Loveland Municipal Building

April 7, 2017 — Leave a comment

Day nine in my “Leaving Loveland” challenge.

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This is the view from my living room window. The building on the left was originally Washington School, built in 1905, which is quite old for this town. It now, along with the addition built onto it, houses city administration offices. It’s where I go to drop off my ballot for elections, or pay my utility bill (okay, actually I pay my bill online but I could drop my payment there if I so desired).

That huge evergreen used to get ceremonially lit for Christmas every year, but now another fake tree gets constructed and then lit up on the main drag, Fourth Street, in front of the Rialto Theater, a few blocks away from here.

It’s a bit hard to see, but there’s a sculpture to the right of the evergreen. Loveland is ga-ga for sculpture – especially bronze sculpture – but this piece is a stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, like many of the pieces at Chapungu Sculpture Park, which is on the east side of Loveland.

 

Lake Loveland

April 6, 2017 — 2 Comments

Day eight in my “Leaving Loveland” challenge.

One of my big questions when we were thinking of moving from Minnesota to the Front Range of Colorado was, where are the lakes? Where can we swim? And when I asked this question in an online forum, the general consensus from Coloradoans was, you are moving to the high desert from the land of ten thousand lakes. Might need to lower your expectations a bit in that department.

And they were right. One of the things I’m looking forward to in returning to Minnesota is the water.

BUT, if you were to look for a relatively (in 2013 that is) affordable place to live on the Front Range and wanted to have some water to play in, you could do worse than Loveland. Right in the middle of town is Lake Loveland (um, really, there’s a website called lakeloveland.com?!), and it has a swim beach. Additionally, on the east side of town there’s actually a state park with a decent-sized lake that also has a swim beach, Boyd Lake State Park. Both of these beaches are easy bicycling distance from our house.

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This is not a great photo of Lake Loveland, but it’s what I was able to snap as we walked out of our realtor’s office today after signing papers involving selling our house. That road is Highway 34, which runs along the south of the lake and goes all the way into Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park (except, unfortunately, for this year, when it’s closed for construction a few miles west of town).

One very different thing about lakes here from Minnesota, is that they don’t often maintain their water level all year round. The dry climate contributes to that, and in Lake Loveland’s case, so does the fact that the nearby city of Greeley owns the water rights to this lake, and will drain it as needed.

Here’s Lake Loveland just over a year ago, February 2016:

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The kids and the dog enjoyed walking around the lakebed. Luthien found a safety cone and some sort of shell in this photo. Cody (the dog) found several dead fish.

Bai Tong

April 5, 2017 — Leave a comment

Day seven in my “Leaving Loveland” challenge.

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When we moved to Loveland in 2013, we were discouraged to find that this town of over 70,000 people had no Thai restaurants. Now there are two that I know of, and Bai Tong, within walking distance, has become a favorite date night destination. Today we met friends there for lunch (it was Nathan’s first day not working full time anymore!), and I thoroughly enjoyed my Panang curry with brown rice (and eagerly await the next time I’m hungry when I can finish my leftovers!).

Jeanne

April 4, 2017 — 2 Comments

Day six in my “Leaving Loveland” challenge.

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I took this photo from my front porch just now. In this house across the street there are some office suites, ClothRoads Studio, and a residential apartment, where our neighbor Jeanne lived until her recent death.

Although she was on oxygen, Jeanne could often be seen cycling around the neighborhood on her recumbent bike, her saddlebags loaded for the day’s errands (oxygen tank included). She told me that she really couldn’t walk around the block anymore, but bicycling was easier, so she loved to get around that way.

She gave us her kitchen scraps to feed our chickens, and loved to see what we were doing with our garden. When both our kids were in a community play last summer, Jeanne came along with Nathan and me to watch the performance. That same summer the kids went over each day to walk a dog she was sitting for a couple weeks, and she always had lemonade and cookies for them after the walk, as well as good conversation. My daughter Luthien especially was so interested to talk with her and learn about her life.

The last time I talked to Jeanne, only a few days before she died, she eagerly told me about her plans to get some chickens. She had a pre-fabricated coop all ready to assemble, and I remarked to myself how vibrant she was. I had seen an ambulance in front of her house in the early hours of the morning only a week before and wondered if it was for her, but after seeing and speaking with her that day, I assumed it hadn’t been.

The next Saturday there was a garage sale at Jeanne’s house, and Luthien came back from it and told me that Jeanne’s family was selling some of her things, because she had died. It was hard to believe, and she cried.

The crabapple tree in the photo bloomed after Jeanne was gone, and Luthien said it was celebrating Jeanne’s life – and a beautiful, generous, well-lived life it was. I’m grateful we got to know Jeanne for the short time that we were neighbors.

Look at Those Mountains!

April 3, 2017 — Leave a comment

Day five in my “Leaving Loveland” challenge.

This week I’m filling in at my old job while my friend takes a well-deserved vacation, so this morning I got to ride my old bike commute. This is the view riding back from work. Nathan also bikes this same stretch of trail to and from work. This is a commute we will both miss.

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When we first moved to Colorado, I would constantly be surprised and wowed by the Rocky Mountain views, exclaiming, “look at those mountains!” It became a little joke between the boy and me, who would roll his eyes and whine, “oh Mom!”

But really. Look at those mountains! I guess in this photo they’re actually a bit hard to see, what with the trees in the foreground and the white clouds blending with the white snow. But there they are. And I’m sure I’ll be posting more mountain photos before this little series is through.