In Mountain and Meadow~Colorado Nature Close To Home

07 October ~ 2007

I went out this evening and picked some pears off my thirty foot tall pear tree, right from the edge of the deck. They are moist and delicious - perfectly ripe. I noticed Maggie spend a good twenty minutes taking little bites out of one this morning in the yard. I offered a bite of one to Ben, but he is not a big fruit-eater.

I spent this weekend mowing and reseeding the lawns, and trimming the trees. Once I had that done I went hiking to see the fall colors, and of course dancing in the evenings.

Up in Lair of the Bear Canyon the narrowleaf cottonwoods were at their peak. I am usually up there leading a nature program, and this solitary walk felt a lot less rich compared to being out with 20 children and their teacher, showing them the wonders of nature - a hummingbird nest, a raccoon track in the mud, some deer retreating up the hillside.

I found a secret path at the bottom of the hill though, and me and Ben and Maggie followed it around through the woods along the creek to where it looped back to the trail. I will probably take my school group on it when I lead a program there on Thursday.

We are still a few days away from peak colors down here on the edge of the plains where the Greenbelt is, but the early yellows on the Box Elder and the reds on the Virginia Creeper are still gorgeous. All the apples are ripe and remain hanging on the trees, which means we have some fat and happy raccoons on the north hill.

I was looking forward to Saturday night even more than normal this weekend, because I didn't have a lot going on except my hiking and yard work, and was yearning for some social life. (a woman's touch). Before the Grizzly Rose I went to a swing dance in the upstairs of an old church. The organizer and DJ is very enthusiatic, to the point of being silly. At one point he was holding his old style microphone in his fist and giving us announcements, even though his voice would be too loud without it considering the size of the room and the intensity of his delivery. He is simple and happy though, and I wanted to do what I could to help his swing dances be a success.

He told us that next month there will be a live band, and in December David Booker will be playing there. That surprised me, because I have heard David Booker several times. He is one of the best swing and blues guitarists in Denver.

The fact that there are four women to one man also played in my decision to go there first. I made sure to dance with all the ladies, and was patient with those that were just learning. I danced with one several times, a slender woman who had her black hair tied back into a pony tail and wore a black mid-length dress. The room was empty enough that we were able to move around counter clockwise while I showed her the twostep. She picked that up right away, and then when I explained the difference between normal swing and the Lindy, she also picked that up before the song was over. There is no doubt she is a natural dancer, and it also may be that I have been doing this enough that my leads are patient and confidant. I hope so anyway. Before I left I thanked her for dancing, and she said she would be back next month.

The Rose was good, as ever. I stayed out till after midnight, and had some memorable dances with a couple of tall athletic blonds. It is amazing how great it feels to dance with a lady that is used to moving, either from sports or aerobic exercise. They are light in my hands, and it takes little effort to get them to turn and spins. Woman like that are a lot of the reason I love dancing so much.

We seem to have new people each week, which I think is from the statewide smoking ban that is now a year and a half old. More people are going to honky tonks who previously might have avoided them because of the smoke.

The last two dances were with the same lady - tall, with short blond hair, and warm and pleasant. I remember the songs, an easy two step to Walk of Life and a fast triple step to Johnny Cash:

^{Walk of Life (enter userid of 'music' and password of 'music')}

^{Johnny Cash (by Jason Aldean) (enter userid of 'music' and password of 'music')}