My Say What Blog Archives - Page 50 of 56

Mar 8th Spring and Family Collide

Shamrock4 small March is here! Yea! The wearing of the green, always brings me into a Spring mood. This year Easter is right on it’s heels, which makes decorating my house for Easter a short-lived experience. I love all those pastel eggs, bunnies, butterflies and happy things. No I don’t forget the reason for the season either.

It’s time to encourage the brown grass to bring up new green shoots. Daffodils, tulips, crocus all have their little green sprouts above ground checking for acceptable weather. Inevitably, they get snowed on at least once here in the Rocky Mountains, but they persevere anyway and put on a colorful show. I love Spring.

I’ve been planning our 2016 camping excursions since December, making those all important reservations at Steamboat Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Twin Lakes and many more. A trip to Lake Vallecito this year is exciting, especially to meet up with friends. However, last night I discovered that maybe, we’ll have to rearrange a few details this year.

A death in the family, and failure to keep in touch with cousins I was close with growing up gave me pause for thought. I received a letter and an obituary in the mail of a favorite uncle a few weeks after the fact. Why… because my cousin didn’t know how to contact me. She located my webpage, facebook page, but a death is something you don’t want to post on social media.

When I received the letter, I immediately looked her up online and located a phone number, made the call. After forty-five minutes of catching up, I was sad how much we’d missed after we grew up and life intervened. The reason for lack of communication is not always what you think. What a shame.

So… plans to return to my childhood stomping grounds may lessen the amount of time we spend in state and federal parks this year. Connecting with family and friends I haven’t seen in years, seems more important. To my credit, I always send a newsy Christmas Letter with pictures of where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing. That’s how my cousin knew my address. Life is unpredictable, what you assume will always be there when you are ready… can disappear in an instant.

I’m not one for genealogy, but connecting with family that helped make childhood memories so precious is something I wish I’d done sooner. But better late than never. I hope this acts as a reminder to pick up the phone, call someone you’ve put off too long connecting with, because… you never know. Sorry for the less than inspiring post this week.

Some good news. Copy edits are done on my next novel, A Witch’s Journey. A story about how meeting the right person can make all the difference in the world. No matter who or what your are. I await excitedly for a peek at the book’s cover, soon to come. I’ll share it of course.

Do you have people you wish you’d stayed in contact with? Look ‘em up, give ‘em a call. If only to say hi, how are you doing?

I love to hear from readers. Take a minute, write a comment. You’ll be glad you did, and so will I.

Next week I promise a happier topic as I discuss favorite camping haunts. Places to enjoy in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Also the challenge of gardening in a short growing season. Until then, make each day count!

Posted in Food for Thought, My Say What Blog and tagged A Witch's Journey, camping, Colorado Rockies, family, flowers, remember, Spring, writing by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

Feb 1st It’s Party Time!

mavp2016 This year has been a blast so far. After mega hours at the computer and too many phone redials to count, finally got most our camping reservations for spring and summer set. Still missing the elusive Rocky Mountain National reservations, but I’ll get ’em. Love that place and apparently so do thousands of others from around the world! I’ll be blogging about new camping spots we found in the next couple of months.

I am celebrating with The Romance Reviews, they have more than 300 participating authors and publishers, and more than 300 prizes up for grabs during the whole month of February. Grand prize is $200 Amazon Gift Certificate! Plus over $300 Gift Certificates and more than 300 book giveaways! What are you waiting for, get over there. You are not going to want to miss this!

Charm Me will be featured on the center of the The Romance Reviews Party Event Page from February 8-12th with a chance to win an ebook for the right answer to a question about Charm Me appearing on February 18th.

You’ll need to register at TRR and log in before you play the games for prizes, to keep track of your points for each game. Registration is free an easy.

Here it is February 1st, huge fluffy white snow flakes are falling, there’s six inches of wet white stuff on the ground and counting. No can’t be measured in feet… yet. We’ll be able to use our snowblower for the fourth time this year. Bought it three years ago, used it only once until this year. Little did I know that’s how to moderate the snow in Colorado. Got snowblower, no snow. Kinda like washing your car in the summertime, it’s guaranteed to rain. LOL Remember camping season is right around the corner! Ok, maybe a long, long corner. Stay warm and safe.

12 inches and still snowing!

No she is not laying down, standing in several inches of snow and loving it!

Posted in For Fun, My Say What Blog, Uncategorized by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

Jan 25th Rocky Mountain National Park in the Winter

Just inside RMNP Gate

Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most visited National Parks in America! We have always spent at least a couple weekends up there camping each summer and fall, but never visited during the winter. This was about to change. On my birthday weekend, my hubby decided to surprise me with a short road trip to RMNP, it’s one of my favorite places in the whole world. We packed up the parrot, dog and ourselves and headed to the high country, brought along a wonderful lunch of raspberry iced tea, turkey sandwiches, Fritos, pretzels and red velvet cake. The views, the wild life, the park rangers and visitors alike are wonderful. The snow was less than we expected, but beautiful all the same. Rocky Mountain National Park majestically rises above Estes Park, Colorado. Last year RMNP celebrated its 100th Anniversary 1915- 2015. Now lets take a look at some fo the ecosystems in the park.

Frozen Bear Lake

Montane below 9,000 feet ecosystem is the park’s gateway whether you enter from Grand Lake, Estes Park or Wild Basin. On warm south facing slopes the ponderosa pines greet you with their sweet fragrance. A sunlight-dappled forest boasts trees up to 150 feet tall, and is home to the tassel-eared Abert’s squirrel. Otters and Beavers work and play in the montane streams. Elk are abundant throughout the park with an occasional moose, bear and other wildlife tripping through.

Sub-alpine 9,000 to 11,400 feet, snow that falls in the alpine zone whooshes down to the sub-alpine areas creating a wet ecosystem with over 30 inches of precipitation yearly. The trees here are sharp-tipped pungent Engelmann spruce and flat-needled fir trees that tower 100 feet toward the sky. The forest floor is covered with shrubs like wax currant, huckleberry, blueberry and Wood’s rose. Flora consists of Arnica, twinflower, purple elephant’s head and fairy slipper. But are just brown branches during the winter. I always loved the name fairy slipper, brought to mind colorful winged creature’s flitting among the wildflowers. In the winter, they’d have froze wings. Not good!

Near Moraine Campground

Alpine above 11, 400 feet, thin soil, strong ultraviolet light, buffeting winds and bitter cold define life on the tundra. Plants that survive here hug the ground in dense mats, preserving moisture with waxen leaf surfaces or trap warmth with hairs against stems and leaves. Wildlife in this harsh environment adapt or die. Marmots store fat and draw upon their reserves as they hibernate. During the summer, Big Horn Sheep graze

Ptarmigan

here, but are long gone by late fall. One resilient bird stays all winter in the alpine zone. Warmed by feathered eyelids,nostrils, legs and feet, the ptarmigan calls the Alpine zone home year around.

Near Bear Lake Road

There you have a little info about the park and it’s ecosystem. Rocky Mountain National Park has something to offer its visitors whether it’s Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall. Come explore!

Posted in My Say What Blog, Uncategorized by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

Jan 18th Orchids – Failure Is Not An Option!

I know this is a little off topic for me, blogging about flowers, let alone Orchids. However, I am so excited about my recent break through, I hope you’ll bear with me.

For years and years I have tried to grow Orchids. Bought the special soil to plant them in, watered them faithfully, sat them in direct sun, indirect sun, shade, artificial light. You name it, I tried it. Each effort met with terrible failure, resulting in a dead orchid and disappointment. I felt terrible. I was an Orchid killer, and I hated it.

My house is filled with beautiful plants, from purple African Violets, to White, Red and Pink Christmas Cactus, Palms, you name it, I‘ve got it. Well…pretty much, no Venus Fly Traps or plants from outer space i.e. Little Shop of Horrors. LOL.

Last Mother’s Day, my hubby bought me this beautiful, huge blue Orchid. It was infused with blue, so if and when I ever got it to grow again, it would bloom white, which was fine with me. If it would just bloom. Heck, I’d be happy if it would survive.

The Orchid came with a little instruction card of care and feeding, listing an exact watering schedule and food. So I carefully sat it on the kitchen table in a window that got direct sun during the morning, per instructions. I watered once a week, submerging the entire pot in water for 5 minutes. I used a timer. Wasn’t taking any chances. Took it out and let it drain for a few minutes, Orchids don’t like their little feeties wet. Fertilized with a balance mix (20-10-20) Believe me, that mix was hard to find. I finally resorted to looking it up on Amazon and ordering it there. No store locally had that particular mix. I was bound determined to do everything within my power to urge my orchid to live. After the last blue flower expired, I cut the spike one-half inch above the node from which the first bloom appeared. The directions said a new spike would branch off within weeks.

Low and behold, a few weeks later, first one then two and three new leaves grew on the plant, no sign of blooms. Yet my orchid was thriving. One morning I noticed a small spike on one original branch, then one on the other branch, to my delight a brand new spike grew from the plant itself. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. Now, I am considering asking for another Orchid this May, maybe a Black Sapphire Orchid to join my other one. My Orchid killing days are over and I am celebrating! Won’t you join me. Leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Posted in My Say What Blog, Uncategorized by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.