Happy Holidays to all my Friends

The holidays are here and it is one of my favorite times of year. I will be taking time off to spend with my family the next couple weeks. My Mom is visiting from Ohio, my husband has a little time off, and my daughter is with us. So I plan on playing games, taking long walks, baking cookies, and maybe even building a snowman. I wish each one of you a very merry and festive celebration with your loved ones and only the best for the coming new year. I will come back refreshed and ready to go after New Years. In the meantime, I hope you will accept this small gift of a desktop calendar for your computer. Just click the link and when you get to Flickr download the file. See you next year!

download this free desktop wallpaper calendar for January 2010 here

Easy Instructions
After clicking on the above link
you will be at my Flickr page. Simply click on
"Download the Original size"
at the top left of the page.
The file will then download to your desktop!

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Thank you Myan Art Studio

I recently won a giveaway from Myan Art Studio. Myan happens to be one of the best photographers that I have met on Etsy. Her style is edgy and urban, strong and bold, upbeat and hip. She is a Los Angeles artist/photographer who was originally from the east coast. After working as a TV graphic designer and a TV promotions producer, she went back to her first love, photography, and her passion shows. When she is not on a quest to capture light and stop time, she can be found painting, ingesting gobs of sweets & tea, and spending time with her husband and critters. Stop by and visit her shop on Etsy and you will not be disappointed!

2010 Los Angeles Mini Calendar
Eat your hearts out! I think I got the last one since it was not in her shop. Just to make sure contact Myan.

Old Hollywood - Roosevelt Hotel
Isn't this absolutely gorgeous! I can not wait to get it up and hanging in my studio. You can have this too. Just click the link below.
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Sunrise Snow

Sleepy eyed I peeked my head out from under the warm covers. A rosy glow was painting the ponderosa pines outside my window a lovely blush. I slowly crawled out of bed and grabbed my robe. On my way to fix coffee I noticed that the room was flooded with the early eastern light casting pink glows and purple shadows across the room. Fortified with a cup of coffee I threw a coat on and ventured out into the front yard. Last year's dried flowers were pushing up from under a blue blanket of snow in the soft pink light of sunrise. I hope you like this wintry picture too.

Sunrise Snow
Last year's dried flowers look lovely under a blue blanket of snow in the soft rose light of sunrise.
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A Winter Walk with Furry Pals

The day was a balmy 40F degrees and the sun was shining. The foxhound and the Australian shepherd were looking at me with expectant toothy grins. Okay, let's go for a walk! After much leaping about on their part and pulling on boots and coat on my part, we were ready. I opened the front door and they waited politely until I said okay, then they bounded away leaping and cavorting in the snow. Rob plopped down in a rather large snowdrift, then plunged his face down into the snow and immediately looked at me as if to say "I love snow!" Meanwhile Dulcie was waiting on the road ready to get down to the business of a walk. Let's go!

Dog on Road
The loyal hound waits patiently for her morning walk in the winter light of a snowy mountain top road.
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Christmas Tree Hunt

Every year for the last ten we have ventured out into the forest to cut our Christmas tree. We usually start searching for the right tree that we want to invite into our home for the holidays in the fall, when the ground is still bare and it is much easier to walk through the rugged terrain.

Cutting your own Christmas tree can be very satisfying. First you have to hunt one down. Then after stalking it for awhile and making sure there is not a better candidate to be found, you wait for the Christmas season to arrive. Finally it is time and you are ready for your tree, but you look at your mate and say, "Where did we see that tree?" Finally, memories intact and boots on, you trudge through snow to where you remember you found the tree, and with a rather small but dangerously sharp hand saw you cut it down and drag it home. Mission accomplished!

We have a forest of primarily Ponderosa Pines and Douglas Firs around our home and the little firs make the best Christmas trees. They smell like lemons when freshly cut and are soft to the touch. Plus they always grow at least two feet after you bring them inside.

Western Man in Winter
A man on a mission to find the perfect Christmas tree ventures out into the snowy wilderness of a Colorado forest.
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Is this the one?

Holiday Front Door
My very own front door and snowy stone walk decorated for the holidays beckon the weary traveler to stop in for a cup of hot chocolate.
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Going Home to a Warm Wood Stove

My trip down the mountain was to pick up a a perishable package that had been left at the little rural post office ten miles away. The truck plowed through the drifts that had blown across the road during the night. Unconcerned but focused, I slowly inched the truck forward and down the steep hill. Ten years of navigating this narrow twisting mountain road has taught me caution, but I know every bend by heart.

Mission accomplished. The dogs were happy to have gotten out of the house for awhile, and I was satisfied and loaded up with a box of citrus fruit. As we bumped our way back up the mountain my thoughts drifted to the warm wood stove waiting for me to warm my toes by. Our primary source of heat is our reliable Vermont Castings EPA certified wood stove. All summer long we work culling out the dead and dying trees, and improving the health of our forest. Our wood pile steadily grows all summer to provide us with high quality wood heat that wraps around you like a soft warm blanket on a cold winter day.

Going Home
A narrow mountain road disappears up into the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado on a winter day after the road has been freshly plowed.
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Fire Ripple
The heat shimmers through the glass face of the wood stove warming our home.
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For those that might be wondering, we do have several installed propane heaters and two gas fireplaces for back up heat when we are not home to stoke the wood stove. But I'll take my wood stove any day!

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A Mountain Home in the Colorado Rockies

The cold arctic air continues to dip down into the Colorado Rockies and sprinkle us with snowfall. One thing that is different for me from most people is that I live five miles from a paved road. Much of this dirt road is private and does not get plowed by any government entity. So anyone that lives on this road is responsible for keeping it passable in the winter months. My husband typically plows about a mile and a half of steep treacherous terrain with his sturdy Ford F150 and an attached snowplow. The other three neighbors pitch in for the remainder. That is another thing that is different for us. We really do rely on our neighbors.

Many of you know I live in a remote off-grid home and I thought I would share a bit of my lifestyle with you. There is too much to talk about in one post so I will try to mention just a bit at a time. If any of you have questions, please ask. I may even do a post about your question.

Stellers Ridge Snow
A winter wonderland of snowy pines greets me when I walk down my mountain top drive in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
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Snowy Home
This is a textured artistic interpretation of my off-grid home on a snowy winter day.

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Snowy Trees in a Winter Landscape

My boots crunched as I walked the dogs in the frigid morning air. Their breath puffed out in jets of steam as they charged ahead. The fresh snow outlined everything in lacy sparkling white. I had to pause and soak it in, the cold forgotten. I am the "Winter Girl." The cottonwoods on the valley floor remind me of old oil paintings of the romanticism period, with pastural meadows and large trees. It would have looked the same to a passerby one hundred years ago. My contemplations are abruptly ended by dog noses nudging me forward. It is time to continue our walk.

Mesa Cottonwoods in Winter
Snowy cottonwoods line a creek at the bottom of the towering western mesa pointing to a water source and creating layers of subtle color.
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Snowy Cottonwoods in Blue
The western landscape turns a subtle shade of blue under the intense azure winter sky and highlights the stark row of cottonwood trees.
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Ed Abbey's American Southwest

The temperature was zero degrees F this morning. It was snowing. It is December in the northern Rockies of Colorado. Everywhere I look there are pine boughs laden with snow, a lovely vision often seen on a holiday card. So just to have a little change of perspective I decided to shift my focus to Ed Abbey's favorite country, the American desert southwest. For those of you who may not know who Ed Abbey was, he wrote many famous books and among them "The Monkey Wrench Gang," is one of my personal favorites. I can envision Hayduke, a radical environmentalist and Vietnam vet in the book, dining at this roadside restaurant and then disappearing into the rocky terrain of Zion National Park. I recently submitted these two photos to a literary magazine called "Matter Journal" for their edition coming out next summer on Ed Abbey. I thought I would share them with you and put the snowy shots aside for today.

Monkey Wrench Diner
It was a hot summer day when I came across this roadside diner in the American Southwest. It made me think of the book, "The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Ed Abbey. I can just imagine Ed dining here.
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Zion Landscape
The layers of sedimentation are clearly visible in this photo taken at Zion National Park. Ancient seabeds became limestone; mud and clay became mudstones and shale; and desert sand became sandstone.
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Chickadee Snow Note Cards Set of Four

I woke up to a fresh blanket of snow covering the pine forest. After fixing coffee I went about my morning routine; build a fire in the wood stove, feed the dogs, and fill the bird feeder. All the little birds were huddled in the snowy boughs waiting for me to hurry up. There were lots of mountain chickadees, nuthatches, and stellers jays. One little chickadee reminded me of a holiday ornament he was so puffed up and round, so I had to snap a photo. Then I thought he would make a very cute holiday note card for sending those thank you notes. So I got busy designing and here is the end result. Hope you like him!

Chickadee Snow Fine Art Note Card Set of Four

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