Tag Archive | finding prizes

Finding What I Lost

Aug30
A silver commemorative coin in the series honoring “Famous Families of Ukraine,” an irreplaceable heirloom.

I am SO grateful today that I found something important which I thought I had lost. It was inconceivable to me that I’d have thrown it out, but… anything can happen. I had done some work for a friend who moved away rather hastily, and I was left with a precious family heirloom and a stack of scanned images, foreign currency, and historical documents. I kept thinking I’d hear from her when she got settled, but that didn’t happen. Time marched on, the precious packet got moved from one place to another and another, I tried to track her down a couple of times, I let it go (the dark side of letting go: its illusory facsimile ‘letting slip’)…. When she finally surfaced six years later (my, how time flies!) looking for these things, I was horrified that I couldn’t find them.

My friend is descended from Ukrainian nobility. One of the worst things I’ve ever had to do, right up there near telling a friend his mother had been killed in a car wreck, was to tell this dear woman that I had lost her treasures.

So imagine the thrill that coursed through me today when I was looking for something else, and stumbled upon this large envelope–I knew instantly by the feel of it what I had found. I called and left her a message right away, and await receipt of her mailing address to get them home to her asap. Whew! A psychic load off, a good deed done, a loose end tied up. I am beyond grateful for finding what I lost.

Why is American currency so boring? is what I always think when I look at foreign notes like these from the lost stash. It was a big deal to me when the US $20 got some colors other than green back in 2003. Have you looked at cash lately? While double-checking the date on that milestone, I stumbled upon this fascinating guide to US bills, and pulled out a couple denominations to examine. So though the US was late to the dance, I’m grateful for colors in money, for the good fortune to have a little cash in my wallet, and for finding out just how layered is its design.

Water

Apr1
Stellar is grateful that it’s hose time again. He loves drinking from the garden wand, and I’m grateful he’s here with me to enjoy it again this spring.

Have I mentioned water? I can’t mention it too often, nor can I be too grateful for the clean cold water that flows from the West Elk Mountains hither and yon and eventually into my cistern.

Today I watered all the raised beds, only a few segments of which have any seeds in them yet. It’s time to attend to watering daily, to make sure carrots and greens germinate, and to ‘prolong snowmelt’ on the borders and bulb beds. Some of my garden beds thrive in spring with ‘artificial snow,’ so different from what ski areas make. In this case, simply watering as though snow were continuing to melt, from the actual last snow (possibly last week) into June, enables these beds to thrive. Then, come July, I can ignore them for a month at a time, until fall, when I begin the snow season early for them. These are the beds where spring bulbs grow, and then hardy summer perennials well adapted to the harsh dry conditions here. More about them later.

I watered these spring beds, and a couple of other beds, as well as the raised beds. If I don’t keep water on these garden beds from now on, they’ll desiccate in no time. So I’m grateful for water, to have a steady supply for the moment at the twist of a knob, as much as I and my garden need for now. I’m also grateful for finding lost things. Today, I set my glasses in a pot while I was working in the shade, and only missed them for a couple of hours. Yesterday, I found them face down in the pink gravel path. It’s time to start cultivating mindfulness in the garden, as well as bulbs and seeds.

Walks

Feb2

I’m grateful, as always, for walks with Stellar. He was extra wobbly today, but still game for anything. He passed on the far side of a tree, and I heard a cat bell; but I knew Topaz was inside. I paused, alert, then heard it again distinctly. .. coming from the far side of the tree where I could hear Stellar snoofing around the base of the trunk. He moved along as I crossed over snow to inspect. I knew what I’d see before I got there: finding an old cat collar is like winning a prize.

This one is years old, could have been off either cat in their early years of losing a dozen collars each.

I’ve only found half a dozen through the years. I’m grateful for that momentary thrill of surprise, and for the insight each gives me into the habits and range of my cats. Other prizes on our walks today, and each day, make each simple stroll an adventure into the unknown when we follow his senses and mine. He is my sixth sense, expanding the universe of my perception with his eyes, nose, and ears.

Turkey tracks along the driveway, but oddly, just one bird, not a flock.

We pass this piñon sometimes, with its enticing hole at eye level. It’s a good time to check it before someone starts nesting there in spring, so I poke my camera through and shoot. Nothing new yet, but evidence (below) of previous nesting, including grass and a bit of baling twine. The amber-colored pearls I think are just that, sap beads; that, or someone has hidden stolen gemstones in there. I’ll pop the phone in there now and then over the next few months and see what transpires.

A pair of ravens (one flew off), a pair of magpies, and a flock of piñon jays enlivened the driveway walk this evening.
View from the driveway.

We walk about four times a day, along a variety of loops and up the driveway once or twice, giving us a total of about a mile and a half of exercise. I’m grateful I have the health to walk, the dog to encourage me, the world of wonder at our feet, and a warm home to return to.