Everything is Beautiful

Everything is Beautiful...Really


I live in the land of beauty. "America, the Beautiful"
(The song was written about the Pike's Peak area, a mere 100 miles away.)

I would love to say I'm an amazing photographer but reality is, I'm not.
I have a very good camera and a decent telephoto lens.
But truthfully here all that is required to take a GORGEOUS outdoor photo is a phone, a throw away camera, a Polaroid. ANYTHING will work. Not even sure eyesight is required. Just point and shoot and pretty much anywhere the camera eye lands will be a good pic.

Today I  thought I would share a few pics with you.
(So you can be jealous.)


First the Twin Sisters. This is the view out my front door.  It is also the view driving up the main road to the house. And the view from across the river at the dump.
Located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range, they have an elevation of a little over 13,000 feet. And they seem like they are literally right outside my front door. But they aren't.
My neighbor calls them the "Twisted Sisters" because a lot of our snow and wild weather comes straight across the top of them.
I call them Belle and Bunny.

I could take a picture every single day and they would all be gorgeous and all be different.
See?

 At dusk.

 As the sun rises.

 Covered in snow.

 Covered in clouds and snow.

 Sunset.

Good morning.

And from across the river, they are still amazing.

Or driving up the main road.  I stop probably once a week just to marvel at this view. Still.

See? Look at that sky. Those mountains.

And this was taken from inside my car with my iPhone. 

While driving.

Then there is the sky. It will stop you in your tracks.

Really. These are the colors. Not edited, filtered, nothing.

Just nature.

And the wild life. The deer are fat, happy and unafraid. 

 Isn't this baby adorable? 

This one, too.

I love this little deer train. 
Four of them? Five?
And this is what I mean. Great photo taken by the game camera.
No human involvement required.

There are American Bald Eagles that live on the river near where Carlos and I go walk.  Usually they are too far away to get a good picture, UNLESS I don't have my camera. One day they were in a tree right above me but I had no cell phone and no camera. That will never happen again.

These birds are enormous.

Once you know where to look, they are very easy to find. 

I was so excited the first time I spotted one.

And these two guys live near the dump. They wander the acreage there and while unbroken, they are obviously not too wild. I spoke to their owner (who owns the dump) and they are descendants of horses that his great grandfather owned, one of which was a U.S. Cavalry horse. Pretty cool, huh? 

"Got anything to eat in there?"

"I'm not getting out of the way until you come up with food."

There's beauty out there. I am beyond lucky to live where I do. But look around. It's everywhere.
Where do you find your beauty?


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O wait!!!!

I forgot my own personal wildlife.

Carlos

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!


Because this is a blog and because I have nothing else for today, I will do what all bloggers do in December. (Unless they are better organized, then they do it in November!) I'm sharing the Christmas decor from around the cabin.

Not much this year, guess I haven't been feeling the spirit yet. I wanted to do a pine cone garland again but for some reason the pine cones are just now falling. Not sure what the delay was. And we have not had snow in December. A couple of little snows in November got me thinking that maybe this winter would be like last: snowy. But so far, I think that was just a tease.  Not to worry. I know the snow is coming.


Mostly I decorate the fireplace because a) it could use some decorating- it has the oddest proportions! and b) there just aren't many other surfaces to decorate. The cabin has a tiny living space.  The living/dining area measures 18 feet by 12 feet. My bedroom is bigger than that.


And doesn't this look cozy?

A fire in the pellet stove.

Stockings hung by the mantel with care. 

(That crazy sun making it impossible to take decent pics.)

And some detail pics:

 Love these stockings. They reverse to "Nice".

Antlers make great stocking hangers.

 So do geodes. 

Last spring when the Big Guy was up, he went rock hunting with the neighbor.

Beautiful rocks now decorate every flat surface in the cabin.

My gorgeous Nativity scene.

In Salida there is the Holiday House. 

It is a non profit that accepts donations of gently used holiday items.

They then offer these items on a "whatever it is worth to you" basis.

I took a wicker light up Christmas tree in to donate and came home with this nativity.

The outdoor animals get in on the act.

Kaiser the carved bear wears a bow.

So does the unnamed reindeer.

(Again, that pesky sun, hard to get a pic. 

On this side of the house it is either bearing down or totally shaded.)

Reusing the frames from Halloween:

A little "Joy" on a ledge.

And last but not least, the Christmas tree!   Straight out of "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

 Many many thanks to my neighbor Sue for sending me this tree.

I was complaining mentioning that there was no room for a tree here and she had just the solution.

In the foreground you see the Thanksgiving puzzle, almost finished. 

One piece left,  waiting for Bunny to get home and do the honors. 

I will be so happy to get that thing off the only table in the house.

Outside I have the Christmas trees in the yard wrapped with lights. The neighbor and I wrapped them last year and because the trees are in "cages" to protect them from deer, I just left the lights up. All year. I was holding my breath when I plugged them in again in November. Amazingly, all the lights came on. A tiny Christmas miracle.

This pic is from last year.

One of my favorites.

The lights look the same this year, only NO snow. 

Bah humbug.

Happy Holidays to all.

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And I have to share.

Yesterday Carlos and I were walking down by the Arkansas River. There was a young American Bald Eagle fishing for his breakfast. We walked down hoping to get a closer look and he flapped off. I thought we had missed him but then I looked up. Always look up! He was perched in a tree about 25 feet away, preening. 

So incredibly awesome. 

Of course, my camera and phone were both safely tucked away at home. 

We will go back looking for him.  With a camera. 

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