Longmont, Colorado: 'Snow Way, Go Away!

Graupel hail-snow in Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

 I just can't escape winter, it seems. I think spring is coming and then Demeter throws a wrench in daughter Persephone's plans. I mean, heck, what the hell was the snow doing in El Paso this March?!

Graupel hail-snow in Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

So last night it hailed here in Longmont. Or it might be more accurate to say it graupeled?

Funny enough, on my way to this very same place back in May 2016, there was snow alongside the roadways. 

Snow along Highway 36 in Colorado. May 2016. Credit: Mzuriana.

Longmont, Colorado: Walks in the Neighborhood: Longmont Estates

Neighborhood pond. Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

My temporary home turf is in the Longmont Estates Neighborhood. 

There is a pretty pond within its borders. 

There is a whimsical yellow utility box with storybook mice. 

Storybook mouse on yellow utility box. Longmont Estates Neighborhood. Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

A woodpecker or northern flicker surveyed the hood from the flattened crown of a topped tree. 

Bird on a topped tree, Longmont Estates Neighborhood. Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

There was the ubiquitous tossed boot. A blue medical glove, an artifact of this COVID era.  

A slide show of walks in the Longmont Estates neighborhood: 

 

#30

Longmont, Colorado: Another City, Another Farmers Market

 

Arranging the asparagus. Longmont Farmers Market, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

No kettle corn.

Several vendors offered big ol' fat, soft, chewy, yeasty, pretzels. I felt tempted, but no, I am saving my caloric debauch for kettle corn. 

 

Soft pretzels. Longmont Farmers Market, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

This vendor is clever; made me smile, although I didn't even notice the name or claim - The Off Beet Farm - the Gayest Little Farm - until I looked at the photos later. What pulled me in was how the sunlight played on the leafy colors. Maybe my mind was also distracted by my hopeful search for kettle corn.

 

Gayest Little Farm at Longmont Farmers Market. Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

Gayest Little Farm at Longmont Farmers Market. Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

The mountainous backdrop with its crown of clouds lent drama to the occasion. 

Mountainous backdrop at Longmont Farmers Market. Longmont, Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Apparently, I am not the first person (or even the second or third) who initially misread the banner of this pie vendor. 

Human pie? Oh. No. Longmont Farmers Market. Colorado. May 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

The bird nest outside the pupusas booth enchanted me. Also, the "Pupusa Family" took me back to Mexico City, when an El Salvadoran family from one of the Central American caravans made pupusas to share. 

Pupusas and bird nest at Longmont Farmers Market, Colorado. Credit: Mzuriana.

Other farmers markets: 

2010: Kansas City: Travels With Carol: Day 3: City Market, et al

2011: Color in Harar [Ethiopia], Day 4

2011: Last Day in Gonder [Ethiopia]: The Market, Gold, and God is Calling

2011: Rustavi, Caucasus Georgia: At the "Big" Market

2012: Istanbul: Larceny and Spice

2012: Alamogordo, New Mexico: Farmer's Market

2013: Las Cruces: The Not-So-Farmerish Farmers' Market

2013: Lafayette, Louisiana: Farmers' Market at the Oil Center, Winter

2016: El Paso: Downtown Farmers Market

2016: Antigua, Guatemala: Municipal market stories here and here and here. 

2016: Outside Antigua, Guatemala: The Sunday Blues

2018: Mexico City: New Housemates and the Saturday Market

2023: Las Cruces Farmers and Crafts Market

#30

 

 

10 Years Ago: Sounds of a Weekend

 

Gosh, this makes me smile. 

I'm happy to revisit, to hear these sounds of the past.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Sounds of a Weekend

Flowering ocotillo, Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs, New Mexico. May 2013. Credit: Mzuriana.

From Leasburg Dam State Park and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, one weekend in May:

Flowering desert, Leasburg Dam State Park, New Mexico. May 2013. Credit: Living Rootless

Drumming minute in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. May 2013. Credit: Living Rootless

A hot springs bath in Truth or Consequences, along the Rio Grande. May 2013. Credit: Living Rootless  

 

 

2023 Word of the Year: FEAR: Feelings Expressed Allow Relief

 

Boats along Hudson River Greenway. New York City. September 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

FEAR: Feelings Expressed Allow Relief. 

There are so many angles from which to look at what's meant by "expressing feelings." To myself? To the person or group who provoked said feelings? Or to a third party about the provocateur(s)? And are we talking about negative feelings (fear?)? Or are we throwing in the positive feelings, as well?

I read something recently - the source since forgotten - that resonated: When it comes to expressing one's Big Negative or Fear-Filled Feelings (aka resentments) to someone in our family-and-friend circles, it is best to wait until our wound has healed into a scar. If the psychic injury still bleeds or if the infectious agent is still virulent, we are likely to incur fresh harm. Or perhaps to inflict same to the other person. 

These days, I seek equilibrium, serenity, peace, stability - stability as in the stability of a sturdy little boat in churning waters. The water is choppy, but the sturdy little boat is sound and seaworthy. It can right itself in a storm.

If I let it do what it's built to do. If I remain calm. 

So express my feelings? Sure, that's a good thing. But first I want to pause, to gather peace to me. To express those feelings when I've collected my calm in my sturdy little boat.

On the Road: From Missouri to Colorado: A Night at Love's

I've left Missouri for a two-month sojourn in Colorado. 

I passed the night in Chez Prius at a Love's in Ellis, Kansas. 

A very cozy bed chamber. 

 

Cozy bed in Chez Prius. Ellis, Kansas. Credit: Mzuriana.

I awakened to a glorious dawn, co-starring a slice of Americana. 

 

Dawn in Ellis, Kansas, at Love's Truck Stop. Co-starring an A&W. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

Dawn in Ellis, Kansas, at Love's Truck Stop. Credit: Mzuriana.

On the Road to Longmont, Colorado: A Stop in Czechoslavakia, Sort Of

 En route to Longmont, Colorado, I pulled over for gas and other sustenance in Wilson, Kansas. 

Hi, ho! A giant egg! 

Giant Czech egg in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

And no worries, I took more photos of this good egg from different angles and distances, in case you yearned for same. Wilson, in fact, claims that its egg is the world's largest Czech egg:

Giant Czech egg in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Giant Czech egg in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

There was more visual evidence of Wilson as the "Czech Capital of Kansas:" 

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

The giant egg puts me in mind of the Big Alaskan Road Trip that my daughter, Kit, and I took back in the 90s, which Kit deemed the trip of "Buttes and Big'uns," thanks to the many "largest in the world ..." roadside attractions we visited, in addition to the countless buttes in the northern plains.

But I digress. Below is Wilson's historic opera house, undergoing restoration: 

Historic opera house undergoing restoration. Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

So why the hell did the Czechs land in Wilson? 

They came to build the railroads, back in the 1870s. They left their homes in Europe because of poverty, for the most part. American railroad companies even advertised in Czech papers about the opportunities to be found in the American plains.

Also, early Czech arrivals to Kansas wrote back home about the opportunities in Kansas for work and land. Some Czechs, already in the US, simply migrated west from the American east.