Bed & Breakfast in Estes Park, Colorado

There is a bear in the air. I captured this elegant lady and her cub just a few feet from the house. Spring time is a perfect time to capture wildlife in town and near our property. Not guaranteed, but if you keep a watchful eye out as you drive slowly around you have a chance. Dusk and dawn are good times.

Keep your distance.  I have some hairy stories of close encounters.  Once I walked with the camera up to my eye thinking this would be a smart way to NOT miss anything. NOT is right.   When I brought the camera down, away from my face, I was standing 8 feet from the bear. It was a bad thing to do…bad, bad bad. In this photo I was about 70 feet away, again too close, but I stumbled onto her. Click photo for a neat website which allows you to post photos.

climbing our neighbors fence. Note the sign.

She was a big girl. They look gentle--truly. When I'm close to them I feel no fear--maybe I'm, "GRIZZLY GIRL".

Fast to climb trees. MY gosh--don't climb a tree if you are getting chased. They are up in an eye's blink. REAL slow getting down. They napped for several hours in this tree.

This fellow is in the velvet. Antler growing time is a time for the elk to take care not to dent or brake their tender growth. This man and his buddies grazed in our yard for a few days.

Elk are grazing in the front yard each day this week, and in town. Best viewing is in town at the golf course. The golf course is a favorite watering hole and grazing location for tired hungry elk.

The in velvet refers to the new antlers the elk are growing. The antlers are covered with a velvet-like covering until the antlers have taken full form.

Eric celebrating Kym’s success in making a small pallet of wool. Annually Kym and Susan (see Susan in next picture) bless our home and our lives with their woolly tales and woolly laughter after attended Estes Park’s yearly Wool Market. Have I said WOOL ENOUGH YET? I’m hoping to grab the search engines attention on this one. (where’s Waldo? That’s our Waldo-Maggie sneaking by in the back). Kym and Susan are laughers–we love a good laugh. Thank you Kym, Susan and Cheryl for laughing with us. Susan, Newbie-Cheryl and Kym with items they made at the wool market classes. Three ladies, three teachers, one a teacher of teachers. Our newest guest Cheryl (center) took on an entire mountain with her forehead and lived to tell her tale at breakfast. Thank you Kym for having your first aide equipment on hand. Cheryl is now known as, “she-who-walk-on-rock”. The woven basket resting on the white table was made by Susan. We love ya–see you all next year.

Getting to know our newest guests Larry and Barbara during check-in time. We are chatters. We love to talk to our guests. When we first opened I told my husband we mustn’t talk politics and religion. Well, that lasted 2 minutes! We cover every topic under the sun at the breakfast table. We laugh, cry, yell, talk-over-each-other. We walk the line I guess you can say. If you’re an innkeeper I suggest walking that line only if it’s in your nature to begin with. Although it hasn’t happened in a year or so, we’ve had people try to convert us to their religion and we’ve had pyramid sales-people try sell us their goods. So, if one is willing to open those doors, one must also be willing to stand strong on their convictions. That’s where the fun comes in…

Maggie (far left) sneaks into tonight’s late night conversation, she tends to pick up on people’s emotions. At this point we are talking about France and Paris and the people that live there. Barbara and Larry have a daughter and son in-law that live in France.

Here we sit: I’m behind the flowers, Eric, Barbara, and Larry talking about politics and mental illness… not that the two have anything to do with one another. The front porch is my favorite place to nap during the day–if I’m so inclined. I’m not really, what you might call–a napper– but sometimes one just MUST.

This afternoon I changed my multi-seasonal wreathe by adding purple silk flowers. I’m not finished with it–it needs some bright yellow sprigs. I use the same wreathe year around by changing out the flowers to bright red berries during the holidays, and autumn leaves in October. The wreathe came with pin cones.

The first flowers on my front porch went out today. I’ll bring them in over night to protect them from late night frost. I love this basket! Each year it showcases my flowers and makes it easy for me to bring the flowers in doors if the weather changes.

Well good night. It’s after 11:00 PM and I have yet to check to see if I have the needed ingrediants for blender pancakes. I took a few days off blogging–I hope you stay with me during my journey in the rockies as an innkeeper.

This morning at breakfast our guest Joan spotted ma and pa blue bird outside the breakfast window. I had brought my camera out earlier in the morning, bless my lucky shutter.

Todd and Joan were kind enough to let me take a picture of them while they consumed a strawberry and banana breakfast parfait.

An fellow innkeeper, Gary Mansfield of Romantic Riversong, had suggested I take this shot.  He and I had an early morning meeting at this table a few weeks prior.

I took this picture of a fenced in wolf-dog in New Mexico’s, Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. It’s important to get the word out: Wolves are not to be domesticated. Wolves are meant to live free in the wild. This sanctuary rescues wolves that are abandoned or mistreated.

Click photo or see home page for a link to the wolf sanctuary.

The wolf has a different body language than domestic dogs. This makes it easy to put one self in a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, the wolf-dog takes the blame for the misunderstanding–and ends up behind bars.

The front door of the gift shop. We bought real cool mugs here.

Wolf on his back playing.

Wolf-puppy

A great stop! If you call 2 weeks in advance it is possible to set reservations for a camera tour which takes you behind the fences with the wolves.

During our evening drive through the YMCA of the Rockies we made a few friends.

We had two couples with us this weekend. They were a fun, interesting and warm hearted people. We are blessed to be in a business where we get a chance to meet people who provoke thoughtfulness and reflection.

“YMCA”! Clicking this photo takes you to the artists web site.