First snow, first grade.

First Grade

First Snow

First new job since I don't know

The new job ain't so bad (I wonder if Rowan is saying the same thing). It is easy work if not exactly spiritually fulfilling, but really, the spiritual part is my responsibility. We have come upon that time of year again, yes, the back to school thing. In our house it's a double whammie or whammy or whatever, K being back to the grindstone as well as himself

Himself

All things being equal, it could be worse. Yes folks, I could also be back at school too, which in a manner of speaking, I suppose I am. There is a lot to be learned @ T-ride Woodworks (and taught, they could learn some about the earth-freindly side of things, & I'm the man to do it...). I've been learning to play chess again too  

Themselves

that's right, I said learning. It's a difficult freakin' game any way you look at it, but my main reason for my return to the world's greatest game  is to eventually teach the wee

 lad like my Father did before me.

Danny Boy; Feelings....?

First this...

Which of course leads us to this....

Aren't the classics the best?
Please don't be ashamed if you have to get your hankies out....

Well, it's about time...

Shoosh, well that took a while. It's hard to Blog when the summer has you in it's sweet grip, although it's not really that long since I last put pen to this paper, I realize that I may have lost a lot of you. So, my apologies, please forgive my tardiness.

So now, although it's hard to believe, the insidious hand of Autumn is tentatively reaching its tentacles back into our little valley.

It's been a strange & difficult summer, some changes have been made; I have left my job of 7 years reluctantly due to many circumstances in my control & beyond, & will be starting a new one with Telluride Woodworks on Monday. Kathleen is still dealing with the dreaded daemon of Meningitis from time to time & school is just around the corner. She is putting her nose to the grindstone of the new school year & is getting ready for new students, 6:30 rising & the trials & tribulations of the Tea Ching.

Rowan starts 1st grade & seems to have a bit of anxiety, he has told me he is a little scared & we have talked about courage

and growing up and other such scary stuff. Not a man to be pessimistic however, he is revelling in the idea of the oncoming winter. His favourite season he says...

Here is a list of the summer:

Bears
Rain
Small jobs
Solar Power!

Yummy farm food
Worm Compost
More Bears
Swimming
Biking
Hiking
Camping

More soon, stay tuned...
P.S. I'll have a new slideshow soon, I pinky promise.
P.P.S. please take the time to vote in our poll, the data are being sent to a very prestigious university where they will be used to pick the next president.

The amazing growing child

One time, K & I were discussing the possibility of an addition onto our house, consisting of a badly needed kitchen expansion, ours is a bit small...

     

And possibly another bedroom. So, during the course of this discussion, and probably in relation to the bathroom part of the discourse, Kathleen said to me; "you have to understand, there will be a Teenager living here someday".

It did not compute.

"Who's Teenager is going to be living here?" said I, completely baffled. Which brings us to the motif of this post. Rowan is growing up. Kathleen & I are pretty much staying the same, but Rowan has grown an inch since January and there is no sign of him stopping anytime soon.

                                                                   

Last Friday he graduated from Kindergarten.

And really, as much as I used to treat things like Kindergarten Graduation as some sentimental trivia when it was some other person's child. Now I'm in there, as sentimental as the rest of them, taking bad photos & vowing to remember this day.

It was a sedate, but uplifting affair, we had slide shows and songs and funny hats, but the kids seemed to tune in to the solemnity of it all. Rowan indeed seemed almost serious at times. This is part of a pattern; when he "graduated" from Preschool last year, he was very earnest and said of his thoughtful demeanor that he was so serious because he was "thinking of all the hard work he would have to do in Kindergarten..."

Well look out, because here comes First Grade! Oh the responsibility of it all...

But far be it from me to mock the wee lad, I was just thinking about how really, we should graduate from our jobs, take a Summer vacation & do a lot of thinking about how serious the next phase of our lives will be.

Or not.

Festival

There goes the first official weekend of the summer. Here in Telluride we like to keep people entertained, so every weekend there is a festival of some sort or other. Some are fun, some not so, but it just depends on what floats your boat. If chamber music tickles your fancy, then Telluride is the place to be August 7th to 16th. Mushrooms, that would be August 21st to24th and so on...

This past weekend it was one of my favorites, Mountainfilm a prestigious film festival devoted to mountain life. 

Or at least thats what it started off as, it has evolved into something much bigger. Now there are symposiums on environmental issues, exhibitions of art, discussions about social issues amongst some of the people who are dealing with the top levels of human strife & struggle.

This year, one such such topic was slavery, there are at this time more slaves in the world than at any other time in world history. 

It is an enlightening and sobering experience, & can make one feel guilty about living in this land of opulence. Or at least make you realize that if you have more than everyone else, it is good to give back.

So, we'll see you here next year?

Just beware of the cowboys...

Have you seen this?

Or even this?

Well?

Now We Are Six

Rowan's party was excellent, a success all round especially after the previous days mudslide debacle. The slide folks are for the most part out of danger for now...

Do you remember your 6th birthday? My Sis & I were 5 days apart. No, she is not 5 days older, but her birthday fell on the 1st & mine on the 6th. So our party was always on the same day. I remember it like I should; beautiful sunny days, stuffing ourselves with forbidden junk, loads of prezzies. 

This year we made 7 quarts of ice cream. That's right, and there was nary a smidj left of any except for the Maple Walnut.