Save the Poudre

It's been another beautiful day in the Rocky Mountains. You'll be happy to know that I have regained the ability not only to enjoy, but also to spell RockY Mountains. I have it on good authority that my earlier spelling disability was due to issues with the altitude.

You cannot go two steps around these parts without seeing the "Save the Poudre" image, shown above. I absolutely adore the sentiment, the concept, the commitment, not to mention the photography, that went into this message. You can watch a video here of the making of the photograph that includes interviews with the participants who are clearly passionate about their river and their environment. The photo seeks to focus attention on issues surrounding the struggle to preserve the Poudre River, the full name of which is actually the Cache la Poudre, "Poudre" for short.

The S-Man and I speculated for a time on what the actual pronunciation of "Poudre" might be. We had both sort of settled on a guess of "Pow-Drey", but, in actuality, the natives really do say "Pooter" or "Pooder", which all pretty much comes out sounding like the same thing. Ahem. Beautiful river, though, and definitely one worth getting nekkid for. So, snaps to Friends of the Poudre for a great, arresting campaign to help preserve a beautiful, important, irreplaceable RockY Mountain natural resource.

One a more personal note, I notice that everyone in these parts seems to have two things: a dog and a bike. Both concepts I can seriously get behind. This entire town is traversed by a well maintained bike trail on which, you can pretty much access any part of the town. Also, sporty footwear is de rigueur, forcing both the S-Man and I to invest in some sporty footwear of our own at the mall today. Or I should say MORE sporty footwear of our own. We both have a shoe habit and are really bad influences on each other in this regard.

Today, we also visited the New Belgium Brewery where they make "Fat Tire Beer". Not only is the company forward thinking, environmentally conscious (the Poudre photo was one of brewery employees), employee friendly, and just plain fun, their beer is absolutely delicious and, I predict, will be the next big beer trend to head east like Coors was in the seventies. I snapped this photo of this groovy bike at the brewery today:

We continue to conspire to smuggle a six pack out of the state.

Took in an exhibit at Colorado State University today that was a botannical feast for the eyes. The Annual Flower Trial Garden was a gorgeous display on the CSU campus that we spent a lovely afternoon strolling through. My camera got a workout as I struggled to capture the riot of color and texture that made up the show.

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite images of the fantastic display garden: