What a beautiful week!

Every day for the next week is going to be above freezing and then, the first week of February it is going to be in the 40s. I know it seems like spring, but don’t start planting your tomato seeds yet …unless you have a greenhouse. It sure feels wonderful to go outside without a coat. Actually, being from Minnesota, I very seldom wear a winter jacket. A turtleneck and another shirt over is usually enough — it’s the blood kompon we were raised on.

Here’s a question for you … if you had a nice size piece of property, and you had a beautiful evergreen shrub growing on one boundary line, why would you ever cut it down? This shrub is (was) at least 40 years old, didn’t take hardly any maintenance, and probably next to no water. Maybe a little bit of trash blew under it once in a while — like it does everywhere. The shrub was at least 10 x 10 feet, with not a broken branch in sight. I just happened to take a picture of it, the day before it was destroyed, having no idea that it was going to be taken out. No idea.

I was told that the homeless slept under the shrub, and they also parked themselves on the bench by it. I was told that it was in the way of the new drip irrigation that was put in — for new landscaping. I was told that “now there is a clearer view of City Hall!”

In my humble opinion, the bench should have been taken out, before the shrub. The homeless should have been asked to move on … not sure how you do that.  The drip irrigation could easily have been taken around the shrub or run along the front of the railroad ties. And, I, did not need to have a clearer view of City Hall.

I have seen many landscaping projects over the past 10-20 years. I have watched as plants were planted, wait 3-4 years — with no water or care — and then we put in new landscaping. Yet, no one is hired to truly maintain existing landscapes. Take a look at the landscaping across from the bowling alley. Again, no maintenance or watering going on. We can blame it on construction, but there is water in that park. The plant material could have been watered manually — it’s really easy to drag a hose and put on a timer. How can we plant three Blue Spruce trees and then let them die? My personal opinion is that this is stealing from the citizens of Alamosa. How do we let shrubs and perennials just die? When’s it going to stop? It’s going to stop when someone is hired who knows plants and landscaping — and not a minute sooner. Again, my opinion.

Oh … the shrub was located in front of the train. It was planted way before I did landscaping for the City of Alamosa, which is a long time ago. To me, there is no price that could be put on this shrub — it’s priceless. How do you replace a beautiful 40-year-old shrub?

I am humbled at the number of folks who have donated to my friends Leo and Maria. They have moved into their new apartment. They are warm and have running water. We will be mucking out their old trailer this Sunday. I wish I had money to have their old trailer hauled to the dump. Hopefully, no one has to live in it ever again. Thank you, thank you!

I will take in blankets and towels for the Valley Humane League. I will only have my puppies for another week or two — come by and help socialize them if you want.

I have been talking to John Bradshaw this past week. In 1953, John’s 6-year-old twin brothers drowned in the river. Parents Dr. John and Madeline Bradshaw donated the Bradshaw Youth Memorial Building in Cole Park to the youth of Alamosa in honor of the boys, Terry and Jeffery. John (me too) is looking for original pictures or newspaper articles of what the building looked like when it was donated. John would like to see pictures of the original sign and is hoping the sign might be in a shed somewhere.  Can anyone help him? It was at this time that Lloyd Jones decided to build Splashland. After helping to find the bodies of these young boys, Lloyd decided that all children in Alamosa/Valley should know how to swim (this is how John remembers it). Thank you Lloyd and Margaret and the Jones family, and all who helped in the original building of our pool.