Mid-Winter Vignettes

I am finding that winter in the canyon is a magical time. Whenever snow falls, it seems like we get just a little more than the rest of the city, tucked back in the foothills, and our little house becomes covered in a blanket of white, making it look even more like a fairytale gingerbread house.

I have enjoyed the stillness of winter, taking lots of quiet time for inner work, rest, and hibernation. I have enjoyed hiking in the canyon with Preston and with my friend Jessica, (and maybe with you, next!) and finding our way through the ice to the more melted, sunny-side trails.

Just yesterday Preston and I ventured up a trail to find ourselves looking over a great mountainside, as high as we could be, snow gently melting on our noses. You could see a fog of white drift over. It was blissful! Everything looks so different here in mid-winter.

I would love to share with you some pictures that capture some small scenes in our home that celebrate the magic of winter, and some of Preston's beautiful photos of the canyon, blanketed in snow....




I changed our Christmas mantle a bit, keeping the enchanting silver, but adding some of my favorite woodland things...







Annie and Kevin gave me this AMAZING frame for Christmas this year, and put in it a special picture of a very important moment in my life. It meant the world to me, and it is Perfect for this little nook right now...





Tiny white birds, a lost feather and a crystal...







Some of my favorite ceramics in the kitchen, along with a picture of P and I at Grandma and Grandpa's at Lime Lake in NY, when we were teenagers...



A collection of crystals, waiting with our plants to catch the light when sunshine comes...




Spoofer all snuggled up in our bed for a winter's nap...







Some special shots captured by Preston early one snowy morning in the canyon...













There is stillness and quiet here. What a blessing to dwell in the winter for a while, allowing for a winter of the mind, body and spirit, preparing for a new emerging of light in the springtime...

Love to you...

An Inspiring Autumn

Autumn is everywhere all around us now. You can see it glowing in the aspen groves scattered across the Rocky Mountains. It warms your spirit as you drive down a tunnel of color or crunch through a forest path covered in summer's leftovers. You can feel it in the crisp cold wind that brings the changing of the seasons and forces the leaves to fall from their trees.

It is time... Time for spicy warm apple cider. Time for pumpkins and gourds. Time for a fire crackling in the fireplace. Time for some quiet knitting and blankets and sweaters. Time for raking and preparing the summer gardens for sleep.

I love creating in the fall. I find so much inspiration in an autumn palette of colors. I have been diligently working on a new Fall collection to share with you in my shop, Love's Garden, but before I do, I would like to share some photos of the beauty I've been experiencing this fall.

This has been for me the most beautiful Colorado fall I have ever seen. Summer was long. The warmth lasted through September and well into October. In October we began to have cooler nights and a few cold days throughout, but still there were enough warm days to slow down the changing of the leaves to a pace that has had us enjoying brilliant color for several weeks now. . .

As I wrote this entry on Halloween it was in the seventies... A light breeze let us know that it was still autumn, just wearing a disguise. On one of the most gorgeous days we had, I went out with Preston and captured the colors in photos to share with you...Enjoy...

The pumpkin patch was almost empty...just a few lonely pumpkins here and there...

An amazing garden spider in the autumn garden at Venetucci Farm

This is the same wreath I decorated for spring and shared with you in an earlier post, and now I have decked it out for fall!

The tree outside our fence was covered in brilliant color that has since passed. Today it gently snowed in the canyon. As I spent the day blogging and working online, I watched it out my window, cozy here inside... winter is coming...

Morning in the Canyon

This morning I ran in the canyon for the first time. It was a beautiful morning, the sun streaming down through the tall mountain pines. It was my first time running since we moved here, and I was excited to try it out. Our house is just 1/4 mile from the entrance to North Cheyenne Canyon Park, and the canyon walls reach to the sky all around the road.


It was beautiful. As I ran, I could hear the birds echoing, and woodpeckers pecking and the stream that runs down the mountain by the side of the road, that has begun to flow more intensely with a few warm days we've had recently. It was still very cold though. The air burned in my lungs, and it was a very challenging run, because the whole first 1/4 mile is at an incline. And the air is thin at this altitude, even more so than it was at my mom's house (we lived with my mom for 2 years) near downtown. And of course it is--we live in the foothills!


Last big run I had was with my sister Annie and her husband Kevin, in Ventura, CA, and although I could barely keep up with Annie (she is a fitness queen) I felt like a ran like a pro (for me) when I was there, forgetting that part of the reason for that was the lower altitude. Duh. Well this morning's run showed me up. I'm very excited though to have such a pristine, incredibly beautiful place to run. We feel so fortunate to be so close to such an amazing natural treasure. I can see though that I will be challenging myself to get further and further into the canyon without stopping to walk, and I will have develop my stamina for uphill running.


I'm thinking about buying trail running shoes for my next pair of runners. There are so many great trails here and throughout the area, and beautiful places to run. I returned from my run to a beautiful green and red-hued mango to indulge in. It was luscious, juicy, sweetness. Heaven on earth. Organic mangos were on sale the other day for 88 cents and my beloved Preston brought home 5 of them! Mmmmmm...





I've been working all week so far on getting our home organized and beautified. Very soon I will share pictures with you of our home now that we are moved in. I have been hand washing all of our dishes, and really enjoying the process, whenever I keep up with it well. While we didn't have our own home for a couple years, I really cultivated a sense for what a blessing and honor it is to be able to care for your own things...your own space. I value little things so much more now, and I have so much more of a sense for what I want my home to be, and to feel like. We LOVE it here. Its so quiet and precious. The sunshine streams through our windows at all times during the day, because there are windows all around.


Yesterday I hung up my windchime, which is truly one of my most cherished "things." It is a Corinthian Bells wind chime that I bought last summer with money gifted to me after completing a project very dear to my heart. It is perfectly tuned, and when a breeze floats by it creates the most centering and peaceful sound. It is LOVE.


Preston and I took a few moments to draw (literally, in the dirt out back) and plan for building our raised beds for our vegetable and herb gardens. I've gone through my seed catalogs and circled many flower and vegetable and herb seeds and everything we will order, and I'll be putting in my order soon! My heart dances at the promise of Spring! :)


One of my very favorite things about our home so far, is that on the hour and quarter and half hour every hour, up on the side of the mountain, bells ring and play music from the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. Preston says, and I agree, that it makes it seem like we are in the Sound of Music. I always feel like I live in a sweet little mountain village every time I hear it. There is a lot that is magical about this energy space and I am so grateful to be a part of it.