Under a Red Roof

Sofa, Scones, and Flowers

June 11, 2025 in Cooking + Baking, Decorating, Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

Nature abhors a vacuum…

Thankfully, it wasn’t long (two hours) before our vacuum was filled with this spectacularly studded sofa! Only eleven months in the making, but them’s the breaks when you order a custom, made in the USA, couch from Roger & Chris. It is called Howdy (in case you are both looking and patient), quite firm and equally comfortable, with, super bonus, leather not viciously subject to Juniper claws. I love it. We love it. It complements the room and has since acquired a nice wool blanket to prevent drool stains, Juniper’s not ours. Picking the battles.

Now is the time we dance…well, not really, but feel free. I was simply in need of a segue way to the food portion of our program.

I shared some rhubarb with our neighbor, Nancy, and she shared two slices of delicious custard pie made with it. I, in turn, made scones (dried blueberry and gouda & green onion) in order to avoid returning an empty plate. A marvelously tasty circle, dear reader.

We bought a couple of ridiculously sour grapefruits and decided they would be better served in margaritas. I substituted the lime juice in my recipe for 1.5 grapefruits – membranes, seeds, and pith removed, 1/2 cup tequila, 1/4 cup Grand Gala, 2 tablespoons agave nectar, and a generous pinch of salt, whirred in the Vitamix, before adding one 12 oz can of bubbly water, which just so happened to be pink grapefruit. So very good.

Finally, this is a tiny teaser for a future blog post. We went to New Mexico, mostly lazing about in a house overlooking the Pecos River. Anyhoo, if you’ve ever driven south on I-25 from Colorado Springs over the past decade, you’ve probably spied the white panel van on the side of the road advertising Ringo’s Grocery. My Grandma Esquipula Maes (1827-1905) is buried in Aguilar, so we first popped in for a hello at her grave before ambling to Ringo’s. It is a surprise of a market for such a small town, with a very nice deli and house made sausage. We bought a green chile and spicy Italian links. You’ll never guess which I used here, LOL. Since I had no hankering for pasta, I made a quickety-quick flatbread. Boy, was it tasty!

Teeny tiny wild rose: blossoms 1.5 inches across with crazy fragrant flowers. So cute!

iris

serviceberry

ladybug interlude

orange horned poppy after the rain

snowball

Teeny tiny mushroom – can you tell the rain has been abundant, as of late?

Juniper interlude

coral charm peony

sage

sculpit

evening primrose

ninebark

Oregon grape

pavement rose

callirhoe

Jupiter’s beard

orange horned poppy

bartzella peony

And that, my friends is everything currently blooming in the garden! Oh, wait, I just glanced out the window to marvel and realized I missed a purple penstemon. Picture it in your beautiful brain. I’m off…

Local Color

May 19, 2025 in Gardening + Nature, Learning by Colleen | Permalink

The patio is open for business! Please note the utter lack of blown debris on the concrete. This took what, at times, felt like a Herculean effort, as the area is a literal wind magnet, bringing in leaves, seeds, garbage from way off yonder, and, of course dirt, dust, and gravel. A real treat.

Not pictured, but delightful, is our babbling brook of a fountain, as well. We live large…

The light!!!

Juniper continues her modeling career, to great effect!

neighborhood poppy

I used to think I knew what this was, but I really don’t.

penstemon

Grandma’s rose! It is going bananas, even suckering to produce multiple bushes, about which I have no complaints.

wild garlic

mallow?

many flowered puccoon – such a dreadful name for a lively flower!

Vetch, methinks, based on those teeny leaves.

yucca

How about the local color, the majority of which are wildflowers. Thank you, Mother Nature. Thank you, very much!

The light made tree stumps of my legs, but whatever, my body is leagues away from perfect!

This reminds me, a few weeks ago, I went for a hair trim at Great Clips because my other delightful lady moved, and I didn’t want to bother with the hullaballoo of seeking out a new “salon” person. I’ve been going a couple years and never had a problem.

Anyhoo, at the end, she asked if I would like some layering at the bottom. Turns out, I’d been thinking texture and said yes, believing she’d pull out those funny scissors that do just that. Before I even had a moment to discuss it, she raised a hunk of hair and lopped off ten inches. I shuddered, but thought she knew what she was doing. I was VERY incorrect. After it was over, it looked as though I had two hair cuts: one a-line bob starting at the back of my head, down to mid neck in the front, and another very long layer below, only I couldn’t actually see it until I got home because she brushed it just right.

When your not terribly detail oriented husband says your hair looks “weird,” you know you have problems. I returned early the next morning, to a new batch of clippers and shocked them with the horror of my cut. It was repaired as best it could be (for free, thankfully), including the loss of about five inches off the bottom to make the two hairdo situation a little less so. I am hoping to have righted the ship by Christmas!

Let’s end on a literal high note (14,107 feet!), shall we? The beauty of Pikes Peak – cause it can’t, it won’t, and it don’t stop, to nearly quote the Beastie Boys.

My head is such a marvelous jumble of song lyrics…

Our garden now…

May 10, 2025 in Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

Nothing like the green of spring after the long brown of winter. It is on, and I am loving it!

First Flush

April 11, 2025 in Gardening + Nature by Colleen | Permalink

Spring is finally showing her beautiful face in our neck of the woods! Look at this gorgeous first flush of leaf and bloom, a spirit lifter if ever there was! This photo is service berry, and I absolutely love the little whisper of spider web on the bottom bud.

I am equally delighted to think there will soon be food in the form of flowers for the eager bees and wasps giving our garden a good zoom.

Sea buckthorn lives up to the name. We planted male and female bushes, but have yet to make any fruit, which is a real shame.

aspen

choke cherry

golden currant

rose

russian elm and babbling brook

Winter Days

February 11, 2025 in Gardening + Nature, Making by Colleen | Permalink

Happy Winter Days! We are blissfully over a very localized blizzard (What do you mean there is no snow on the West side?!) and horrible deep freeze, lasting over a week and preventing any serious Juniper walks. On one occasion, we were out shoveling, and she had to wee, so she bounded out in her usual happy fashion only to realize the subzero temperatures by walking on her hind legs to spare her front paws from freezing. How is that for funny and sad in one gesture?

Here’s a hoot and holler for my best batch of marmalade, ever! As you hopefully can see, I used orange – blood and navel, lemon, and grapefruit, each of which is discernible, a perfectly balanced medley. I also added slivers of zest, as I only wanted the pith from half of the fruits. Good gracious – the color, the texture, the flavor. I am seriously in love with it. Greg is, too.

Costco had giant jars of nacho cheese at a very nice low, low price, so, of course, this nacho lover had to bring some home. I dolled it up with chipotles and pureed beans, this bit of salsa, and, of course, chopped slices of pickled jalapenos, for the perfect distribution of flavor in every bite. Happiness and memories of paper boats with light bulb warmed chips, layers of glorious glop, and fingers crossed for a generous spoonful of peppers when catching a movie at the Westminster Mall as a whipper-snapping teen.

I have really refined my soap-making these past few years, narrowing down my favorite scents and oil blends, even creating a most fabulous shampoo. Those above even have prickly pear juice from our own fruits, which makes for super nourishing bars. I’ve also taken to adding zinc oxide to both for all the skin and hair benefits (scroll down to Table 1 and take note of topical uses).

Further proof that everything in life is a work in progress, I added a little too much zinc to the standard soap, and it leaves a thin film on the bars in between uses. We’ll see if I can make it disappear, peeps!