by Mike Rosso
About the Weather
Inside, the calendar says April 25. Outside, the remnants of the most recent snowstorm have finally vanished, leaving a good dosage of moisture to help jump-start the local flora and fauna to do their spring thing.
But the natural world seems in no big hurry to begin its annual display of buds, leaves and flowers. It’s almost as if it is saying, “not so fast, bucko.”
The temperature has been hovering in the mid-50s for days – not quite warm enough for T-shirts, nor cold enough to light up the wood stove one more time. Many fear we’ll go right from wintertime to mid-summer heat (others relish that possibility). I am among the fearful. I happen to like springtime a lot and could say it is my favorite season, all that hope of renewal, fresh beginnings, runoff, green lawns, houseflies …
Lots of locals like to get a head start in places truly warm: the Bahamas, Mexico, Southern Arizona. They haven’t got the patience for the Colorado spring, which may start in earnest sometime around mid-May – or later. Others are busily preparing for its inevitability: digging beds, planting seeds and generally rummaging around in the dirt. To me this demonstrates an optimistic embrace of the inevitable. Myself? Until that mercury breaks 60 for a solid week or more, I’m still running on winter lethargy.
Maybe by the time I pen the June column, we’ll be basking in blossoms, spores, insects and tourists.
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We’ve got a wide variety of content springing forth in this issue. Jan MacKell Collins has penned a well-researched article about her ancestors, who may well have been the first to introduce draft horses to the San Luis Valley, beginning on the following page.
One of our semi-frequent contributors, Jane Koerner, who currently resides in Fairplay, was the first woman to climb the 100 highest peaks of Colorado. Beginning on page 11, she recounts many of her climbing adventures in the state, which may or may not have you clamoring for the ice axe.
My colleague Dan Smith and I took the opportunity to spend a day burning up some petrol in pursuit of stories, photos and hamburgers, beginning with a visit to a defunct gas chamber. Now if that doesn’t spark your interest, you might as well skip pages 13 through 17 altogether.
Jennifer Welch confesses her love for chocolate cake (and farming) on page 25, and Howard resident Ron Sering investigates yet another case of a Front Range municipality buying up Central Colorado water rights in order to accommodate thirsty suburbanites at the expense of the rural landscape.
If among your interests is learning back-to-the-earth wilderness skills, then Ericka Kastner’s article on the Earth Knack school should kindle them even further. We’ve got two book reviews and a CD review, of works that were all produced by residents of Central Colorado. Forrest Whitman encourages readers to celebrate Train Day on May 9, and John Mattingly offers his third and final installment of his musings of war and warriors, American Schnitzel, on page 46.
Of course we have Martha, George and Hal, never at a loss for succinct and thoughtful writings. Now we just need a bunch of new subscribers to help compensate all of these fine contributors!
Thanks for reading and happy spring (sort of)!
