Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs

The boys had a long weekend, so we headed down to Manitou Springs to check out the cliff dwellings.  

We've attempted this trip several times in the last few years; this is the first time that our plans have coincided with the cliff dwellings being open. Relative to Mesa Verde, the cliff dwellings in Manitou Springs are small and very commercial. There's 800 sf of museum attached to 3200 sf of gift shop, for example. And the teepee, below? The sign admitted it pretty much had nothing to do with the ancient cliff-dwelling Pueblos. Also, all the text refers to the Native Americans who lived here as "Anasazi," a name which we learned in Mesa Verde is not favored by the modern day (Pueblo) descendants.

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But, WOW! You could really climb around in the Manitou Springs cliff dwellings in a way you just can't the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. One child was pretty much born to live in this location. She had to be dragged away.

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I really, really like all the Pueblo black and white pottery. These photo aren't great because I was taking them through glass, but you get the idea.

Love the way this one plays with the negative-white space.

This was also our first longish trip in the new car. It feels quite spacious and high, for a car that is more or less a station wagon. Surprisingly, I think we have room to grow into it: especially when Trixie can be forward facing again.

Miscellaneous

On-going news out of Africa and Dallas has me really down. Usually, I'm pretty good at ignoring the media, but there's something about this news that bothers me more than normal. It may be that I spend my entire day dealing with the children's bodily fluids; and all the stuff they put in their mouths; and one of the kids can't even communicate what's wrong; and last year my uncle had such a disheartening experience with the supposedly competent big name hospital here in our area ... and WHY am I even typing this? It's probably bad karma. I don't know. Also, I think it might be a taboo to fret about stuff like this on a mommyblog.

The good news is that all the major online newspapers have now locked me out of reading their articles for the rest of the month (unless I get a subscription) so I'm being forced to think about something else. Kind of. (Damnyouyahoonews.)

***

Do you know much about literary salons? Wikipedia says that literary salons have been around since the 17th century, but the ones I'm thinking of were mostly in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Paris.  Names like Gertrude Stein and James Joyce immediately come to mind for me. If you believe the various accounts, influential writers and their admirers would gather at the host's home for drinks and a dinner while exchanging witty remarks about the latest publications, politics, and gossip. Some people credit salons with historically giving women a voice.

I've always wondered if the salon might be an analogy to the blog. As far as I know, there aren't a lot of salons anymore. Book clubs, yes, but I'm not sure book clubs have the sort of public profile that a salon had. Hmm. I think about this, because I think a lot lately about the end of blogs. Is it coming? So many blogs I've read over the years have ended, and I simply haven't found anything to take their place. I wonder if blogs will just kind of fade off into history like salons did. Are blogs important? If so how and why? Will they ever be recognized as an independent discipline, or will they always be an extension Writing and the Writer?

I am truly sad if blogs are ending, because I love reading blogs, and I love catching glimpses into the way that other people think and see the world. I love the way blogs balance between narrative and explanation and information. I used to love reading through comments, when there was more commenting going on. And I've always loved the way that a conversation sort of starts in blog world and very slowly, many people pick up the topic, write their own post and very slowly add to the conversation. That's the best. I feel like reading other people's blogs is such great way to challenge, expand, and reconsider your own beliefs.

How did I get to this? Oh yeah, salons. Well, I'm not really sure salons were anything like blogs, after all.

But, if you have any thoughts about blogs and salons, I'd love to hear!

Up!

This is Trixie these days. GROWING UP, I tell you.

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Everything she does seems to be earlier, faster, farther and more than her brothers. Climbing is by far her favorite thing. I spend, oh, about 50% of my day coaxing or pulling her down. Let's have some visuals, shall we?

[many photos of a climbing toddler removed]

Did you catch the photo where she's in the sink with the toothbrushes? Don't mind the toothpaste-dirty counters. That's just the way it is around here, since she learned to open toothpaste tubes. Flip top or screw ons. WTF? She's 17 months! Once she figured out how to open the toothpaste, door knobs became no problem. No problem at all. For her. For me, I'm having nightmares about where she'll be next.

She's working on zippers. Not fair. Not fair at all.