Fourmile Fire

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard about the wildfire near Boulder that seemingly came out of nowhere and quickly spread across the foothills -- covering 6300 acres and destroying 170 homes. So far. Conditions were improving little by little throughout the week. The flames no longer visible from afar, the billowing smoke clearing a little. And yesterday it rained, even. But tonight, as I sit here in our South Boulder condo and listen to the gusting wind blowing upwards of 60 miles per hour, a sinking feeling seeps into every corner of my being. Warnings of evacuations within the city limits have been announced. Plans for action are set in place. And now, we brace for the worst-case scenario.

Ben sits next to me listening to the Boulder County Sheriff and Fire radio calls. Checking on a possible structure fire here, forcing more families to evacuate there. It's hard even in the comfort of my home and knowing there is very little chance that I will be directly affected by this fire. My heart aches for the families and the firefighters who are directly affected. I'm sure I can't begin to understand what they are going through, selfishly I hope I never have to know.

Here are a few of my own photos taken on day 1 of the wildfire:

This is the view from our place. On Memorial Day around 11am I walked out of our place to take out the trash. Heading back into the house I noticed a large, brownish-looking cloud spread over Denver. I following the cloud to the point where I took the first picture. This was only an hour after the fire started.

We jumped in the car and drove down the road to NCAR for a better vantage point. These photos were taken from the road leading up to NCAR, which, as the crow flies, is about a half mile from our place. You can see how much smoke was billowing out of the foothills and covering Boulder. At this point, it was estimated that 450 acres were covered in wildfire.

By five pm things were clearly out of hand. These photos were taken from Superior and, as you can see, the fire looks to be much larger than 450 acres. In fact, the flames now covered 3500 acres.

Again, we drove up to NCAR. These photos were taken from there -- approximately 5 miles from the start of the blaze (again, as the crow flies). By five o'clock the smoke had cleared and the wind had died down enough for two slurry bombers to drop retardant over the fire for a few hours. Here is one heading back to Front Range Airport to reload. You can also see the flames in these photos.

And this final photo was taken 12 hours after the start of the fire. I know it's blurry, but just look at those flames and that cloud of smoke. Can you even tell that the dark bumps in front of the flames are mountains? Hard not to feel helpless and heartbroken when you see this looming over your city. On Tuesday morning the firefighters announced the fire had doubled in size -- approximately 7000 acres were covered in flames.

In the minutes it has taken me to compose this blog post, we've learned through the radio calls that the large flames have started again in the mountains. Lord, keep us.

A time-lapsed view of the Fourmile Fire on Monday evening.

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Summer Flavors: Peach Shortbread

For the trip to Ouray, I put Trent's peaches to good use making this shortbread recipe.

Turned out to be pretty tasty, but I don't think I pressed the flour mixture enough before laying the peaches over it because the bread turned out to be slightly crumbly. 

Since we are leaving for Imogene tomorrow morning, I froze the rest of the peaches. 

Off we go...

Buena Vista in September

As a general rule, Ben and I do not camp or backpack over Labor Day Weekend. On holiday weekends, you really seem to lose that sense of solitude you find out on the trails any other time. The backcountry is just another over-run trail system where you compete for camping and solitude. But this year, with all the construction and class and application nonsense, we did not camp one single time and I was not happy about it. I'm talking no outdoorsy stuff from mid-June through August. Who am I? Don't I live in the outdoor mecca of the U.S.? Arguably, yes. So, despite our plans to stick around the home front and spend another weekend on the house, on Friday morning -- on a whim -- I called one campground in Buena Vista to see if they had any availability. Surprise! They had just canceled a campsite hold not ten minutes ago and they now had one free spot for Friday and Saturday evening. Perfect, we'll take it.

I called Ben and told him plans had changed and we were now camping. It didn't take much arm-twisting to convince him. We both left work a little early, threw some clothes and camping gear in the truck, packed the dogs up and headed west. As suspected, the campsite was less than rustic and packed with families for the weekend, but we were okay with it. We managed to get in a little camping and mountain time, afterall! We enjoyed some of our favorite spots in the area, tried a new restaurant and hit up the trails for mountain biking. It turned out to be a very relaxing weekend. What luck to have nabbed that last camping spot!

Enjoying our favorite coffee shop -- Bongo Billy's -- on Saturday morning.

Mountain biking on the Midland Trail just outside of town.

I brought the dogs to the river to cool off while Ben extended his ride. The water was icy cold and I was shocked to see so many people swimming. The dogs sure appreciated it.

My very own Pigpen. Higgins loved camping! He rolled around in the dirt and chewed on sticks and hunted for bugs. Is it possible to see gender differences in dogs? Byrdie isn't nearly as messy or dirty or clumsy. Higgins is a boy, through and through.

Happy girl.

Back at camp.

Tasty dinner at Eddyline.

"At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one's lost self."
~Brendan Francis Behan

Nature. Natural.

Summer Flavors

Tomat-ers from the garden. 

We bought a tomato plant this year on a whim. Our luck with tomatoes in previous years hasn't been the best -- we've ended up with plenty of green tomatoes ruined by the season's first frost. During a trip to Lowe's for materials to be used in the remodel, and late in the planting season, we perused the garden center before leaving. We spotted a shelf with clearance plants including a half-dead tomato plant for a buck. We took the little guy home, this time finding a space with plenty of light, and planted him there. This little plant thrived! It has fared better than any of our other plants and thus far has provided us with plenty of flavorful fruits (in my opinion, nearly the best tomatoes I've tasted) for pizzas, salsas, tomato sauces and more. I'm glad we gave tomatoes another go.

Millions of peaches...

These peaches are plucked from the tree in my friend Trent's backyard. How wonderful to have your very own peach tree, I think. Trent, having to deal with the overgrown branches interfering with power lines (or is it the other way around?) and hundreds of sweet, bee-attracting fruits littered across the lawn will be removing the tree come September. Hearing this, I took the opportunity to bring home as many tasty little peaches as I could, asking Veronique even, to fill another bag for me the very next day. Now that I have three to four dozen peaches in my refrigerator, I'm on the hunt for recipes. And I'm under the gun with leaving town for the big race this weekend. Anyone out there have good peach recipes? So far I plan to make this and this and maybe some salsa, and of course freeze some of them. 

Right in this very moment I'm finding it hard to remember why I favor autumn over the summer months. All this fresh produce, the appealing colors and textures and flavors that make it hard to resist buying too much, abundant even in this arid state all summer long. Yeah, I like summer alright I guess. 

Homemade Pizza

Fresh-picked tomatoes from the garden.

Hazel Dell Mushrooms from the farmers' market.

Basil from the garden.

Red pepper from Cure Organic Farm. 

The finished product. Yum.