Red Butte Garden Now

Fall 2013

I haven't put up many pictures of Red Butte this season. One reason is that I found that this years' pictures are a lot like last years' One rose alone IS a lot like any other rose pictured alone, after all.

The Blue Lady Dreams of Home

The  Guardians of the Rock River in Rockford Illinois

I'm a midwestern girl, really, but it's been awhile since I lived in the midwest. Sometime during my school years I became determined to leave my dumb home town, Rockford Illinois, the second I was able to as an adult. And I succeeded. I joined the Navy. I didn't see the world, but I did learn to live in large east coast cities. I ended up living in Manhattan for awhile even ..... 76th and Broadway on the Upper West Side just above a Korean fruit market in a renovated hotel. I would tell people I was from the midwest; I never tried to hide it. But I was pretty bound and determined to become some kind of east coast person instead, whatever that meant.

I Will Love It

We going to stay. I can't say I really "love it," but staying is the least bad alternative. I will have to pay a fair amount of extra money but not as much as I would pay if I were to move.

I just decided that moving was too much trouble. I don't want to do it right now. The whole idea just exhausts me.

Love It or List It

I'm ok with big changes like moving when those changes are my own choice. I'm not so ok when the need to make a big change is trust upon me, like it or not. I just found out that one way or another, a big change will be thrust upon me.

My apartment building was bought by a new company this spring. At first nothing happened. Now, I have been informed, big things are changing. The company is renovating the whole place including all the apartments. We are going to have a series of choices. All of them involve paying more money and some of them involve the trouble of moving.

House Hunters

How about this place?

Because I do have cable TV in my summer home, I do watch TV when I'm here.  HGTV is my go-to channel if I can find little else to watch, and as a result I watch far too many episodes of House Hunters .... this being about all that  HGTV is showing these days.

House Hunters clearly shows that I, like many people, do have a propensity for becoming addicted to something that is very bad for me. I know it's "fake". I've read the inside stories about how the person already has the property under contract before any filming is done. I know the formula very well. I know exactly what will happen before and after each commercial break. I still watch. I don't care. I'm addicted.

Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Bison South Dakota

On SD 21 heading east

Before I tell you all about the town of Bison, I have to give you all some practical travel advice. Remember how I said I bought a bottle of Starbucks Frappucino in Buffalo? I'm hear to tell you don't be fooled by the appearance of  those sweet, little faux milk bottles. If you happen to have one of these wolf-in-sheep's-clothing items in an ordinary cup holder in a Subaru, opened up so that you can swig it while driving, you know, the way you're supposed to do with bottles of liquids you buy in gas station C-stores, and you decide to stop rather suddenly, said bottle will fly out of said cup holder and whatever contents are left inside that innocent little thing will go all over everywhere inside your vehicle. I'm just telling you.

Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Buffalo South Dakota

The road, the grass, the sky. Welcome to South Dakota, a quintessential red state.

I got my new super secure, Homeland Security approved driver's license this week. It has at least two holograms on the front, a big picture and a small picture and half the back is mysterious bar code-y stuff. You can all feel more secure now about flying if I happen to be in the plane with you. I don't get on planes very often these days, so I don't suppose this will effect too many people, but, hey, I'm doing my bit.

I asked my friends on Facebook what this new little card could do for me. I got two good replies....one from Josie who said I could now drive like a madwoman, and then David just wrote "Road Trip!" So I decided to combine the two and take a madwoman's road trip.

I got out the map and decided to check out Buffalo, South Dakota, in honor of Sally T. whose home town is Buffalo, New York and who has been blogging recently about all the neat things to do around there. Next time you find yourself in her part of the country, go ahead and use her blog as a tour guide.  You'll have a great time. There are lots of things to do in the greater Niagara area, many of them involve getting to eat cheese and/ or cupcakes.