So sad

The latest toll of the Black Forest fire is 502 homes destroyed completely, and many others damaged, and two people killed.  The authorities still haven't decided what caused the fire, but they have found a lot of clues.  One of the TV stations has said that the closest lightning strike the day that the fire started was eight miles away from where the fire started, which is a clue that there was human involvement.  The Black Forest area was a beautiful wooded area, and now so much of it is charred remains of trees and homes.  I wonder about the wildlife - were they able to escape?  The fire is now 75% contained, so that's a good thing.

I'm not feeling very well today, hope I feel better so I can get some things accomplished.

A fun day

The weather was beautiful today, and since Tanya is on vacation this week before she starts her new position as a Judge, she brought the children out for a visit.

They both love riding the bikes I keep for them out here, but Joey has outgrown his so I'll have to shop around for another one; the thrift stores have lots of good bikes to choose from, so that will be on the agenda soon.

I've been making scrapbooks for each of them, documenting their lives since they came into our family.  Joey LOVES looking at the pictures and remembering what he used to do when he was "little".

Carly was also interested in the albums, but she was multi-tasking:  getting a massage in our recliner, watching the video of her bike riding on my Samsung Tablet, and holding the album on her lap ready to look at it.

After a while, they put on their swim suits and Grandpa turned on the sprinklers so they could play in the water.



It is so much fun to have them here.  I' hoping they'll be able to come more often this summer.

The results of my MRI were as expected, and I'll be seeing a specialist for spinal surgery. 

Thankful for my Father

When I was a little girl, I thought my Dad could do anything. 
I knew he worked hard to take care of us.
I also knew that when he disciplined us, it was for our good.
He was the kind of man who never met a stranger.
As he aged, he never lost the ability to make friends with everybody.
He never told me that he loved me, but I knew he did. 
He showed it by the way he cared for us.
He went to meet Jesus and my Mother on December 27, 1991.
I would love to be able to sit down and talk with him again.
Someday it will happen; I think he'll welcome me when I enter my eternal home.

Good news, bad news

First the good news:  the Black Forest did not grow yesterday.  It was a day of cooler weather, calmer winds and even a few sprinkles of rain.

Bad news:  The Black Forest has completely destroyed 479 homes, and there are quite a few homes that have not yet been reached to be inspected.  Two people died; they were in their garage, loading their valuables into their car - but it was too late.  The fire moved so rapidly that they didn't have a chance to escape. 

Many people have beautiful homes in the forests and the mountains in spite of the fact that the fire risk is so great - and many of the wildfires are started by lightning.

They are still not sure that the Black Forest fire was started by lightning, and since two people were killed, it is now actually a homicide investigation.  The authorities are very skilled in tracing a fire to its begining point and then finding the clues that will answer all the questions. 

The fire at the Royal Gorge is pretty much under control but there has been a lot of damage to the Royal Gorge Park.  The bridge is damaged, many of the buildings are destroyed, the cables that carried the tram across the gorge broke from the heat of the fire.  This park is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Colorado, so this is very sad, but in my mind it's not as sad at the loss of life and the loss of 479 homes.

So I had my MRI yesterday; I was afraid I would feel claustrophobic being in that narrow tube for 45 minutes, but it really wasn't that bad.  Maybe that was because of the pill they gave me beforehand.  I hope the report will be that something can be fixed.  I consider it a great blessing to have good insurance (because I retired from my job with good benefits) and good doctors, and a husband who takes care of me.

Man vs. Nature

Once again that age-old battle rages.  In the past year or so, it has been a battle of hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires, and we have been reminded over and over how powerless man is against the power of nature.

The wildfires in Colorado are showing that power again.  The fire in the Black Forest is still completely uncontained.  Right now the authorities are having a press conference and they announced that as of this morning, a little over 1000 homes are still safe, over 340 have been completely destroyed by the fire, and they been unable to get into areas to verify the status of 79 other homes.  It's tragic - and it was started by a lightning strike, not by man's carelessness. 

The temperatures are a bit cooler this morning, so that will help the firefighters.  One of the problems has been that the fire has been doubling back and burning the homes that at first were thought to be saved.  Paul has a cousin living in the Black Forest, and we have not yet heard from him. 

Fire season is here

There are several wildfires already in Colorado, none of them contained yet, and the season is just starting.
There is a huge fire in the Black Forest which is northeast of Colorado Springs.  We have a relative who lives there and haven't yet heard if his house has burned.  It is a beautiful area with many upscale houses, many of them built of logs, and according to the latest report, the number of destroyed homes is growing hourly and more and more people are being evacuated. 

There's also a fire near the Air Force Academy which is slightly northwest of Colorado Springs; this fire is also threatening the Flying W Ranch which was destroyed by fire last summer but the owners had already started to rebuild.  This is a famous tourist attraction, one that we have enjoyed several times and much of what burned last year is irreplaceable. 

Both of these fires are at least 75 miles from us, but we can smell the smoke from here. 

Another fire is burning at the Royal Gorge which also is a huge tourist attraction.  So far the Royal Gorge bridge has not burned, but none of these fires are under control yet.

The weather this week has been very hot and very windy, so the firefighters have a huge and dangerous job.  The gear that they wear and carry weighs about 75 pounds, and with the temperatures in the high 90's, you can imagine how hard it is for them. 

As I look out of my office window to the west toward the sun, it is shining through a smokey haze; when there is so much smoke in the air, the sunsets are really beautiful - which seems rather strange. 

According to preliminary reports, they think these fires were started by lightning. 

I love birds, but.....

Each spring, a huge flock of grackles comes to roost in our trees, build their nests, and raise their young.  This spring has been no exception.  Grackles are a kind of blackbird, and they have the loudest squawk you can imagine.  They are also very dirty birds, when they are present we have to hose down the patio every day!  The babies are now out of their nests and the mama birds are trying to teach them to find insects and seeds.  I've been watching as mama bird walks through the grass looking for edibles, the baby follows - supposedly to learn to find something to eat, but all the baby does is SQUAWK!  And it doesn't stop -- it is such an annoying noise, especially now that our windows are open.  As soon as the babies are strong enough, the whole flock will leave for a few months, then come back and stop on their way south for a few weeks.  I love all the other birds we have here -- orioles, meadowlarks, mourning doves, robiins, etc., but these grackles sorely try my patience!!

Heading out in a few minutes to my son-in-law's 50th birthday party, complete with blue grass band, catered barbecue meal and lots of fun. 

Mourning my loss

I didn't think I'd miss her so much.

But she had become part of our family.

She first came to us in a snowy evening in February of 2000.  It was actually a snowstorm, the wind was howling, but above the wind I heard a desparate "meow".  I have a soft spot for animals, so I put on my winter gear and headed outside to see what was going on, but I couldn't find anyone.  I did put out some food, just in case a critter was hiding near by.

In the next few days, every so often we would see this wild cat running somewhere to hide in our yard.  I could tell she was half-starved and so I started putting out more food every day.  Eventually, I would sit on the porch steps and each day move the food a little closer to me.  The time came when she made friends with me, and we found out that she had been somebody's pet and either she had gotten lost or somebody dumped her in our area.  We found out she was used to humans, and later on when we started letting her come in the house, we learned she was housetrained. 

I named her Smokie - partly because of her coloring and partly because she could appear and disappear so quickly.  She was a mixed-breed long hair cat with very blue eyes; by her coloring it looked like she had an ancester somewhere who had been of the Siamese cat breed.  She and I became very close friends and eventually she would even let Paul and Darold pet her, but she would never allow any of us to pick her up.  She was the queen and she would decide when she wanted to be touched and when she wanted to jump on our laps.  She earned her keep by keeping our mouse and rabbit population under control.

About two weeks we noticed that she was sick; we knew we couldn't take her to a vet, she would never allow that.  She would come to the house only every other day for a few sips of water and a few drops of liquid food.  Finally we decided it was time, and on Saturday she was assisted on her way to kitty heaven.  I don't know how old she was because she was an adult cat when she arrived at our place. 

Resurrection

Several weeks ago I decided to take this blog off the web.  The main reason was that I felt it was just a one-way form of communication; in other words, people were reading my blog but were not communicating with me in return and I got tired of it. 

But I'll try again so I've resurrected Blossoms and Butterflies and see what happens.

It's a beautiful Sunday, the kind that makes it worthwhile to live in Colorado.  We just got home from Church - no we didn't have services all day, just Sunday School, the worship service and then we had a "cowboy carnival" to raise money to send teenagers to camp.  It was really great - lots of games and prizes for children, delicious barbecue, horses for the children to ride, dunk tank, raffles, etc., etc.  By 2:30 I was tired so we came home, even though the carnival goes on till 6 pm.  We are so glad we are part of this church, for one thing it's only about two miles from our house, and for another we have many lots of good friends, and most of all - it is solidly based on the Bible.

The last few weeks have been busy, not that I've been doing much, but busy regardless.  My physical situation has worsened in the last few months and I'll be having an MRI on June 14 to see about having spinal surgery.  I am actually quite optimistic about hopefully getting rid of some of the pain - ideally it would be so wonderful to be able to move easily again.

Enough for now - time to relax a bit with a tall glass of ice water....