Driving into Boulder-

This is the family peony, the same plant that came through the Cumberland Gap in the 1800s. Several of us have pieces of it around the country now.

Wonderland Lake from lake level and from up on the hill that I hiked a couple days.

4/20/2012 I hiked up the hillside this morning, I don’t know if you call it a hill, foothill, mountain. It was 40 degrees but the sun is so warm here in Boulder that I had to peel down to my t-shirt. I saw a young man setting up a para-sail on a hill below me, and got to watch him soar through the air later as I was on my own earth-bound descent. It was so quiet when he flew, no noise but the sound of the breeze catching his sail, and so graceful, that floating through the air. If I lived here I might like to do that. And it was a long flight, not a quick shot like I had imagined, thinking all that preparation for such a short ride-

The day before we left we watched another glider from below. He got going on a thermal just like a hawk does, and he went up and up and up in a big circle. Don’t know if he ever came down.

Boulder is like another country. For all the healthy people here who exercise all the time there is no one stirring much before 9 AM, at least I haven’t seen them when I go hiking around 6 AM. My husband once said that folks who move here are issued a Subaru and a big yellow dog upon arrival. Now Subarus have been displaced by Prius’.

Wonderland Lake from near the top of the hill, and looking up from the lake-

Coot Lake

Family dinner at the teahouse-

The Dushanbe Teahouse was a gift to Boulder from its sister city, Dushanbe Tajikistan. All the work, which includes very intricate painting and wood carving, was done by hand without the use of any power tools. In Tajikistan the teahouse is the place where villagers  gather, drink tea, and visit with each other. In exchange for this beautiful teahouse, Dushanbe got a cyber-cafe. The contrast between the teahouse and a cyber-cafe requires no amplification, I think. But it betrays a poverty of spirit and a lack of ritual and reverence in our culture that sometimes takes me aback. Here’s a link to the teahouse website http://www.boulderteahouse.com/