Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon

Sunday gratefuls: Rabbi Jamie. Barb, dead. Gabe. Leo, his sore left front foot. Luke, hunting for work. Annie and Luna, two sweet dogs. Toby in Granby. A possible trip up there. Ginny and Janice. The Wren. Kittredge. Bagels and lox. Mandarin oranges. Ruby’s clean inside! Jon Bailey.

Sparks of Joy and Awe: The Wren

Kavannah this week: Curiosity.   Sakranut

One brief shining: After the Bagel Table where we focused on midrash, I drove over to Kittredge, a little town east of Evergreen, but this time instead of passing through I went up into Kittredge itself, the residential part across Bear Creek, and visited Ginny and Janice in the Wren, one of the earliest homes built there, many of which have names even though modest, the Wren for example was 600 square feet when first built, but now has 850 square feet.

 

Janice’s family goes back to the founding of Kittredge. Her grandfather dug out the basement in this rocky soil.  Across the street in the home where Janice grew up he also dug out a basement, but came upon a huge boulder. It was under the tiny house.

Janice remembers him going down there with dynamite. Her mother scurried her and her siblings over to the Wren, then, as Janice said, “Boom!” A pretty confident guy, and strong, her grandfather. Also a boxer.

Terry, whom, I also know, grew up in Evergreen. He’s my age. In his youth there were only dirt roads around Evergreen, and surprisingly to me, he claims, few Wild Neighbors. Gotta run that down at some point.

Saw a picture from those days which showed a large Meadow where Evergreen Lake now is. Before the damming of Upper Bear Creek.

As you can tell from these stories, Janice’s grandfather and grandmother as founders of Kittredge, we live out West. The storylines for us white folk don’t go too far back. Up here Evergreen and Conifer were part of the Ute tribal lands though I don’t think there was much settlement right here. But, I really don’t know. In the area where Denver is now was Arapahoe Tribal land and south of them lived the Jicarilla Apache.

When we first moved here, I read a history of Colorado, but I don’t remember much of it. Since then, I’ve focused more on the Mountains and Wild Neighbors, the Mountain Streams and plant life. Could be interesting to revisit that history, especially that fraught time as the “frontier” for Eastern white folk pushed into the Rockies. Not a frontier for those already here. Of course.

 

Just a moment: Back in Oligarch World. Strongman Trump pushes his Bully America vision through tariffs, his anger and revenge over being held legally accountable ignited firings and criminal investigations against his “enemies”, and his let the dogs out way of exposing government inefficiency has granted Elon Musk the keys to disbursements from the Federal Treasury.

I’ve seen headlines asking if this is a coup. Well, sorta. Except for that election thingy. Yet it is the way fascism and dictators often gain power. They win an election, then forget about them later. Remember that Trump promise to far-right Christians, “You only need to come out and vote this once.”