At Home in Wyoming

St. Patrick's Day Parade

It was 50 degrees today, perfect weather for our St. Patrick's Day parade on Main Street.  The above picture is of the bagpipers that are out of Montana, I believe, but I didn't catch their names.

A closer look at the bagpipers...

The Cody Gunfighters from the Irma.  I wished I had taken their advice to "cover your ears, darling" before they fired off that black powder gun...my ears are still ringing.  They all seemed to be having a good time, and then some!

 

This little tractor broke down in front of my house earlier in the day..I saw lots of black smoke, but they got 'er revved up in time for the parade.

So there you have it folks, Cody's version of a St. Patrick's Day parade...just in the nick of time because I watched the weather report and it looks like snow tonight...so back to winter tomorrow!
 

   

Rethinking Winter

 
This foggy view of Main Street was taken about 7:30 this morning, so I guess you can say this is what 'rush hour' looks like in Cody!  The fog has almost hidden the mountain, but you can still see the outline of it at the top of the picture...

We have had a few days of sunny and warm weather...absolutely glorious.  The birds were singing, the snow all melted and I was even able to get my car washed.

Then I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed all the mud off of the front porch.  While I was there I noticed that the porch railings needed washed, so I filled another bucket of ammonia water and got busy.  The rug on the porch needed vacuumed, too.

The next day I started raking what the wind had blown in over the winter in my front yard.  I swept the sidewalk.  I went to look for my lawnmower, because I suddenly remembered that last fall the little pull thing broke, so figured I needed to go to Sears and order a part before summer.

The sunshine showed how dingy the windows were, so I decided to wash them all, upstairs and down.  I have swept, scrubbed and vacuumed for the last two days, and I'm pooped!

This morning I woke up and looked out the window...and saw that winter had moved back in over the night, and everything was covered in snow.  It was cold once more.  Certainly too cold to do anything outside.  I could go back to hot tea with lemon and reading my library book.

All I have done the last few weeks is whine about winter.  But this morning I had a new appreciation for it.  You know, winter ain't so bad!

Welcome March!

 

With glee I ripped the month of February right off of my calendar this morning...and I welcomed myself to March.  In honor of that I got rid of all the winter stuff on my fireplace mantel, and decked it out for spring.  Admittedly, the green light bulbs are a little much (I was thinking of St. Patrick's Day) but the intent was to remind myself that we have turned the corner toward Spring.  

This is more emotional than practical, because we can (and will) still have cold and snow until June, but in my mind March 1st is the first step in the long walk toward kissing a Wyoming winter goodbye...

Welcome March!    

 

 

A Peep At The New Arrivals!

I was driving down the road today and caught a glimpse of this little beauty, just a few days old.  When I pulled over to take a picture for my blog, the horse breeder graciously invited me in to take a look at her other babies...

 

 
Like mama, like baby.  This little cutie looks like a stuffed animal horse that you buy in the toy store.

This little darlin' was eager to make a new friend, and trotted all the way over from the other barn for a visit!

One thing that I really love about our state is that people are really friendly, so hats off to the nice lady that let you, and me take a peep at those frisky little colts all ready to greet the new world!   DLB

 

 

 

  

A Snowy Night

I leaned out my upstairs window a few minutes ago to take this picture of my yard filling up with snow.  The light on the upper right is the roof of the Irma on Main Street.  We have had glorious weather the last few days, but all good things must come to an end...I hear we are supposed to get one to two inches tonight.  DLB 

 

A Gloomy Day In February

 
My fireplace mantel in the library...the room that I painted burgundy a few weeks past...all decked out for Valentine's Day.  I won't show you where I spilled burgundy paint all over the white rug, but I will tell you this.  Did you know that watered down burgundy and white...makes pink! 

I would love to sit here and write something profound tonight, but my mind is tired and I think that I am coming down with a cold (Teresa, I am hoping it is not the same virus that you had).  If there is ever a month that I veer toward depression, February is it.  

It is the month that I have resigned from jobs, cut my hair, rearranged every room in the house and pulled up and threw out the wall to wall carpet.  It is the month my father died and I am sure that it is the month that my husband feels like murdering me (just ask him).

Today was one of those gray February days that made me long for spring.  And tonight I found a poem by Ruth Bell Graham that perfectly illustrated how I felt today...

Not fears

I need deliverance from

today--

but nothingness;

inertia,

skies gray

and windless;

no sun,

no rain,

no stab of joy

no pain,

no strong regret,

no reaching after,

no tears,

no laughter,

no black despair,

no bliss.

Deliver me

today

. . . from this.

( by Ruth Bell Graham in "Footprints of a Pilgrim" which I believe is available from Billy Graham.org)

Now tomorrow should be better because I think that the sun is supposed to shine, but if it doesn't...that white carpet turned pink with the burgundy paint is a goner.  And you will find me smiling as I throw it in the back of the pickup and haul it off to the dump!  Or maybe I will settle for something less drastic, like a trip to the greenhouse nursery to smell soil and peat and things growing...whatever it takes to survive a gloomy day in February!  DLB 

 

 

 

 

 

The Park County Library

  
There are a lot of people that read this blog that used to live in Cody...so they check it out to see pictures of their old hometown.  I thought that they might like to see the new Park County Library building (which is really the old Marathon Building).  I admit that I was not too happy when they changed buildings, for selfish reasons...the old library was not far from my house, and I used to like to walk there in the evenings when they were open.  But now that the new library is open, I have become a big fan...so here goes the $2.00 tour...

 
This is a cozy little reading spot at the entrance.  There is a rack of newspapers near the fireplace, and with the sun streaming in through the windows it becomes the perfect spot to read the paper.

 

This is the Biblio Bistro...really good food at reasonable prices, or a quiet place to have coffee with a friend.

 

This is the outside patio...which in the summer is a nice place to sit because it borders the old Marathon Building pond, and you can watch the ducks.

 

Save a dollar or two by reading all the latest magazines at the library.  To the left is the Media Center, where you can check out books on tape, DVD's and videos.  

Now there was lots more.  A Children's Library, a Teen Room, lots of places for meetings, and a Used Book Store.  Not to mention rows of computers, desks and tables...but I was afraid to use the flash on my camera anymore for fear of getting run out of the place.  Librarians frown on flashes, I'm sure!

So if you live in Cody and you haven't been, check out the new library.  And if you have moved far from home...well, the new library is just one more reason to come back! DLB
 
 
  

 

 

Snow, Cold...And Chocolate Coffee With Mint!

 
My house looked so forlorn after all of the Christmas decorations were packed away, so I decided to make a snowflake tree to sit on the top of the piano.

Winter came back a day or so ago, and with it came a few inches of snow.  Not that I mind snow, but I was really enjoying the milder temperatures.  Then a few minutes ago my husband came upstairs and asked if I would like to go for a drive in the country...he even bribed me one of those chocolate coffees with mint in it from Rocky Mountain Mudd...and suddenly I don't mind it so much that winter came back!  Isn't it funny how sometimes the smallest things can change your whole frame of mind? 

Have a nice weekend!    DLB

 

 

 

The Old Cody Theatre

 
On Main Street in Cody sits the old Cody Theatre...looking the way that movie theatres used to look, with the red velvet portieres and the old fashioned popcorn machine.  For a while, I remember that they  even sold old fashioned penny candy in the lobby.  I especially liked it because it is just a few blocks from my house, so my husband and I were able to walk there on summer evenings to catch a show.

So it was with real dismay that I read in the paper that it was closing.  People were opting for the newer multiplex theatre out on the Powell highway with cushioned rocking chair type seats and surround sound (I can't blame them, I like those cushioned seats myself).  But I wondered what would happen to the old Cody Theatre.  I hoped it would not be boarded up and abandoned like so many other small town Main Street theatres.

Luckily, the old theatre found a new use!  From mid May each year until the third week in September, it is home to Dan Miller's Cowboy Music Review...a 'fast paced, family friendly show featuring songs of the American West, cowboy poetry and comedy' every night but Sunday.  They put on quite a show, so it you wind up in Cody this summer take it from me, it is worth every dollar!

In addition, the Cody Wild West Show sponsors the Cody Concert Series in the winter.  As you can see on the marquee in the picture, Billy Dean will perform this month (remember the song about missing Billy the Kid?), and I heard a rumor that the Kentucky Head Hunters are coming next.  Past performers were Lacy J Dalton, TG Sheppard, Mel Tillis (I am still kicking myself for not getting tickets to that concert), Suzy Bogguss, Gary Morris, Waddie Mitchell and BJ Thomas (who I believed performed at the Wynona Thompson Auditorium for a Christmas Concert).  Let me tell you, for a small town in the dead of winter, these concerts are big doings!

But what I like most of all is that an old building has found a new use, and won't be torn down or abandoned.  Behind those velvet portieres are lots of happy memories...and while memories are stored in your mind, the visual reminder of them stirs up a cozy sort of nostalgic feeling in a world that is zipping by, and changing too darn fast for its own good!    DLB

 

 

A Sigh Of Relief Called January

 
Pahaska on Christmas Day, 2009.  This is Buffalo Bill's hunting lodge built around 1904, located near the East Gate to Yellowstone Park, some 50 miles or so from Cody.

Did you ever notice how quiet it is when you are outdoors during a snowstorm?  Even smack in the middle of town, all the noise seems muffled somehow, as the world fills up with snow.  That muffled sound is the way that I feel about the month of January.  After all of the hustle and bustle from the concerts, the shopping, the gift wrapping, the church services, the twinkle lights, the cooking, the parties and all the festivities...well, I think that January comes just in time. 

The saying is that all of nature abhors a vacuum, and at no time is that more true than the month of January.  Once the tree is down and the wreaths are pulled off of the windows and packed away for Decembers to come, I start to look around and think, 'what's next'?  Maybe that is where New Year's resolutions and making goals kick in...something new to occupy yourself with, to fill in the vacuum of space and peace and quiet.

But this year I am going to try to just let the month of January unfold on its own, without me organizing it to death.  I am going to try to do less instead of more.  Instead of de-cluttering and reorganizing my house like all the magazines are telling me to do, I am going to take walks, read and yes...take a nap now and then.  The daily things that I need to do I will do of course, cooking and cleaning and feeding the dogs.  But other than that, I am not going to mess with the space that the departing December sucked up.   I intend to think more, and do less. Yep, the month of January came just in time. 

 But you know what?  I am going to miss those twinkle lights! DLB