A New Old Place and an Old Old Place

     I decided that this week I would share photos of two places I've been in the past two weeks - a place I hadn't visited since I was a child, and a place I've visited often since I was a child.  Keep reading to find out about the two places.
     A little over a week ago, my good friend Renae, and I went to The Seven Falls.  I had not been there since I was a little girl! Their website gives this description:
     "Seven Falls is a series of seven cascading waterfalls of South Cheyenne Creek in South Cheyenne Cañon, Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is a privately owned tourist attraction since it was opened in the early 1880s. Trails from the top of the falls lead to Midnight Falls, near the headwaters of South Cheyenne Creek, and Inspiration Point. The area sustained a significant flood in September 2013, which closed Seven Falls until restoration waas completed late Summer 2015 by The Broadmoor. The resort bought Seven Falls after it had been owned and operated by families since the 1880s."
     Used to be you could drive onto the Seven Falls property and park your car after buying your ticket to enter the canyon.  But since the Broadmoor Resort bought the canyon and the Falls you now must park in one of the Broadmoor Hotel's parking lots and ride a free shuttle into the canyon where there is a ticket office.  At that point you ride a little tram which takes you on to the Falls.  Or you can take a walking trail.  
     Actually, Renae and I did neither!  It was really cold that day and there had been snow.  I had forgotten that the canyon walls are so steep that there is very little sunlight that reaches the canyon floor.  So because there was still quite a bit of snow and ice on the road, the little trams were not running and the shuttle actually took us up to the entrance to the Falls.

The Seven Falls and Restaurant 1858 as seen from Eagles Nest

     What a beautiful canyon!  (On a side note, Andy was working in that canyon the beginning of last week above the Falls where he was helping clear out debris that was obstructing the progress of the creek which becomes the Falls.  He loved it up there!)  Renae and I walked around the side of the new restaurant that's at the base of the Falls and headed directly to the bottom of the Seven Falls.  
     The Broadmoor replaced the old wooden stairs with 224 steel reinforced concrete steps.  The Falls extend 181 feet from the base of the steps.  The entire canyon is a mile long.  The Falls descend in seven distinct steps over solid Rocky Mountain granite.   I walked up the first of the two sections of stairs which took me about half way up the Falls.  At that point I was freezing!  So I came back down and then Renae and I went into the Mine Tunnel.
     Blasted 14 stories straight up through solid granite, the Mine Elevator takes visitors to what they call "The Eagles Nest Platform."  And from there we had some magnificent views of the entire canyon - and finally found a little sunshine!  By then it was time for lunch, so we headed back down the elevator to the new restaurant on the property called Restaurant 1858, taking its name from the Gold Rush era and the "Pikes Peak or Bust" motto.  This is what their website says about the restaurant:
     "Executive Sous Chef of Broadmoor Restaurants David Patterson and Chef de Cuisine Kathleen Symons oversee a menu that showcases traditional Rocky Mountain flavors and takes its cue from the heritage of the Old West, blending low-country style with early frontier cooking. The menu’s wide array of German, French, and Creole cuisines are inspired by the immigrants who traveled west to seek their fortunes in the gold rush, making Restaurant 1858 the culinary melting pot of Cheyenne Cañon."
     It was an excellent meal!  Now for some photos of that day:

Looking up from the first platform

Looking down from the first platform

Taken from Eagles Next looking across the canyon

Also from Eagles Nest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Then I'll bet you can guess where I went last week (which I called my "old old place" - somewhere I go at least once a week and have been visiting since I was a little girl.)   You are right!  The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!
     I love that our zoo has made so many changes over the years to insure healthy and happy animals.  The enrichment activities that they provide, the training, the nutrition, the wonderful enclosures which attempt to imitate as much as possible the natural environments of each species - all of those things are done without any tax money or government support.  It is one of a few zoos in the nation which does NOT receive any government support whether local or federal.  All of the funds are achieved through donations, memberships and ticket sales which is pretty amazing!  Not to mention that the CMZ is rated in the top five zoos in the US.
     I have had a membership for at least 20 years, but have been going there since the 1950s.  I feel like it is MY zoo! And I'm positive that the animals all know me :-)   Many of them I know by name as most of you who follow me on facebook are well aware!  ha!  And so, here are a few photos of last week's visit which always begins and ends with the lion cubs.

This is Boma with Mom and sister Elsa in the background

The boys are cuddling with Mom

Boma was front and center!

The fur pile from L - R: Aslan, Elsa and Boma

     They are getting big so fast now that they are eating solid food.  They are 5 months old and weigh about 50 pounds.  Elsa, the only girl, is the smallest, but she was the first to be able to jump up on the high platforms!  Now they can all get up there, so Mom has no place to escape to - poor Lomela!  But she is such a good mom and super protective.  She still does not want any of the other lions near her babies.  Poor daddy Abuto stands in the outside area and calls to them regularly.
     After the visit to the lions I head up the hill to see the elephants (we now have six females as we acquired two aging ladies from a zoo in KS - our vets are well-known for their knowledge of aging animals.)  Then I usually go to the monkey house where I visit with my favorite gibbons, Tembling and Shanee, both of whom are missing their right hand.  I can usually get Tembling to show off his swinging abilities by clapping!
     After a visit to the Grizzly Grill so I can get my free refill in my zoo cup, I head to the Asia exhibit with a stop to see our kestrel, the smallest of the birds of prey.  His name is Marty McFly and I think he is absolutely beautiful!

Can you see him in front of the tree?  He blends in well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now to visit the Asian animals.  I especially love the big cats!

Can you find our snow leopard, Bhutan?

And here is handsome Grom, our Amur tiger

     Next is the Rocky Mountain exhibit.  I didn't make a trip up the stairs to see the grizzlies on this visit.  They aren't very active this time of year anyway and are usually sleeping.  So on to see the mountain lions and the moose.  And then to visit our beaver in the aquatics house.

One of our four mountain lions.  They are 8 year old siblings.

Tahoma the seven year old moose

Ginger, the beaver, enjoying some time out of her exhibit and having the run  of the Aquatics House.  She' pretty entertaining!

 

 

     From there it's on to my other favorite animal families, the great apes.   Little Ember, the orangutan, just turned a year old.  She is always a joy to watch.  But I have always been partial to the gorilla family.  I can finally tell them all apart, which is not easy since we have four adult females.  It won't be too much longer and it will be hard to pick out Tumani as she is almost full grown.  But Dembe is only three so he's still easy to find.  He is our only male as we lost his daddy, our beautiful and loving Rafiki, in September.  So our gorilla troop is presently without a Silver Back.  Perhaps we will get one in the Spring.  The keepers aren't sure.  But it is encouraging to see the troop starting to heal after their loss.  In fact, Tumani and Dembe (sister and brother) played for a good 20 minutes while I was there.  That's the first time I've seen them having fun since Rafiki died.  It was so heartwarming to watch! 

Sweet Ember with Momma Hadiah

Dembe wore himself out playing with his sister.

     So, my friends, these were my two places I visited in the past 10 days.  Both wonderful places showing the beauties and awesomeness of nature.  When I need some peace of mind and a reminder of what's good in this world I need go no further than my "backyard".  Thank you for reading my blog.  I hope you enjoyed following me on this short journey.  Merci!

Whiskers Turns 26

     I have an African Clawed Frog named Whiskers.  She is completely aquatic and lives in a ten gallon aquarium tank in my house.  This month she has a birthday.  It was 26 years ago that she came to my house and turned from a tadpole into a frog.  Here is her remarkable story.

     When Andy was 7 he was already showing signs of interest in everything about the natural world.  When we went to the library he always wanted the books about planets or volcanoes or dinosaurs or fish.  I got him a subscription to "Zoo Books" which was (and still is) a publication about animals designed for kids.  We had (and I still have) a membership to our zoo and spent a lot of time checking out all the animals.  Another publication that I bought for him was a magazine that included science project ideas for little kids.  And that's how we got Whiskers.
     It was called a "Grow a Frog Kit".  We were guaranteed a live tadpole which would come in the regular mail to our house.  I was as fascinated about it as Andy.  We had tried catching tadpoles and little frogs on camping trips and picnics and that had never been successful.  I remember a time we were in Mexico - Andy must have been about 4 - and he found a small crab near our hotel and wanted to bring it back with us.  I told him he needed to leave it where it was as that was his home, but he worried about it being too far from the beach.  Later that evening we found it in the hotel swimming pool, got him out and took him down to the beach ourselves.  Hopefully the little crab did ok after that.
     Andy was also very fond of turtles and looked at them every time we were in a pet store.  I was pretty  sure it would be hard to keep one of those as you needed a heat lamp and special care to keep them in the  mountains.  Not something I wanted to deal with.  I had never had any luck with fish so was not eager to take on a turtle.
     So, why was I so willing to order a tadpole?  I can't tell you!  I guess because I was so curious about how a tadpole could come in the mail and then turn into a frog right in front of my eyes.  So we ordered the "Grow a Frog Kit."
     I can still see the look on the mailman's face when he knocked on my door and asked if I knew what was in the Styrofoam cup that said "live animal" on the outside.  I explained about the tadpole and he seemed incredulous!  "There's actually a live tadpole in there?"  "Well, that's what's supposed to be in there.  Would you like to take a look with us?"  So, I invited him inside and together, with Andy, we took apart the packaging and sure enough, there was a little tadpole swimming around in the cup!  In a separate package there was a special tank and tadpole food and instructions on how to prepare the tank and feed the little tadpole and watch for him/her to turn into a frog.

     She arrived at our house on November 6, 1989 as marked in the little booklet that came with her.  Andy named her Whiskers because she looked like a little catfish and actually had whiskers on her little face.  According to notations that I had made in the booklet, her arms and legs appeared on December 1 and by December 5 her tail had disappeared and she was a real frog!
     In the Q and A section of the booklet there is this question: "How long can my Grow a Frog live?"  The answer they give is: "The average lifespan is about 5 years, but record is 15 years."  When Whiskers was getting ready to turn 20 I found the website for the company and sent them a message about Whiskers's age.  I thought for sure she had broken the record!  They were awesome and responded within just a few days.  They congratulated me on having such a healthy and long-living amphibian, but told me that the new record was 28 years.  And so, I told Whiskers that she had to live to be at least 28 and hopefully 29 so that she could be the new record holder!  Who would ever have imagined that one little frog could possibly live that long.  She may just make it!
    There is nothing else in the aquarium with her.  The booklet had said that we needed to avoid anything that might damage her fragile skin and over the years as she lived longer and longer I was afraid to try anything new for fear that it might "do her in".  Andy is afraid that she is bored with nothing to do all day, but she enjoys swimming and stretching out where her feet are on the bottom of the tank and her head is up close to the surface of the water.  She knows her name and if you call her she'll come swimming up to the top.  If you ask if she's hungry she'll try to stuff food into her mouth even if I haven't dropped the Reptile Logs in there yet.  She splashes and "sings" and I can tell when she wants me to change her water because she stops singing!  She is quite entertaining!

     So, Happy Birthday, Whiskers!  Hang in there for another couple of years so you can be in the record book!   I'm so happy that my friend/former student/house sitter Jamie has offered to take her when I move to France.  Although Jamie told me that it's really her dad that would like to have Whiskers :-)  But I have no doubt she will be well taken care of.
     Thank you for reading this week's post.  Not everyone can say they have a 26 year old frog!  So, I had to brag.  And Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  Enjoy the time off to spend with family and friends and to be grateful for all we have.  And for me that includes all my four-legged babies - furry or otherwise! :-)

"Fluctuat nec Mergitur"

     Just a few thoughts and then some photos regarding one of my most favorite cities in all of Europe - Paris!  The atrocities that happened Friday and the determination of the French to not be defeated by terrorists is reflected in the Paris city motto:  "Fluctuat nec Mergitur" which is Latin for "Tempest Tossed but not Sunk".

     This motto and coat of arms was first used in the 1300s and since then Paris has been under attack many many times.  Here is a short list:
1400s - The Bubonic Plague kills one third of the population
             The Hundred Years war
 1500s -The Wars of Religion  (Protestant vs Catholic)
1600s - Invasions by the English and the Burgundians
1700s -  Revolutionaries turn Paris into a bloodbath
1800s - Prussians invade
1900s - Germans invade
2000s - IS terrorists

     Paris has long been considered the city of culture, learning, art and architecture, a beacon of civilization in the Western World, the City of Light, and, of course, country of "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité".  France has one of the longest, strongest democracies and economies in Europe.  It is a country I have come to love over the years, as you all know, and though I am presently in the States, my heart is in France.
     I have been asked if I still want to live there.  Of course!!  Did people stop living in NYC or OKC or Boston or London or Madrid?  Those cities have all had their share of terrorist attacks in the past few years.  It is still my belief that most people want to live in peace with each other and as long as there is that hope and desire then the world is a better place. 
     I thank you for reading my blog.  May I also recommend Rick Steves' facebook page and his commentary on the recent attacks in Paris.  He says it all so well.
     And now for some of my most favorite photos of Paris:

The Sacré Coeur

Le Tour Eiffel

A statue in St Sulpice

Notre Dame

Monet's waterlily panel in the Orangerie

The glass dome of the Galeries Lafayettes department store

Place de la Concorde

A view of the river Seine

An old postcard I found in Paris

    

Adventure and Learning

     This past week I began going through my dozens of photo albums from the myriad of trips I have taken abroad over the past 40 years.  I have decided to reorganize the photos according to place rather than time so that I will have all my favorite photos of Paris all together, or London, or regions of France.
     It has been fun looking and remembering as I see each photo.  I have learned so much over the years about the places I have visited.  People ask me all the time if I get tired of visiting the same places or museums or churches, etc.  And the answer ia a resounding "No, never!"  I learn something new about each place every time I visit.  I see this very clearly as I look through the albums.  I can see how much I've learned with each trip as I read the captions which I write for each photo.  I am taking the captions and taping them to the back of each photo along with noting the year that I took the photo.
     This weekend I watched a set of web videos which Rick Steves had on his website.  I very much enjoyed the ones I was able to watch.  (They are now available to watch at any time on his website.)  The first video was about the joy of travel and I made a few notes that I want to share with all of you because they reflect my feelings as well and are why I want to actually live in France.  I welcome your thoughts on any of these points.

Why I love to travel and want to live in France:

1)    Europe has great community traditions which connect them in a very special way, not just as relationships to each other but also their relationship to the earth and  their history.  Every city or village has festival days to celebrate the crops or the farm animals.  These festivals go back centuries as their ancestors would have celebrated each harvest or butchering to appreciate that they would have food through the winter months.  Parades dedicated to their local saint are a reason to have feasts and usually include the locals dressing in traditional folk costumes and enjoying folk music and dancing.  Even as an outsider, you are encouraged to take part in their festivities.

Dancing the Sardana in a street in Barcelona

A statue in Barcelona of the tradtional Catalan folk dance, the Sardana

2)     Everywhere you go you are standing on centuries, sometimes, millenniums, of history.  Last fall Andy and I spent ten days in what I now refer to "my little corner of France".  We came across a sign outside one of the medieval towns that we wanted to see which directed us to a fairly recent discovery of a large estate dating to the time of the Romans.  The story is that the woman who owns the land had always heard the family legend that their land was on top of Roman ruins.  So one day about fifteen years ago she took a shovel with her out into the pasture and started digging.  Her neighbors saw her and decided to help and "voila", she uncovered the remains.  They are still digging and painstakingly working to uncover the entire estate complete with baths, water works, many rooms which still have remarkable mosaic floors.  And they believe that the next field has a second estate most likely built by wealthy Roman military men who moved their families to Gaul (the Roman name for France).  It was fascinating.  And made us wonder how many other ruins there are all over Europe that have yet to be found.  And all around you there are castles and abbeys and churches and walled towns that date back one thousand to fifteen hundred years.

The water heating system of the Roman estate

A fully intact mosaic floor at the Roman estate

The 1200 year old city of Carcassonne in southern France

The 1300 year old monastery island of Mont St Michel in northern France

3.     I love France because there is still an emphasis on family values and social ethics.  France still enjoys leisurely lunches with friends and family.  Eating or drinking is never an end unto itself.  Meals are social occasions to be spent talking and visiting and discussing just about everything.  Or you meet friends after work (or I've seen kids meeting after school) at a local sidewalk cafe, sit outside, order something to drink and visit.  The French have been described as a country of introverts in the presence of strangers and I think this is a perfect description.  You always greet everyone with a "bonjour".  You treat shop keepers and waiters and cashiers as though you are visiting their homes.  You are respectful and I promise you will be treated in kind.  Politeness and social awareness are very important.  We Americans like to "make ourselves at home" everywhere and tend to ignore other cultures' behaviors and expectations.  But, as they say, "when in Rome . . . "

  Read the bottom 2 lines.  I included this just because I love it!

4.     Shopping is done every day, not because they run out of food or don't buy enough or don't plan ahead.  It's because market day and standing in line at the bakery is a chance for visiting and catching up and they love it.  Besides, you can't beat freshly made French bread!!  Markets sell only produce that is in season and the produce comes from local farmers so you know it's fresh and healthy and ready to be eaten immediately.  You won't find green bananas and hard peaches and unripe tomatoes.  If it isn't in season then you won't find it at the market.  Which gives you a wonderful chance to find some new recipes to use with those, quite likely, unfamiliar fruits and vegetables.
 

The flower market in Nice

A produce market in Siena

     I want to live in France, not just to have adventures, but to learn everyday something new about the place where I'm living or about who I am in that place.  And as I learn I will pass along that info to all of you through my blog.
     Thank you for reading this post and following me around those bends.  Merci mes amis!!

Home, Sweet Home. Where is That Exactly?

A funny thing happened on day sixteen of our seventeen day Italy trip.  I was thinking how nice it would be to get home and sleep in my own bed and play with CoCo and visit the zoo and do all those other things that I love to do.  And then I realized that the day will come when I don't have a home to go home to.  Oh, I will have houses to visit and stay in, but not my own home.  So it got me to thinking: what does it mean to "be at home"?

I have lived in eleven houses in my 63 years and my present house I have lived in for 40 of those years.  I have loved being in this old house.  This is where Andy grew up.  And where I have loved six dogs, 3 gerbils and 2 African clawed frogs.  A house I have decorated for Christmas 40 times and have enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal for most of those 40 years (other Thanksgivings were spent in Liberal, Kansas at my parents' house). 

But I am planning to sell this old house and move to France where I will live in other people's houses.  Many of you think I'm crazy, others think I'm brave.  Perhaps both are apt descriptions! 

There are many cliches and expressions about "home" other than the one in the title:  "Home is Where you Hang Your Hat",  "Home, Home on the Range" (I had to throw that one in there!).  I guess the one I like the most is "Home IS Where the Heart IS."  This is the one I can attest to.  This is the one that I know to be true for me.  The question is can my heart be in someone else's house?

What means "home" to you?  For some it is the actual house because it holds many memories.  For some it may be tangible items that they can look at everyday and take pleasure and comfort in seeing.  For some it's the people in the house.  Can you be "at home" without a house, per say?  I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out.

Having visited numerous prehistoric sights in southwest France (there are many of them), I think about early man.  I wonder what meant "home" to him/her.  They most likely did not have a permanent dwelling, but would have followed the food source.  I can imagine the hunter coming back from a quest and looking forward to a fire with food on it and his family near by.  Comfort, protection, affection.  Maybe that's all that's needed. 

Do I love my old house?  Yes, but it is just a house.  Memories will stay with me forever and I will take some mementos with me on my house sitting ventures.  And since I'll have CoCo with me that will feel like home.   I love the idea of experiencing other homes and seeing what feels like home in another culture.  I'm excited by it more than anything else.  I realize how different it will be.  I'm happy that I have made some friends in that area of France, both through travels and also through the magic of social media.  So I won't feel entirely alone in a new place.

By house sitting I will be able to get that experience of living in another country without the huge financial risk of buying a place and then not knowing about the utilities, the septic tank, the banking system, the taxes, etc.  It will give me a chance to get familiar with how things work before I decide on buying a house and creating a new home in France. It will give me a chance to explore different regions. To me it makes sense.

I also realize that after a few years of living in France (in other people's houses) I may decide that I have had enough of that adventure and will come back to the States.  But I also may decide that house sitting is a pretty good deal and perhaps I'll want to live in other countries as well while I'm still young enough and healthy enough to enjoy the adventure.

I always feel at home in France: the more leisurely lifestyle with 2 hour lunches appeals to me, the beautiful countryside, the feeling of belonging to something so very old and historic where people take pride in their families and not in what they wear or drive or how much stuff they own.  It feels more like the US felt to me 50 years ago.  I look forward to visiting the open air markets everyday and finding out what's in season and how to prepare certain dishes.  I hope to house sit at places with animals and gardens as I find a lot of joy in those aspects of "home".

I can assure all of you who are worried about me that I will be fine living in France.  I will be happy without a house and all the stuff that goes in it.  I will happy to not have a mortgage, to not pay homeowners insurance, to not worry about the roof or the furnace or the bills.  There will be a sense of freedom that I am certainly looking forward to.  "Footloose and Fancy Free" - that will be me and CoCo!  And just thinking about what's around that next bend thrills me!

And I invite you to join me on this journey - either through this blog or come and visit me in France and explore those bends with me.  It will be an adventure without a house to call my own, but  I have no doubt that I can "feel at home" in France.

My favorite valley in SW France

A Medieval church in the Comminge area of SW France

The Castle in Foix in SW France

A part of me will always be here

Had to show you the beautiful Elsa at our zoo!