evans and Echo Lake, then down to Idaho Springs and then back to Bergen Park. This was a 47.6 mile trip and we climbed about 4,000 ft. It was beautiful. We have been training for the Triple Bypass a 120 mile trip from Bergen Park to Avon, CO. This ride goes over Squaw Pass, Loveland Pass and then Vail Pass, hence Triple Bypass. You climb 10,000 feet and this trip is done in one day. This will be on July 11th. We have done this before and if the weather is good the trip is great. Later this summer we will ride the Courage Classic which is only 156 miles over three days. This is in the mountains and a fund raiser for The Children's Hospital in Denver.
Last night we had a dinner party at the house. Our dinner parties are for 8 total people as our round table in the dinning room easily sits that many. We do have 8 leaves to expand the table to 14 feet by 6 feet and can easily sit 22. It is harder to have an engaging conversation with that many people so we prefer the smaller group. I did most of the cooking as Mark was racing in his skull and crew races. He won one gold metal and two silver metals. A couple of his rowing club members came to the dinner a they one two golds and one silver each. Quite the accomplished group. One of my Livingston Fellows and his wife joined us. Adam and his wife Alissa. He is the director of Denver Museum of Contemporary Art and his wife is a professor of contemporary art.
Of course my blog would be incomplete if is left out the menu. I made what I call a SushimiTini which is a bed of cucumber with tuna sushimi that had been slightly marinated in grapefruit juice with Serrano peppers, white soy sauce and mint. I serve this in a martini glass with a grapefruit chip that I dehydrate. Everyone love this. We served this with Champagne.
The next morsel was an amuse buche of a lentil salad with truffle vinaigrette and topped with a bacon vinaigrette. Adam said he could make this bite an entire meal. We served this with a white boudoir.
The next course was saffron mussels with the same wine
The main course was a pork tenderloin marinated in balsamic vinegar, garlic and red pepper flakes that Mark grilled, serve with a roasted red potato salad with dill gherkins, onion and mustard. We served this with a Pino Noir wine.
The desert was fresh strawberries, blue berries and raspberries with sweet creme fraise that we make with orange zest. We served this with Proseco.
The conversation and dinner was a delight. Adam and Alissa gave us a painting as a gift. It is 4x4 inches by and extraordinary artist.
The week before last I was in DC talking with Senators Udall, Bennet and Representative Degette's health care staffer about including mental health in the health care reform. All of these meetings went well. I was also elected as the first vice chair of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare which represents the mental health providers in our country. I was asked to testify for the FDA advisory committee concerning access to psychiatric medications for children.
The meeting on Friday of that week ended early so I went to the National Gallery. They have a director's choice audio tour of the museum. I did not have time to do the entire tour and when I told the African American woman in her mid 60s who was selling the audio tours that I only had and hour and a half to spend in the museum, she asked me what I wanted to see. I told her I wanted to see the more important works in the museum. She immediate pulled out a map and started circling the gallery numbers and adding the audio numbers to the map. The timing was great and I saw fantastic works of art. I thanked her profusely when I finished my time in the museum.
Last night we had a dinner party at the house. Our dinner parties are for 8 total people as our round table in the dinning room easily sits that many. We do have 8 leaves to expand the table to 14 feet by 6 feet and can easily sit 22. It is harder to have an engaging conversation with that many people so we prefer the smaller group. I did most of the cooking as Mark was racing in his skull and crew races. He won one gold metal and two silver metals. A couple of his rowing club members came to the dinner a they one two golds and one silver each. Quite the accomplished group. One of my Livingston Fellows and his wife joined us. Adam and his wife Alissa. He is the director of Denver Museum of Contemporary Art and his wife is a professor of contemporary art.
Of course my blog would be incomplete if is left out the menu. I made what I call a SushimiTini which is a bed of cucumber with tuna sushimi that had been slightly marinated in grapefruit juice with Serrano peppers, white soy sauce and mint. I serve this in a martini glass with a grapefruit chip that I dehydrate. Everyone love this. We served this with Champagne.
The next morsel was an amuse buche of a lentil salad with truffle vinaigrette and topped with a bacon vinaigrette. Adam said he could make this bite an entire meal. We served this with a white boudoir.
The next course was saffron mussels with the same wine
The main course was a pork tenderloin marinated in balsamic vinegar, garlic and red pepper flakes that Mark grilled, serve with a roasted red potato salad with dill gherkins, onion and mustard. We served this with a Pino Noir wine.
The desert was fresh strawberries, blue berries and raspberries with sweet creme fraise that we make with orange zest. We served this with Proseco.
The conversation and dinner was a delight. Adam and Alissa gave us a painting as a gift. It is 4x4 inches by and extraordinary artist.
The week before last I was in DC talking with Senators Udall, Bennet and Representative Degette's health care staffer about including mental health in the health care reform. All of these meetings went well. I was also elected as the first vice chair of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare which represents the mental health providers in our country. I was asked to testify for the FDA advisory committee concerning access to psychiatric medications for children.
The meeting on Friday of that week ended early so I went to the National Gallery. They have a director's choice audio tour of the museum. I did not have time to do the entire tour and when I told the African American woman in her mid 60s who was selling the audio tours that I only had and hour and a half to spend in the museum, she asked me what I wanted to see. I told her I wanted to see the more important works in the museum. She immediate pulled out a map and started circling the gallery numbers and adding the audio numbers to the map. The timing was great and I saw fantastic works of art. I thanked her profusely when I finished my time in the museum.
Monday, May 25, 2009
8th Anniversary
As of today, Mark and I have been together for eight years. This is the bronze year so we are considering our bronze Pan our gift to each other. It is stunning. We have spent the weekend cycling and eating. We rode 38 miles on Saturday, 62 miles on Sunday and 21 miles today. Yesterday we were caught in the rain and then a hail storm. We were soaked when we got home. Today we cut our ride short when the rain started again. Everything is green and beautiful. I replaced the dead apricot tree on Saturday and we planted some coleus along the drive way. Our yard is beautiful. This year the clematis by the sun room has grown tall enough that you can see the blooms easily while sitting. We love our little lives in Denver.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Pan
Colorado Spring is here which means it is warm one day and can be cold the next. Today is a cool and cloudy day. We have tulips and daffodils blooming. The yard is very green after the big snow last week. We bought Dwight's newest sculpture Pan 2 of 30. The piece was commissioned by a man Dwight knows in Seattle. Otherwise I would have gotten the first one. This is a most spectacular statue. I suspect that others might want one too. You can contact Dwight through his website at www.davidsonsculpture.com
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Spring Skiing
Even though it is not really Spring yet, we have Spring conditions in the mountains. Yesterday Mark and I got onto the mountain late in the morning. The temperature was in the single digits so we lounged around the cabin until it warmed up a bit. When the days and warm and the nights are cold the snow gets very packed and hard. It makes the skiing a little less enjoyable. So we wait for the sun to soften the snow and then the skiing is great. With day light savings time it is light late into the day. This makes for great afternoon skiing. We did a lot of bump runs and by the end of the day we were ready for the hot tub. For some reason we were starving when we got back to the cabin so cooked right away. Our friend Anne had brought us a can of duck meat which we devoured on rosemary crackers. Then on to our dinner of herbed chicken, potatoes and a salad with pomegranate seeds. It was great. We finished watching the 5th season of Nip Tuck. That show pushes the edge. Matt the son wound up having sex with his sister. Neither knew they were related when they hopped into bed. They liked the sex a lot and giving this up because of being sibs did not come easily for them. The characters in this show are perfectly dreadful and so fun to watch. Today Mark and I went skiing at Vail. It is a great mountain. The conditions are still Spring like. The snow has been melting and it looks more like mid April than Mid March. A red fox was scavenging around the cabin this morning. He was not very shy when we went out on the deck to get a better look at him. He actually approached us from below the deck, I think to see if we had something for him to eat. I love seeing the wildlife here in the mountains. Tonight we will have a simple meal of cheese tortellini, fennel with oranges and a salad. We like to take Mondays off from time to time so we can have a three day weekend. So we will ski again in the morning and then head home in the late afternoon. The ski traffic is heavy on Sunday afternoons and at times it will take three to four hours to get home instead of the usual hour and a half. Well it is time to build a fire as the sun has set over the mountains to the west. The temperature drops quickly when the sun goes down.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Ski Weekend
Mark and I are heading to the mountains for a three day weekend of skiing. Breckenridge got snow last night and hopefully will get more this weekend. March is the month that we generally get the most snow. It has been dry this winter in Denver. I watered our fruit trees last weekend. Last year I planted two types of cherry trees, two types of apricot trees, two types of plum trees, two peach trees and two apple trees. The apple trees are grafts with three types of apples on one tree and four types on the others. All of these trees are in a row along the north side of our property. I suspect the blooms will be nice this Spring. Palino's is my favorite gardening center and I consulted with them on the types of trees to plant. Our Spring on the Front Range of the Rockies varies a lot every year. We can get snows up to May so the trees need to bloom late and the fruit needs to mature quickly. We have daffodils and dutch irises blooming in the yard. This is really early for them to bloom here. The tulips are coming up. I planted about 300 new ones last fall. They should be nice. My niece Melissa was supposed to come up skiing next week but I have not heard back from her. It is her Spring break from teaching.
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