Passing by the little Church of the Asymmetrical  Air Conditioner in Walsenburg we returned

home

to renew our not always successful attempts to make it up the creek until

Saturday when we were back at the Farmer’s Market [though not El Depot, which was backed up onto the highway with last week’s garbage; never again, dudes; you’re sweet ‘n’ all but a little

too inconsistent].  We skipped Sunday’s Creek Walking

as our overnight visitors

stayed through the morning, then had to quit early that afternoon for a hike to Betsey’s

[Library, not Betsey’s, seen below] to collect some possessions of Izel’s left/lost last week.

Monday we finally reached the edge of the forest again, then fell back to

Dean’s

where in addition to exuberances of color, art and travel news we picked up Lola’s pills,

also destined for Vancouver, and returned through a hopeful Future Forest, a phenomenon

some [“If they sprout, tear ’em out!”] here eschew but decidedly not us. Meanwhile the rains continued to maddeningly circumvent our immediate vicinity save for a brief intense deluge

before dinner which drove everyone in off the porch, everyone in this case being Patsy briefly

down from her mountain, the Spellpeople briefly up from Mountain Water and good neighbor Mary Ann bearing herbs essential for the potato salad, all for another One of Those Evenings – food wine and hilarity – not overly indulgent these days but even so one is left to pay a certain

price the next despite.  Tuesday, dim and -inished, saw a warm mid-morning slog up the creek, again only as far as the forest’s entrance…not shown, really, as Eliot Porter I ain’t.

Wildflowers, grasses and young cottonwoods on the way up,

UPS on the way down…we all have our ups and our downs.

Like, for instance, up to Pueblo the very next day for Target – Salvation Army donations -Toyota

Fedex

[temperatures are indicative of parking lots; actual temps were somewhat lower] –

Walgreens – Teeth Cleaning – Big Bear Liquor – Safeway – Vitamin Cottage –

Jorge’s in the Bessemer District as well as

Gagliano’s and

Home.  To collapse except…Puppies!

Yikes, Patsy saw a flyer for Border Collie Golden Retrievers in Westcliffe and so, with Kiku

listening in, Linny had to call and now it seems we’re leaving for Westcliffe Thursday morning to inspect the last two, a boy and a girl [which may sound familiar to anyone with a memory long enough to recall our “puppy summer” of 2000, first year of the house at Wall Spring and first year of the legendary Dazzle and Speckle.] but these will be bigger and…who knows?