Daily Archives: February 16, 2015

Colorado, Weather +Climate

Lucky

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Imbolc                                                                                   Settling Moon II

Black Mountain becomes obscured during a snow. That massif over 10,000 feet high disappears behind a fall of frozen water. Knowing it stands so close, so big, yet absent from its usual place on the horizon amplifies the silence. Even while following my yellow Cub Cadet snowblower up and down the driveway, its engine’s noisy violence preceding me, even then the quiet dominated. Now, finished, the driveway showing black against the white, snow continues to drift down, filling in behind the noise of the snowblower, sopping up the disturbance and returning the cushioned world.

Living on a mountain. In a small forest of lodgepole pine dusted by that great flour sifter. (Kate’s image) Lucky we live Shadow Mountain.

Mountains, Poetry

Mountains

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Imbolc                                                                            Settling Moon II

Phillip Levine died yesterday. Here’s a stanza from his poem: Our Valley. Seemed apt to me.

“You probably think I’m nuts saying the mountains
have no word for ocean, but if you live here
you begin to believe they know everything.
They maintain that huge silence we think of as divine,
a silence that grows in autumn when snow falls
slowly between the pines and the wind dies
to less than a whisper and you can barely catch
your breath because you’re thrilled and terrified.”

Weather +Climate

Snowy Day

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Imbolc                                                                          Settling Moon II

This is more like what people have told us about the snows here. We must have had 8-10 inches already and it’s still snowing steadily. Jefferson County plows have already made several passes and it’s only 6:15 am.

Over the last week I contacted the Denver Post to get a newspaper tube for our morning paper. Why? Because I’ve chewed up two of them in the snowblower. This morning would have been the same. The carrier throws the paper on the driveway; it gets snowed on, then the plows come and the paper disappears. Tube went up on Sunday and I retrieved the first paper from it this morning. Handy.

The dogs prance and roll in the snow. Play, bounding up and out of it, like porpoises.

Annie leaves late this afternoon, wanting to get to a motel closer to the airport because of the snow. She and Kate visited one of the ten best quilt shops in the U.S. yesterday. Parker, Colorado. They plan to see the Golden Quilt museum today, weather permitting.