kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2024 10 01 16.16.16

[ A bright yellow, ovate leaf sits on bright green grass. Half of it is laying flat, mostly shaded; the other half sits nearly vertical, sun shining through a few small brown-edged gaps. ]

Fall is so beautiful in town here. The cottonwoods in the park go bright yellow (as do the aspens throughout town), but the grass stays green until we’ve had a few good hard freezes. I couldn’t resist taking a bunch of leaf pictures — far more than wound up in this post.

2024 10 01 15.57.42

[ Another cottonwood leaf, this one with far more brown spots in the yellow, with wider gaps in between. An entirely brown leaf sits in the grass next to it. ]

The whole time I was farting around with my camera, of course, Loiosh was being a wigglebutt. Why was I crawling around in the grass, he wanted to know, instead of petting him? Why?

Cats. They do not see the beauty in fallen leaves.

2024 10 01 16.16.55

[ A close view of an entirely brown leaf. About half of it is shaded, and each tiny vein and darker brown spot is clearly visible. ]

Nor do they understand the joy of creating art, but that was later that day.

In the meantime? More leaf.

2024 10 01 16.17.51

[ A green, elliptically shaped leaf buried in the grass. ]

The plaintain was all still green — I need to bring a spade & grab a couple next summer so I can plant them at home & see how they do, but for now, I’ll just enjoy the fact that they’re right there in the park. Free medicine!

Speaking of free medicine …

2024 10 01 16.18.32

[ The fluffy white head of a dandelion. The long, narrow, dark brown seeds are visible through the fluff; the stem is reddish-brown. ]

I used to harvest all the dandelion & plantain leaves that went into the bite, sting & rash salve, & someday I hope to be able to do that again. In the meantime, at least they’re THERE.

Is this mushroom medicine? Is it food? I do not know! I don’t mess with mushrooms unless they come from the grocery store. Actually I don’t mess with them at all, I’m not terribly fond of the texture. But they’re pretty!

2024 10 01 16.22.44

[ A small, white, round mushroom lies buried in the grass. It has a neato kinda bumpy texture. ]

I’d probably have come home with a couple decent squirrel pics, too, but alas, they take Loiosh far more seriously than I feel they really need to. I get their point, though, you never know when you’re gonna get eaten by a cat.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: My face, reflected in a round mirror I'm holding up; the rest of the image is the side of my head, hair shorn short. (Default)
2024 07 31 16.54.58

[ A yellow five-petalled flower, bright against a background of medium green foliage. Another flower, and several buds just starting to show yellow, are scattered across the green. ]

Once again it was ‘take pictures of flowers at the behavioral health center’ time, because as y’all have probably noticed it’s been too hot to exist, so I’ve been doing a lot of not existing.

… that’s what dissociation does, right? Right?

ANYWAY.

There were pretty flowers, so I took pictures of pretty flowers.

2024 07 31 16.54.36

[ Another part of the bush, with a bunch of faintly yellow buds, just getting ready to open. ]

I don’t know what the plant is, but it’s still making a lot of buds, so should have pretty flowers for a while yet.

2024 07 31 16.54.26

[ A close view of a single bloom. One bright petal has had a bite taken out of it. ]

I’m glad. They’re just such a cheerful sight.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2024 05 09 14.50.23

[ Clusters of tiny, very pale pink flowers with deep red centers grace the ends of reddish-brown twigs, interspersed with leaves in much the same dark shades of red. ]

These bushes outside where I go for therapy are SO pretty. They flowered for, like, three weeks, & there were still a few stragglers the fourth week. I’m glad I thought to get pictures the week before that, though.

2024 05 09 14.51.09

[ Another part of the same bush, this time focusing on seven of the lanceolate leaves; four are reddish-green, almost black, while the three younger, smaller ones are a deep pinky-red. ]

They smell divine, too. I really enjoyed them while they were blooming.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2024 03 10 17.16.19

[ A tall photo, the very tops of still-leafless trees at the bottom; then blue sky, shading up from pale behind the last twigs to deepest cerulean at the top. ]

The sky was that blue, the whole walk, up until the very end, when the sun settled down behind a band of clouds in the west.

I find cottonwood bark fascinating, especially when compared to ponderosa bark; both are somewhat fire resistant, but where ponderosa bark grows thick with overlapping ‘puzzle pieces’, cottonwood bark develops deep fissures, dividing it almost down to the growing wood. I think each bark section in the picture below is a good two inches thick. Apparently the bark is good for carving, which I’m vaguely tempted to try one of these days.

2024 03 10 17.12.30

[ The edge of a cut cottonwood log, with deeply fissured bark. ]

Further down on the same log — mushrooms!

2024 03 10 17.12.18

[ A collection of shelf mushrooms growing on the old wood; each is somewhat fuzzy, a variety of colors from white to tan; the top and largest is rimmed in brown. ]

I spent a bunch of time walking along the riverbanks, & some just sitting, listening to the sound of the water. I do prefer the Land of Dry to the Land of Wet, but where we’re living is, honestly, too dry for me; I need SOME running water. I’m glad the river isn’t too far away.

2024 03 10 17.17.27

[ Several boulders lurk under the slightly clouded water; one, towards the back of the shot, stands clear, big enough to stand on if I could reach it. The sun glints off the running water in several places, scattered in the slight rapids over the rocks, then a near-solid band of it beyond them. ]

& a welcome sign that spring really is coming:

2024 03 10 17.19.18

[ A small bunch of dry, dead grass, but from the center of it, new green growth is visible, pushing its way into the light. ]


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2024 02 08 14.44.53

[ Tiny red oval berries hang in clusters from otherwise dead-looking twigs. ]

I had a bit of time to wander the parking lot while waiting for Jasper to be done with a doctor’s appointment, & I brought my phone with me, & it’s ALMOST SPRING, so I took pictures.

(I was NOT tempted to eat the berries. But they’re really pretty.)

This juniper (I think?) bush has these weird spiny needles in amongst the scale-like ones I’m used to seeing. I’m not sure what’s going on here. Maybe that’s the new growth?

2024 02 08 14.44.27

[ A close view of the needles on what is probably a juniper plant. Some are covered in basically green scales; some have short spiny leaves or needles. ]

& the promise of spring! There are buds! They are thinking about growing!

2024 02 08 14.48.45

[ Twigs and branches of a tree. Some of the smaller twigs have reddish bark and buds on the ends, which are also reddish. The bigger twigs and branches have greenish bark. ]

I’m looking forward to warmer weather & new growth. (I’m NOT looking forward to more wind, but here we are.)


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2024 01 30 10.58.32

[ A short bit of concrete wall and a post, sitting on the left side of the entrance to a pedestrian bridge; both have been painted with a star quilt pattern in blue and white, with red highlights. Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and trailing a green leash, is sniffing at the base of the post. ]

I was SO pleased to see this as we wandered the park; municipal art makes me happy, and especially stuff like this, in bright colors, designed by a pair of local artists & painted by local volunteers. Here’s the other side:

2024 01 30 10.58.44

[ The wall and pillar on the right side of the bridge is painted with a grid of small quilt squares in blue, white, gold, and red, many with patterns painted on in contrasting colors. ]

It’s cheerful & I love it.

Loiosh, of course, would have a hard time caring less about art, & simply buggered off towards the other side of the bridge.

2024 01 30 10.58.46

[ The pedestrian bridge is paved in smooth concrete; the pillars on each side are just visible at the sides of the shot. Loiosh is walking down the left side of the bridge, right up against the metal railing, leash trailing behind him. ]

He went all the way across & then wanted to wander the steep slope down towards the river, which I prevented him from doing, because ONE of us knows not to walk on a possibly-frozen river & it ain’t him.

Then there were leaves.

2024 01 30 12.46.54

[ My grey leggings, from about the knee down. They’re slightly covered in fragments of pale brown autumn leaves. ]

Is it art? I mean, probably not, but look, headlines are hard.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2023 12 22 12.46.46

[ A spindly dead plant. Much of it is covered in tiny ice crystals, so small the overall effect is white. A single branchlet, sticking straight up, is more-or-less in focus; the crystals have built up along it such that they look like white flowers. ]

I can’t resist taking pictures of plants covered in ice or icy snow. It’s like cats in the warmy spot, I just gotta stop & take thirty-seven pictures. Every time.

But I mean come ON, even a hunk of beat-up rope looks awesome with snowy ice bits on it!

2023 12 22 12.47.06

[ A weathered yellow rope bears more of the ice growths, Many of them are in the same broadly conical flower shape, but some are more cylindrical. ]

I took SO many pictures, trying to get a few that got SOMETHING in focus; my phone camera (no, I still haven’t figured out the DSLR) insists on focusing on the furthest thing in the shot, even if I tell it to focus on the thing in the middle. (Hmm, note to self, check for macro apps for this phone …)

ANYWAY I did manage a few, at least, & I’m pretty pleased with em.

2023 12 22 12.47.24

[ A confusion of branches, some in focus, some not; but plenty of the ice flowers are crisp and clear. ]

Not like I won’t get more practice. I really can’t resist this stuff.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2023 12 22 12.46.46

[ A spindly dead plant. Much of it is covered in tiny ice crystals, so small the overall effect is white. A single branchlet, sticking straight up, is more-or-less in focus; the crystals have built up along it such that they look like white flowers. ]

I can’t resist taking pictures of plants covered in ice or icy snow. It’s like cats in the warmy spot, I just gotta stop & take thirty-seven pictures. Every time.

But I mean come ON, even a hunk of beat-up rope looks awesome with snowy ice bits on it!

2023 12 22 12.47.06

[ A weathered yellow rope bears more of the ice growths, Many of them are in the same broadly conical flower shape, but some are more cylindrical. ]

I took SO many pictures, trying to get a few that got SOMETHING in focus; my phone camera (no, I still haven’t figured out the DSLR) insists on focusing on the furthest thing in the shot, even if I tell it to focus on the thing in the middle. (Hmm, note to self, check for macro apps for this phone …)

ANYWAY I did manage a few, at least, & I’m pretty pleased with em.

2023 12 22 12.47.24

[ A confusion of branches, some in focus, some not; but plenty of the ice flowers are crisp and clear. ]

Not like I won’t get more practice. I really can’t resist this stuff.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2023 10 30 17.41.02

[ A takeout coffee cup sits in the van’s front cupholder; a bit of hot chocolate has been spilled on the lid, which also holds a round piece of mottled brown and tan candy. ]

Okay, I wouldn’t usually include a coffee cup in a small beauties post, but I hadn’t been to Ziggy’s in AGES, & also they now hand out candy with each drink & that’s KIND OF ADORABLE.

(not that I got to EAT the candy, I managed to drop & then STEP on it, but it’s the thought that counts?)

There was a tiny snowman at the park in Denver. Can’t make this shit up, I love it.

2023 10 30 17.55.05

[ Yep, that’s a tiny snowman all right. It’s sitting on a brown trash can, the kind with an arched lid to keep the rain out; it’s maybe six inches high, with arms made from sticks and eyes of tiny gravel. ]

The next day, since we had Tuesday to do as much nothing as we wanted, I hied us to Fountain Creek, where I found a bunch of creek glass & also really neat ice.

2023 10 31 11.34.53

[ Shallow water laps up against a couple smallish boulders; where the two meet, a thin layer of ice covers the water. It almost looks as though it’s in motion, frozen ripples extending out from each rock in concentric arcs. ]

That was the second spot I tried to get ice pictures, of course; Remy STEPPED in the first one, because he was VERY EXCITE.

I do love dogs, I love them SO MUCH.

Wednesday was Jasper’s appointment, but that was late in the afternoon, we had time to kill & thus found the BEST park in Colorado Springs. I wish I’d found it YEARS ago, Palmer Park has big rocks to climb & like a zillion miles of hiking. Me & Loiosh went wandering, about which more later, but for now, tiny, probably poisonous berries.

2023 11 01 11.49.03

[ A cluster of tiny, vividly red berries at the end of a twig, maybe ten of them. Another cluster is further back, out of focus. ]

Don’t recommend eating them. Pretty, though. I like the color.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
2023-05-26 10.33.38

[ Two bright yellow dandelion blooms occupy the foreground of the shot; behind it a small stream pours over a waterfall perhaps a foot high. Moss covers the other bank. ]

After dropping Jasper & Remy off at the airport (& failing to sleep again; if Jasper needs dropped off at the airport at 3am again, I am Not. It), I stopped at a little park in Monument, because I knew it had nice public bathrooms.

What I didn’t know was that there’s a lovely little stream running through the trees down at the back of the park, the which I discovered after following Loiosh down that way. I love running water a WHOLE LOT & really miss not having any nearby where we are, so I spent a while just sitting & listening, then stuck my feet in & washed everything from the knees & elbows down. TBH if it’d been earlier in the day I probably woulda flung clothing everywhere & just had at, but it was, like, noon, there were kids over on the soccer field, chances of bathus interruptus WAY too high, you know how it goes. But even just getting the appendages clean was VERY NICE.

Also. The sound of the water.

[ Ten seconds of video of the same spot as the first picture, complete with the pleasant burbling of running water. ]

I sat there & listened to it for a WHILE.

They’ve just let the stream do what it wants through this part of the park, which means that, of course, it’s doing a bit of wandering.

2023-05-26 10.34.26

[A narrow stream, perhaps a foot wide, winds back through scattered trees before disappearing under a bridge in the distance; in the foregreound it widens and shallows til it’s perhaps three feet wide and a couple inches deep. ]

Eventually Loiosh got bored & wandered off; I followed while he sniffed around, ate a bunch of grass, & ran up a couple trees. He REALLY was having a good time. Eventually we found our way over to some BIG cottonwoods, parts of which were covered in very pleasing lichens.

2023-05-26 10.38.59

[ A wide strip of lichens runs up the bark of a cottonwood tree. Most of it is a deep forest green, but some is yellow-green and some is straight-up yellow. ]

I love lichens, they’re so cool.

I also love trees with holes in em, cos there might be something cool in the hole.

2023-05-26 10.38.07

[ A cottonwood tree, broad at the base and dividing into two narrower trunks further up, sports a hole in the lefthand trunk, clearly where a third trunk had split off and then perished. The bottom of the hole is covered in rich-looking soil; the rest is lined in weathered wood, though there’s something vaguely blue-purpleish partway up the inside. ]

Enhance … enhance … okay fine, I just stepped closer …

2023-05-26 10.38.12

[ A view of the hole from slightly above. A few brave seedling plants are sprouting in the soil at its bottom. The bark around the hole is sparsely covered in scattered lichens, and there, embedded in the wood at the back of the hole, is a roughly squared-off purplish thing. ]

… is that what I think it is.

2023-05-26 10.38.20

[ Closer still. That squared-off purplish thing is, in fact, a rock embedded in the wood. ]

It’s a very good rock! I wonder how long ago THAT got stuck in a much younger cottonwood …


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20230303_175047

[ In the very foreground, a strip of road; past that, mostly-snowed-over fields rising slowly to the very base of a range of mountains that rises sharply to tall, triangular peaks. No foothills here. ]

The great thing about living in Colorado is the mountains.

I first fell in love with mountains — real mountains, nothing against the ancient Appalachians, but I need young mountains — in 1988, in Zürich, staring in awe at the Alps rising to the south; in Vaduz, just to the east, in their midst. In Oberammergau, at their very edge, before descending to the plains on the road to Munich.

I first fell in love with mountains — real mountains, sharp peaks still snow-covered, serrated & silhouetted dark against a ridiculously blue sky — in 1994, in Jackson Hole, staring in awe at the Tetons all around, remembering mountains I’d carefully forgotten. In Idaho, in a sharp valley in the Sawtooth Range, the sun only visible for a few hours around noon, though the light lingered until near midnight. I tried to remember them. I wanted to remember them.

I first fell in love with mountains — having forgotten, again, for more than a decade — in 2005, above Denver, circling over the mountains on approach to the airport. In Longmont, staring in awe at Long’s Peak & Mount Meeker dominating the horizon to the west. In Rocky Mountain National Park, twelve hundred feet high already, staring at the Never Summers looming further west.

& then, as every time, I went ‘home’, back to humid, polluted, overcrowded Urbia Suburbia, otherwise known as eastern Pennsylvania, until I finally did the best thing I’ve ever done for myself, shoved everything I owned into a cargo container & into my lil car, & drove west.

The moment I saw mountains again, halfway across Colorado’s broad eastern plains, I had to pull over to cry.

I haven’t forgotten, not since that day.

20230303_173555

[ This time the road stretches from the bottom right of the photo, off into the distance and around a wooded curve. To the left, snowy hills rise up to a serrated line of snowy peaks. ]

I spent four glorious, heartbreaking years in Colorado, healing, remembering how to breathe (not only metaphorically; turns out living in a steel town, in a house with a toxic waste dump for a basement, is … not good for lungs?), learning who I was. Who I am. Until someone I’d loved betrayed me, & I had to leave again.

I was away for three or four years, I don’t remember which, back in Appalachia, beautiful & ancient but never, ever quite high enough. & then finally I found my way back to my mountains. I could breathe again.

& then, because life goes in spirals, or at least mine does, I had to leave again. This time for New Mexico, which at least had some mountains, I could get up over ten thousand feet at Sandia Crest, & it was more than nothing. It was, at least, blessedly dry, blessedly uncrowded.

But it wasn’t right, & I missed my mountains.

After ANOTHER three years away, on a trip to Colorado for the first time in far too long, I caught my first sight of mountains, pulled over, burst into tears, & swore, ‘the next time I move to Colorado, I’M NOT LEAVING AGAIN’.

It wasn’t the cluebat that hit me. It was a great big gong, which also happened to be saying ‘oath accepted’.

In the words of kids these days … welp.

20230303_174147

[ The road runs from lower left to upper right; an old wooden building anchors the very center of the shot. To the right, a bank of clouds with white peaks just visible; to the left, lower, more rounded mountains, with two high, sharp, snow-white peaks beyond them. ]

Which took yet another two years & a truly appalling amount of work. & even with that, it all happened faster than I could be ready for; but by the time we had to leave, I’d built Tyrava, I owned five acres of land, & most importantly, I wasn’t doing it all alone.

I live in Colorado again. WE live in Colorado. We see the mountains most every day — & when we don’t, it’s because there’s clouds (or dust) in the way. I’ve gotten past having the breath knocked out of me every time I see them — mostly — but I never get used to them.

20230303_174548

[ Most of this shot is the road, a pair of headlights faint in the distance, light trails of windblown snow trailing across it. The road disappears into cloud and more snow in the distance, but much closer, at the very top of the shot, there’s still blue sky. ]

I hope I never do.


originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20230103_141931

[ Several small plant stems, gathered in a group and all pointing up. Each one is covered in snow and ice. ]

Couple days ago it snowed! Or iced! Or probably graupeled. Anyway everything is covered in white, except for Remy’s run, because he ate all the snow there.

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20230103_141931

[ Several small plant stems, gathered in a group and all pointing up. Each one is covered in snow and ice. ]

Couple days ago it snowed! Or iced! Or probably graupeled. Anyway everything is covered in white, except for Remy’s run, because he ate all the snow there.

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20221005_145002

[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and blue bow tie, sits facing a long sprig of catnip. He’s got his head tilted, facing away from the camera, contemplating the flowers at the tip of the stem. ]

Further along the same path Loiosh found even better foliage — catnip. He was EXTREMELY pleased.

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20221005_144222

[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness, stands on a nice big rock, sniffing at a clump of grass. One ear is back, and the other is stuck out sideways. ]

Salida, it turns out, has grass.

Loiosh REALLY likes grass.

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20221005_150119

[ A view of the Arkansas river, here a shallow stream perhaps thirty feet wide. It’s bordered by large rocks on either side, then by trees in a variety of shades from summer green to bright aspen yellow. Peeking between the trees, far upstream, is the peak of a snow-capped mountain. ]

I hadda run up to Salida anyways, so I figured I might as well make a trip of it.

Y’all, Salida is GORGEOUS.

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20220930_183245

[ Three walls, complete with plywood, surround a similarly-plywooded floor; the fourth wall, the one facing the camera, has been framed out, with space left for two windows. ]

Progress! Like actually getting somewhere! I’m getting faster at framing, this took about three hours all told.

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originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20220911_182719

[ A close view of long, narrow silver-green leaves, waving in the breeze, looking much like undersea fronds. The stems are paler and slightly more yellow. They greenery entirely fills the picture. ]

First small beauties post from the new land! There’s SO much here that’s beautiful, I can’t wait to post more.

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
20220709_095145

[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness and a blue bow tie, sits atop a pile of pallets, silhouetted against the sky. He looks extremely skeptical. ]

GUESS WHAT it is a CAT POST

This happened MONTHS AGO but there’s been all this *gestures broadly at everything* but I’m back & functional again so there’s gonna be CAT POSTS

Anyway Loiosh has been to the Alamosa Farmers Market a buncha times now but this was the FIRST TIME

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

kellan_the_tabby: (wedding)
IMG_0966

[Flat land, sparsely covered in brown tumbleweeds, leads up to rugged, snowy mountain peaks.]

‘Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered …’

… okay, no, but we _did_ manage to get the van stuck within a hundred feet of our borders, & by ‘we’ I mean ‘I’, & it took us four days to get it unstuck, so, uh, there’s been a lot going on.

But the view is like that! So that helps a lot.

ExpandRead the rest of this entry » )

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

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