Tag: summer

July Fun… Exploring Colorado Beauty…

Many fun July adventures in Colorado. There have been some beautiful days to get out and explore in between the continual hail-hell season! The above photos are overlooking the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range near Littleton, Morrison and Golden, Colorado. Gorgeous 360 degree views of the lush greenery and mountains with interspersed red rocks! Enjoyed an outdoor concert at the Manor House, the grounds are spectacular. It is an event center for weddings, etc. In the summer they have free concerts on the grounds, with food trucks, full bar, and it was fun touring the mansion. It was a blast, and we are planning to go again in August if the weather cooperates!

Attending Art Festivals in the summer is the thing to do here in Colorado, even if it is a scorching hot afternoon! I enjoyed the Cherry Creek Art Festival with friends, some amazing talented artists, and a lot of fun, even if it was a very hot afternoon! Luckily, when I attended the Evergreen Art Festival, the weather was superb! Gorgeous temps and breezy, with clouds blocking the hot Colorado sun! It was held in a lovely park on the grass, which made it even more enjoyable to stroll through. The art was spectacular, and I enjoyed chatting with the talented artists. Evergreen really lived up to its name, the grounds and surrounding views were lushly green, and breathtaking. Below are some collages of my art festival visits, and my other adventures in the area. A summer evening concert in my neighborhood, and fun with my meditation friends at Majestic View Park.

I also got to discover some new parks in the area, and I found a new Labyrinth to walk! Very exciting for me to find another labyrinth right in my neighborhood, I shall walk it often! While we were in Evergreen enjoying the art festival, we also took a stroll through another one of my favorite labyrinths. It was green and lush right by a creek surrounded by evergreen trees! A beautiful spot for solitude and contemplation. I went to visit a friend’s art opening at a brewery along a very eclectic artsy area in Denver, Tennyson Street. I discovered some very cool places to revisit again when the weather is better, since we got caught in the rain walking along the street festival!

The weather has been atrocious this spring and summer so far! It is either raining, thundering, hailing or too hot to go out! Currently, as I am typing this a monsoon thunderstorm is serenading me! I pray the internet doesn’t lose connection! I try to take advantage of the good weather days to enjoy as many outdoor activities as I can. There are only 53 days until Autumn, so waiting to enjoy those lovely cool days to explore and have more fun adventures here in Colorado! Looking forward to lots of Labyrinth walking and leaf peeping! I guess now that July is coming to an end, will August gift us with even more “Dog Days” of summer? Who knows what Mother Nature has in store!? Either way, the plan is to enjoy each day to the fullest!

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MARS Wild Colorado Florals …

As Spring turned into summer this month of June, I’ve been saving some sweet blooming flowers from the wild and wacky hail storms we’ve been encountering almost daily! I have declared that Colorado should have a fifth season, let’s call it: HAIL-Hell! This is my second year in May and June, last year was not at all like what we’ve experienced this year. It rained 40 days straight, and we’ve had major hail storms and even a tornado last week in the suburbs of Denver! This is actually wonderful getting all this moisture, it looks so lush and green, and best of all, I think it’s the first year since 2019 that almost the entire state has not been in a drought.

So my job lately has been to move around my new rose bush, so it wouldn’t get pummeled with hail the size of golf balls! The peony bush in the neighborhood was leaning on the ground waterlogged and too heavy to stay upright! I picked several bouquets and brought them home to a lovely safe vase, and have enjoyed their delicate beauty and fragrance. My dahlia plant has been through holy hell, many blooms did get pummeled when I wasn’t home to save them! I did save a few just yesterday before another HAIL-Hell storm hit, and one dahlia bloom and a rose bud are now in a vase. Thankfully the iris fields were in bloom before the wacky storms became relentless. I did enjoy photographing many of them in the neighborhood, and got to bring a few bunches home to live out their remaining days in a vase, beautifying my home!

I have had some fun doing photoart with the digital pictures I’ve been taking of all these beautiful flora. I have created a series that I call: MARS Wild Colorado Florals, and have included some photos below. I am selling them as greeting cards, prints, etc. on Fine Art America, click the link on each photo if you fall in love with them.

I’ve been counting the days until Autumn arrives, ever since Summer Solstice began on June 21st! In 84 days I will be smiling and grateful to have survived another Colorado summer! I love Autumn and Spring, but I can do without Winter, Summer and now HAIL-Hell season!

Enjoy your summer, I know there are many of you that adore summertime. I will be enjoying the AC and a Caribbean mule while listening to a wonderful audio book or podcast!

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Officially a Coloradan!

After 48 years of Colorado dreaming I have officially become a Coloradan! I got my Colorado ID/drivers license, car registration/license plates, and voted in the primary election! Now, let’s hope I don’t get called for jury duty, not yet at least!!! The month of June went by like a flash, so many official things to accomplish!

Colorado Plein Air creations by Mars

I did have some creative fun in June, and began a 53 week plein air art project, drawing my interpretations of the Rocky Mountains and surrounding landscape. I have been inspired while visiting all my favorite nature spots in the area. I continue to walk the labyrinth several times a week, and love my meditation in nature class every Wednesday at Majestic View Park. That is where most of my drawings were created, along with my newest nature favorite, along Standley Lake trail. I am excited to begin a drawing and art class on July 1st which I hope will assist in improving my skills immensely!

Continuing in the creative mode, I got inspired to write a short story about my almost 4 months of living here, and the trials and tribulations of life at my affordable rental house! It was very cathartic to write, and is quite humorous at times. I have always loved Norah Ephron’s writing, so I attempted to infuse some of her style into my story.

I have also begun writing another memoir, this one about the past 5 years of my life, which I have entitled: “Limbo”! I have written about 6,000 words so far, and many more to go! The past 5 years have been filled with so many adventures and challenges, and as I write this memoir it brings up many emotions that I have pushed aside, so I could keep moving forward, and now it has become a very necessary healing and cathartic piece to write. The uncertainty of life during the pandemic was excruciating to write about, it was a time of “Limbo” for all of us. Between my Zen adventures, the political climate, the pandemic, and all the unplanned moving around I had to do, it has been quite a ride in Limbo Land for me! Limbo Land also known as the space in between, the bridge to nowhere, and the timelessness tunnel of my life.

I mentioned this is my second memoir, my first was written during the height of the pandemic in 2020. It was a great escape into reliving my many wonderful food related travel adventures throughout my life! It is available on amazon, and is called: “My Royal Palate”, Lobster, Steak and Ice Cream! There are great stories about my childhood, family restaurant, and many delicious recipes are included!

The summer solstice just passed us by, and I have begun the countdown, there are 84 days until autumn arrives. I hate summer, I hate being HOT, I hate being sweaty, and I really HATE mosquitos! See you in July, it’s one month closer to autumn!

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Serendipity~Sunset Heart~Heart-Soul

Sunset Heart

Today is the last day of August 2021, it doesn’t seem possible that summer is coming to an end already, and autumn will begin in 22 days! This has been a summer I will never forget, living on Long Island since mid-May, having to adapt to the hot, humid, and almost hurricane weather! It has been very challenging for me after living on the West Coast for 45 years and being accustomed to a very different climate. Somehow I have survived, and even at times thrived! In the past few weeks I have discovered a lovely nature area where I have been able to capture some amazing sunset photos. The best part about it has been seeing Heart Clouds in the sky each time I have gone there, reminding me that I am still the HEART Lady, just not of Sedona anymore! I am MARS “The HEART Lady” of NY! Heart clouds are still following me wherever I go! It brings such joy to my Heart-Soul, a word I have adopted as my own.

My Heart and Soul are one, so I have joined the words together to form a union, since for me they surely belong together. My Heart-Soul experiences many different emotions, sometimes joyful and sometimes sorrowful. This past summer has been filled with both emotions, but mostly sorrow, and feeling wounded to the core. But, I hang on dearly to the moments when I feel joyful and happy, knowing that I have the capacity to feel both, and hopefully will feel the later more often than not. For most people it takes a long time to adapt to major life changes, moving to a new city, adjusting to a new environment, and being out of your comfort zone, are all very difficult. Most of the time, these past 3 1/2 months since moving from AZ to NY, I have been in survival mode. I have been so very homesick most of the time, grieving the loss of my home, and feeling down deep in my heart-soul that I want to go home, but it’s not possible. I have good days and bad days, but at the three month mark I noticed I may have turned a corner, and now I feel much more accustomed to my new life and environment.

Taking it one step at a time, I have been getting familiar with the area, networking, meeting new people, getting my library card, and happily discovering neighborhood parks to enjoy moments in nature. I found a lovely bench, a tree that I will adopt for all the seasons to photograph, and a perfect spot to take amazing sunset photos. And best of all, the Heart clouds have found me! This evenings sunset photo with the giant heart cloud in the sky, was surely a moment of serendipity that delighted my heart-soul. I believe the Universe is always at work designing our lives with a touch of serendipity, it’s always there, you just have to look for it.

Serendipity
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