The beauty of winter is upon us.
Colorado’s Front Range does not often see a white Christmas. In fact, we have only seen one inch of snow on the ground in 37 percent of our Christmases over the past 111 years. This year we have A LOT of snow on the ground…over a foot at our house.
This Christmas morning was covered in snow with a dusting of frost. Catching frost in the sunlight at just the right angle can be magical.
Title quote by R.H. Heinlein
Today we visited the Butterfly Pavilion for the first time. It’s pretty cool. Bugs, spiders and other creepy crawlies thrive in (safe and secure) glass boxes under warm lights. Colorful fish, crustaceans and other wiggly, swimming, little sea creatures pass the time in what appear to be giant fishbowls. Brave little kids let a scary, hairy tarantula named Rosie, crawl on their hands. (I get the shivers just thinking about it.) I put on my big-girl pants and touched a big horseshoe crab (only for a second and with permission).
My favorite part of our visit was the Wings of the Tropics exhibit: a lush, humid, tropical garden filled with exotic plants and flowers with graceful curves and seductive swoops that have names I can’t pronounce without great effort. The tropical colors are incredible…bright reds, pinks and fuschias, deep velvety greens, electric blues, brilliant yellows and warm golds. A gentle mist filters into the garden keeping both sturdy plant leaves and fragile flower petals blanketed in sparkling diamonds of water drops.
Most incredible though are the beautiful, fluttering butterflies that fill the air. Their colorful wings propel them silently about like hosts of swirling angels. Sometimes you can’t even see them; nevertheless, you know they’re there. If you’re lucky, one will alight on your sleeve. Like being kissed by an angel.
Setting out on a drive yesterday with no particular destination in mind, I found myself at the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado Springs. I have lived in Colorado for 30 years, and yesterday – a very gray day – was the day I chose to get off the interstate and pay a visit. I can’t believe I waited this long.
Here are a few facts for those of you who may not be familiar with this incredible building:
The building was designed by Walter A. Netsch, Jr. of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (think John Hancock Center, the Sears Tower and Republic Plaza for those of you in Denver). The contractor, Robert E. McKee, Inc. of Santa Fe, New Mexico, began construction in 1959 and finished in the summer of 1963. The 17-spire building is made of aluminum, glass and steel. Tetrahedrons form the geometry of the ceiling of the 99-feet high Protestant Chapel (the Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels are one story below).
The main Protestant Chapel seats 1,200. The altar is made of sleek marble with travertine marble legs. The most striking element of the chancel is the aluminum cross – 46 feet high, 12 feet wide and weighing 1,200 pounds.
The organ in the chapel, pictured taking up most of the window below, is one of the most magnificent pieces in the country. The pipes range in size from 32 feet high to the size of a pencil.
The focal point of the Catholic Chapel is the beautiful mosaic on the wall behind the altar. Superimposed on the mural are the Blessed Virgin Mary (pictured below) and Archangel Gabriel. The side walls of the chapel are amber glass with multi-colored cast glass strip windows. The 14 Stations of the Cross are made of 4-inch thick marble slabs.
If you haven’t already visited the Cadet Chapel, you should. Bring your camera.
I don’t know much about horses (Equus ferus caballus).
I do know that they’re large, and they’ve been on the planet for a long time…domesticated since 4,000 BC (who doesn’t love wikipedia?)
Some are brown. Some are black. Some are white. An Appaloosa has spots.
They go “neigh, neigh,” and in the winter they can pull a sleigh (usually with bells on)…I’ve even seen great big horses pulling carts of beer through the snow (on television often during Budweiser commercials).
I have ridden a horse a couple times in my life. Usually under duress and at a management team-building retreat. It’s always scary (because I’m a city girl…and where are the brakes on those things anyway?)
That doesn’t mean that I don’t find horses and all the accoutrements beautiful. I do.
I didn’t have to look far to find these two photogenic horses…they were prancing around the training ring at our neighborhood park. One of them was adjusting to a new bridle something or other. And they posed for me.
For those of you who thought you were going to read about Bar Dice and shots…yer buyin’, eh!
The Denver Botanic Gardens is a local destination. It’s almost in my front yard. I’ve visited before. But not like today.
Today I tried to focus on something different. Focus itself.
Focused attention? No. I was totally paying attention. I was in the moment, to be sure.
I was trying to focus my camera on nature…all at once: photographic composition, proper exposure and technical execution, exquisite light quality, artistic expression, contrast of color, texture, and emotion, etc.
Well, that’s nuts.
Nature doesn’t work that way. Nature happens in moments. Sometimes the moments happen in color, or not. Sometimes nature’s moments are a contrast in light or texture. Sometimes nature is not at all artstic. At other times, nature’s moments are elusive or ambiguous. And sometimes, the best of nature’s moments are unfocused.
Stop squinting.
“Anyone who sits in a pumpkin patch for five days waiting for the Great Pumpkin is crazy!”
– Lucy Van Pelt
Bedazzled in sequins and dripping in diamonds, the glitz and glamour of trendy clubs and flickering neon signs is dizzying. Costumed or perfumed, strutting or staggering, throngs of people on the streets are submerged in a sea of enticements. The Strip’s flirtatious, beguiling, eye-popping extravaganza of escapism is where the wildest of dreams can come true…more accurately, be purchased.
As alluring as that may be for some, what I found in Las Vegas was something different, a bit calmer, something perhaps less obvious. For me, the fantasy of Las Vegas revealed itself in the architectural details of caricature buildings. A ghostly shadow, a shimmering reflection, a tortured angle, or a unique perspective; all a sublime illusion.
When is it each year that we relinquish the carefree days of summer?
When do we trade the universal perfume of freshly mown grass for the unmistakable scent of raked leaves?
Is there a specific moment when we no longer notice the smells of swimming pools and wet towels, but embrace the aroma of crackling fireplaces and baking pies?
Does autumn officially arrive only once we have donned our first sweatshirt, noted the earlier hour of twilight each day, or witnessed the first golden leaves of change on the trees?
Is there a specific moment in time when we are no longer aware of the rhythmic clacking of skateboards traveling past the house or admit to missing the hollow echos of nearby bouncing balls and the exuberant, joyful laugher of children?
Is autumn’s arrival evident only once we recognize a new quiet; a quiet hauntingly void of the sounds of chirping crickets and singing birds?
Do we hear autumn’s arrival in the thunderous sound of crowds cheering favored football teams to victory in the chill of the evening air?
Is this when autumn has truly arrived?
I believe autumn arrives the moment we notice.
On a wonderful summertime trip with two dear friends, we visited St. Elmo – one of Colorado’s best-preserved ghost towns. Legend has it the town is still haunted by its founding daughter, Annabelle Stark. Maybe you can see her peering through the grimy window of the old hotel? Or glimpse her reflection in the remnants of still-gleaming glass bottles long ago abandoned in the barnyard? And if you’re very still, perhaps you can even hear the sound of her clicking footsteps on the creaky old wooden boards of the sidewalk as she shuffles along keeping her ghostly watch on the town.
I’m pretty sure I saw her!
These photographs were taken today in my in-law’s yard in Boulder, Colorado. A lovely day.
As EYE See... 