After Steven and I returned home in mid-March just weeks into our anticipated four-month-trip to Asia and the Middle East because of the coronoavirus, I began walking in neighborhoods near our Denver home with friends. The following are photos from my daily walks that began as an observation of the social and political changes around us and then morphed into the beauty and quirky around us.
Last post I wrote about my visit to the Columbine Memorial at the regional park near Columbine High School. Not surprisingly as our neighborhood is called Columbine Knolls South/Estates, many residents have elected to plant columbines, the state flower, in their gardens. Here are a couple varieties I photographed on May 10th.
May 11th: Never before the last few months has there been sidewalk art that I noticed so this one was especially sweet.
May 12th: I wonder what book a child might have been reading to think of creating this winged horse?
You could never forget what state we live in seeing this mailbox in an adjacent neighborhood! What a novel way to recycle old plates. FYI: There are now over 100 varieties of vanity or 'special interest plates' in our state!
The side mural on the Hogback Restaurant, a BBQ joint, along Platte Canyon: Though Steven and I had never eaten there before the pandemic, we have made a point of getting take out there a couple of times in an effort to support it and other local restaurants who are struggling. I am sure glad we did try their delicious pulled pork sandwiches as they'll have to do until we enjoy more southern fare on the long drive to our favorite state park in Florida where we'll stay in a cabin.
May 13th: The beauty of spring:
May 14th: Some of the first poppies of the season while on a morning walk with Darlene near her home off Coal Mine:
In an afternoon walk later that same day with Gail, she and I noticed the Colorado state flag flying high in an neighborhood east of Pierce. I included this because I hadn't seen the flag ever before at a home and still none in our own neighborhood just a few blocks away to the west.
Gail's husband, Dennis, took the photo of our mountain neighbors in the front yard near both our homes! Since we live so close to the Foothills, deer are not an uncommon sight in our streets and two parks. We were even treated to the sighting of an elk a year or so ago.
A shot looking west, also on the 14th, of the aforementioned Foothills while walking up the path at West Laurel Park toward our home which is right across from the park. We're so close to the Foothills we don't see the magnificent Rocky Mountains just behind them.
May 15th: A more distant view of the Foothills taken on a morning walk with Darlene west of Wadsworth, a major thoroughfare.
More happy rocks - yeah!
Ellen: Your lilac bushes that back up to the West Laurel Park trail looked particularly beautiful this year!
When's the last time you saw a mailbox like this?!
May 16th: When Gail and I walked around all of the cul de sacs in our neighborhood over the course of a week we couldn't help but smile when we saw this Old Folks Zone on one of them!
These flowering bushes along Pierce looked so pretty until Gail and I got close to them and found they were the foulest smelling flowers imaginable!
May 17th: A house south of Coal Mine had more birdhouses than any I had seen.
Darlene and I were encouraged to run, skip, and do other exercises by a wannabe gym teacher in the same neighborhood!
Later that afternoon another friend, Karen, and I walked around Clement Lake while her four sweet granddaughters sped ahead on their scooters. Note another view of the picturesque Foothills in the background.
May 18th: A few days earlier, this same spot had only seen poppies blooming. Irises added to the mix complemented the poppies so beautifully.
Another variety of poppies - these small dainty ones were California poppies, I believe.
What an elaborate mailbox Gail and I spied on the 18th. I can't remember if it matched the house!
May 19th: Were these bluets we saw along Canyon, Gail?
I hoped the homeowners in the Columbine Hills subdivision didn't mind my walking on their lawn to take a shot of their parrot basket of flowers.
More Columbine flowers on May 20th:
May 21st: You can just see a hint of the white-tipped mountains in the background behind an almost unidentifiable Chris in her Grant Ranch subdivision because it's further east and therefore away from the Foothills.
A sign indicated how important it was to build the right type of birdhouse for the desired local birds of bats. Box dimensions, hole sizes, and locations are contributing factors what birds will want to come.
This horse sculpture in Grant Ranch almost had the neck of a giraffe!
That same afternoon, Gail challenged me to walk through the culvert at Wayside Meadows Park in the southern part of our subdivision that went under Wadsworth Blvd. I had passed the culvert at least 200 times over the years but had managed to avoid the culvert until that afternoon but I wasn't about to wimp out.
It was fun exploring another subdivision and seeing some unusual 'lawn art' for lack of a better description!
As cacti are relatively rare in our climate, these ones caught my attention that afternoon.
Amen!
I wondered if a fascination with The Amazing Race TV show had anything to do with this collection of gnome figures!
After walking for a few miles that afternoon, Gail and I made our way home north on Garrison past this horse property. Even though Steven and I have now lived in the same house for over 30 years, I never knew this horse property was only a few blocks away!
Next post: Look for more quirky and inspirational art in Part 3 of this mini series of life and art during Covid 19.
Or, for a change of pace you can visit London's British Museum's incomparable Egyptian Gallery with us here as we did last October:
On the other side of the world, you can also visit Sri Lanka's ancient city and UNESCO sites in Anadhapura as we did in March:
Posted on June 18th, 2020, on our last night in San Francisco and as we said good bye to sweet Max Ellie, our first grandchild. May you and your loved ones be safe.
.. beautiful blossoms, creative mailboxes, mountain vistas and happy messaging .. thanks so much for the fabulous tour (through your lens) of your neighbourhood !! xoxo
ReplyDeleteSo enjoyed the opportunity to discover neighborhoods around us that would have remained undiscovered to me except for the coronavirus, Lina. It has been so much fun seeing how creative people are with mailboxes, sidewalk art and also lawn ornaments!
DeleteHugs,
Annie
Love the blossom photo in this post. Can you send it to me easily? I'd love to paint it.
ReplyDeleteIvy,
DeleteI just need to know which blossom photo caught your eye so you can paint it. Will be glad to to send it to you especially if you tell me which day I took the photo.
Thanks for sharing. Now I know how you get in shape for your long walking tours around the world!
ReplyDeleteMarti,
DeleteGood point, my dear, although I have never done as much walking consistently as I did from early April to the beginning of June. Just need another overseas trip to go on sometime soon, I think!
All the best to you and Bob,
Annie