Tapir/Art room, Palisade

All of the rooms had incarnations. This was near the end of my time in Palisade, and I'd started trying to paint again, to find myself with the medium. On the canvas with the tapirs, I'd painted everything except for the tapirs, and as of this writing (2008), I haven't finished it. The painting on the filing cabinets is from the 1980s. It's a detail - a big blow-up of some weeds alongside a road taken from a 19th Century line engraving and painted with a brush in pastel shading. I always liked it, and never painted anything else remotely similar. Taped on the wall is a xeroxed enlargement of a photo Stefan Seitz took of a baby Malayan tapir. I thought I might paint it someday or design it into a t-shirt. Two real tapir skulls sit on the filing cabinet along with the turpentine can (with Mona Lisa's picture on it), and the green blanket is a color I like. I still have it. Also on the filing cabinet is a black figure. I hope I have another photo somewhere. It's a fertility goddess or something like that; a big woman riding on a real deer skull. Marco bought it in the Philippines. It stayed with him in Colorado. The folded paper behind the turp can is a simple collage I made by gluing some picture on top of another; I don't remember the image exactly, but it almost came to mind. I had it around for quite awhile. The easel is a beautiful artwork in itself that Marco gave me and I still have. It folds up and you can carry it with your paint things inside. It's very clever and very heavy, too. The basket under the easel is one I still use as a trash can (for clean trash). I got it in Los Angeles for not much money at a basket store. It's tall and fits nicely in corners and other unexpected places where no other trash can will fit. And, it looks artistic and classy. I've stitched the bottom into it again. I hope it never wears out. The small red wooden thing is a book rack. I think I got that with Robin, and I think we got two of them. It was inexpensive, under two dollars, I think. And I always loved it, especially the color. The canvas(es) propped against the filing cabinet seem to be three that I hinged together to form a triptych, but then never used. There are a lot of memories in this little corner, but I also like the arrangement for what it is and how it looks. It was a simpler time, too. The file cabinets had tapir info and personal files. I've brought them to Oregon with me also. And, they've expanded. I thought this was going to be a quick and simple post!

Shark and lizard, Palisade, Colorado

This is a corner of our livingroom in Palisade, Colorado, in one of its incarnations. The book shelf is a special one I've kept with me for many years. The CD rack lizard was pretty new at the time. We didn't have much money and I'd agonized over buying it. It wasn't too expensive, but I worried over each dollar. I finally bought it and was glad I did. It kept the new collection of CDs organized and it was always fun to look at. I think Lorrie gave us the plastic shark. Everything else has a story, too, but that's it for tonight, kids.

More stuff on Milleman Street, Palisade, Colorado

Here's the view from our front yard. It never ceases to amaze me! The pine tree is a Colorado blue spruce that we bought in a pot one year as a Christmas tree and re-planted. It seems that things here either don't grow at all or they grow very fast. Both of the trees in the front yard grew fast. I planted the globe willow on the right literally from a stick, which is why the trunk shape is so weird (see below).

Notice there's a tree stump in front of the existing tree? Our landlords had it cut down before we bought the house. Globe willows are gorgeous round-topped trees that grow like weeds here. This one got so big that the branches threatened the roof. When they cut it down, the wood was stacked for firewood, and as we got to the bottom of the pile, I found that some of the branches were sprouting, even though they'd been under the wood pile for many months. I brought one stick out to the location of the old tree, and planted it, like the phoenix rising. Lo and behold . . . it grew! So the trunk started as multi-directional springs from a branch.

I built this house for the chickens. Actually, it's right next to the spot where I found the sprouting willow branch. By the time I took this photo, the chickens were gone, but the house was still there. It was funny at the time, because we paid a couple of dollars for the chickens, but we bought new plywood of the right size for this house I designed with fancy folding doors to keep out the cold, so the chickens basically lived in a palace. It cost us a lot more than the dollar value of the chickens. Of course, we didn't measure the chickens' value in dollars. We got a couple of hens, and they were an endless source of entertainment for us and for the dogs. We had eggs, too, but for various reasons we didn't eat them very often.

Trying to grow plants in Palisade was a challenge for us. I'd been a lifelong Californian, and Marco's experience was from the Philippines and California. It took us awhile to figure out what plants would live, how they worked in the Colorado climate, etc. We had pretty good luck with snapdragons, and they were gorgeous in spring and summer. Here they are in January, still a little green. As you can see, we didn't get snow all winter or anything like that. If we got several inches at time, it was an event, and it didn't last long. Our biggest snows were usually in April.

Here's some more vegetation in January. It was always interesting to see what survived the winter.

The eye of Elvis

Fun with digital cameras. This is my cat, Elvis, and my room when I lived in Palisade, Colorado.

Tapirs and home in Palisade, Colorado

Here's another photo of the balsa wood tapir donated to the Tapir Preservation Fund by Ian Rose. It came out a completely different color from the first photos.

Don't ask me why I thought they'd look good on this background. I was either just playing with the camera or trying to find something of neutral intensity to see what would happen to the color of the tapirs.

Elvis. What a nice cat - so pretty. I love her white bib and her eyes.

This is our back yard on Milleman Street. The place came with the big doghouse, but of course the dogs don't use it. The chickens do, though. They like to hang out there during the day. The mountain in the background is Grand Mesa, at about 10,000 ft. elevation, I think. I hope I'm not confusing that with its age, which is also about 10,000 years. The top of the mesa was created by a lava flow and there are "bottomless" lakes on the top along with some stunning scenery. They sometimes call it "the world's biggest flat-topped mountain," although I don't know if it is. I think there's another contender somewhere.

This is taken from our front yard looking west toward that hump at the end of the bluff, which is Mount Garfield. This location is so incredible, I can hardly believe I've been so lucky to have such a place to call home. When we initially rented the house before we bought it, there were only two places that fit what we were looking for and were in the right price range. This one allowed dogs and we wanted to get a dog. Also, we'd looked at Palisade and we loved the area. It worked out perfectly. It was such an amazing find after living in the Los Angeles area for so long.