Category: colorado

Black Forest Regional Park

Black Forest Regional ParkYesterday a friend and I took our dogs to Black Forest Regional Park.  As seen in this photo, BFRP was mostly charred by the 2013 Black Forest wild fire, which started several hundred feet outside the park boundaries. Despite this, we had a lovely walk under cloudy skies, looking at the wild-flowers and Pikes Peak in the distance.

 

Sneak Peak at the 21c Library

In Colorado Springs, the Pikes Peak Library District has repurposed a former office building (Digital Equipment Company) into a library that they are calling 21c. On the ground floor are the stacks and amenities of a traditional library, but the second floor is far different. Here one can find a 3-D printer, sewing machines, a video production studio including a green screen setup, high end workstations, a conference room with a touch interactive whiteboard / video conferencing setup, and several different gaming rooms.

Jack and I attending a Sneak Peak reception on Friday night. The library has its grand opening on June 21. While we were at the Sneak Peak, we had our photo taken using the green screen in the video studio.  We picked the background that we wanted to use, then stood in front of the green screen for the photo.

Sneak Peak Photo

One Year Ago

One year ago, as we left the office near Chapel Hills where my mother had an afternoon appointment, I looked north and saw a large plume of smoke. Since we were under extreme fire watch conditions, due to wind, heat and drought, I knew it was very bad. I also realized it must be very close to a friend’s house. At that moment, my friend called on my cell phone. She was about a mile due south of where the fire started. The next few hours were a frenzy of activity: taking my mother home, going to my friend’s place to help her evacuate her horses, and making arrangements at our place for two of her horses. She spent the first night at her house, but came to our house with her dogs, cats and chickens after her utilities were cut off.

My friend was fortunate: since she was south of the fire and the gusts were predominantly from the south that first day, the worst of the fire activity was blown away from her. This was very unfortunate for the rest of Black Forest, since the fire started in the south of the heavily timbered area.

I took this photo from the deck of our house the evening of the first day. That night, I didn’t sleep very well, and kept going out to the deck to watch the flares as the fire torched what I assume was propane tanks.  Although typically fires lay down at night, this one was very active that first night.

Black Forest Fire