It's a Present, Dave, from Me to Me

I've decided to give myself a little gift and buy a harmonica. Or maybe I'll just take this week off from blogging. I hope you're enjoying everything that makes this time of year special for you.

See you next year!

Friday Festivities

Winter has officially arrived, and I hope everyone is prepared for the holiday weekend. I'm not quite, but close. When you're out and about and in a festive mood, don't forget about skating in Old Town and the light displays at Woodward and The Gardens on Spring Creek. The Gardens also has poinsettias and other gifts for sale.
























One of my favorite holiday treats this year is the adorable Cider Fixins mix I found at Santa Fe Craftsman.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Fish of Fort Collins

I just had to go to fish school. Having prepared myself to attend on the wrong day, I couldn’t think of any reason why I shouldn’t show up on the right day. Plus, the more I thought about it during the week, the more curious I became. Exactly what kinds of fish live around here, anyway? And maybe my presence would even be appreciated, in case there weren’t many people who could or would clear their Friday lunch hour to learn about the fish of Fort Collins. I could, and so I would.

I wasn’t the only one. To my surprise, there must have been forty people at the presentation by Sean Seal, research associate at CSU’s Larval Fish Lab. Some of them were with the city’s Natural Areas, there for a little Continuing Ed. Others were definite angler-types. And there were probably a few others like me—curious, and with an hour to kill.

So, let’s get right down to it. Of the 29 native species of fish in our area, most were discovered between 1889 and 1903. Six are now extinct. Another six are endangered or threatened. The majority of our native species are river dwelling, or lotic, fish. Most of the pond/lake (or lentic) fish were introduced for sport purposes, as the native fish tend not to be large or catchable.

But how about the rainbow trout, you ask? The iconic fish found on T-shirts, letter openers, and Christmas ornaments, the fish that symbolizes the lifestyle of the American West? Well, hold on to your waders, folks, because rainbow and brown trout are not native to Colorado. They were brought here in the 1800s from England and Germany. Later, when English trout succumbed to whirling disease, we sent some healthy ones back in a sort of international fish school exchange program. (I don't know that guy. Or that fish.)

The management of fish populations is much like the management of other wildlife. Concerns include pollution, decreasing habitat, and highly adaptive invasive species such as the Brook Stickleback. But there is also the additional problem of fish owners who will sneak their various unwanted aquarium fish into a nearby stream or lake. This explains how goldfish have been found at Riverbend Ponds and piranhas in Sheldon Lake. This, by the way, is not the City Park Piranha, but I still don't like his attitude.

Sean had many slides of various species with excellent names such as Gizzard Shad, Black Bullhead, Creek Chub, and Pumpkinseed. And I thought the Green Sunfish, Red Shiner (that's them, below), and White Sucker gave the program a bit of holiday flair. I did fail the fish quiz, though, proving that I still have much to learn.










If you were absent from fish school, you’re in luck because the City has made Sean’s presentation available here.

Friday Fun: Downtown Shopping Quest

Holiday alert! The Downtown Santas Shopping Quest ends this weekend. Find ten stars at downtown businesses to be entered in a drawing for a $500 downtown gift card and a $500 charitable donation. Follow the link above for rules and list of participating stores. But you only have until Sunday.




Today's historical photo is of a city crew decorating College Avenue for Christmas, 1966. (Photo from Fort Collins History Connection.)





Have a great weekend!

Fish School Fail

The activity I had planned to attend for this week was cancelled, so I found myself on Saturday looking for something new to do. And as my husband was busy all morning, I wanted it to be something my boys wouldn’t mind doing with me. But we’d already done many of the kid-friendly holiday activities that were happening. Skating in Old Town? Check. Winter Farmers Market? Check. Tuba Christmas? Check. Plus, I was in the mood for something different. So, here’s what I came up with:

Me: “You guys want to come learn about fish with me?”
Them: “What?”
Me: “It’s a short talk about the fish that live in this area.” (It may be worth noting that no one in my family fishes and therefore would probably encounter said local fish only by falling in a lake or river. Which I won’t rule out, especially in my case.)
Older son, giving me the ‘are you serious?’ look: “I’ve been in school all week, and now you want me to go to fish school?”
Me: “Well…yes.”

We then entered a lengthy period of negotiation and finally agreed on a plan: we would get take-out for lunch, learn about fish, and then have Walrus Ice Cream for dessert. My younger son also lobbied for toy shopping, but, as the mother fish say, I wasn’t biting. But when we got our sandwiches and arrived at the City building, it was as locked-up and empty as any sane person would expect a government building to be on the weekend. After trying every door twice, we all assumed that I had made a mistake and there would be no fish school for us.

We found a sunny picnic table north of the City building and had lunch. While we were eating, we noticed a stone labyrinth below us, the path covered in a layer of near-pristine snow. Having discovered something new, of course we had to walk it. True to his direct nature, my younger son cut straight across from the edge to the middle and back again. My older son and I took the long way, following each curve in and out. We weren’t exactly meditative as we walked, but I see nothing wrong with having a little fun in a labyrinth on a sunny December day.

If I would have checked the City’s calendar instead of the one I used, I’d have seen that the class is actually on the 16th. But without that small error, I would have missed some great quality time with my boys. And Walrus’s Egg Nog ice cream.

Oral History: The Lincoln Center

I’m so glad the Lincoln Center is open again—and better than ever—for this holiday season. I learned some things I didn’t know about its history by reading this excerpt from “Talking About Fort Collins: Selections from Oral Histories,” a joint project of The Friends of the Library and the Local History Department of the Fort Collins Public Library (1992). (Transcripts of the oral histories are also available at Fort Collins History Connection.) The picture at left, also from FCHC, is an aerial view of the old Lincoln Jr. High School, circa 1974.

“There was a lot of conversation and agitation from the early sixties for the cultural improvement of Fort Collins. The city had no money and no plans for cultural centers, but they asked the citizens to get together and try to express their opinions, and organize, which they did. This resulted in the passage of a one-cent sales tax in 1973, and the establishment of a seven-year Capital Improvement Program, which included the development of Lincoln Center

“It was a coincidence that at that time the old Lincoln Junior High School on Meldrum and Magnolia was to be demolished and the new Lincoln Junior High was to be built. It is interesting that Poudre R-1 gave the city the old school building, the location, for one dollar, and the city designated that property for the new Lincoln Center, which was a great boost.

“They incorporated part of the Junior High building into the Lincoln Center. The Ludlow Room was the library of the school, and the gymnasium was used for conference rooms and banquet facilities. The old school auditorium was converted into the mini-theater, and part of the space in the mini-theater that is used for dressing rooms for the artists was the girls and boys shower rooms. The present auditorium was constructed new on the site of the original school. Incidentally, the Ludlow Room was named for Olive Ludlow, a wonderful citizen.

“The whole community backed what we were doing, people like Dr. Karl Carson, former mayor, Dr. Tom Bennett, also a former mayor, Lilla Morgan, the wife of William Morgan, president of the university, and others. Mrs. Morgan was a real sparkplug, and heavily involved.

“But a few people in town said it would be a white elephant, and it was called the impossible dream, which did come true. The sales tax went on in 1973, so they were able to start building the next year, and Lincoln Center was completed in 1978. From the night of the dedication, people were thrilled. You didn’t hear much about a white elephant any more. We had an anniversary, I think in 1988, in which a white elephant was hung from the ceiling and cracked open and shattered.”
--Frank Johnson, 1992

Mystery Photo:
Last week's photo was taken at the Lincoln Center's Gallery of Trees.



















In lieu of a mystery photo today, here's a link to the Denver Post 2011 Year in Photos. Enjoy!

Feast of Fools

I enjoy holiday warm fuzzies as much as the next person. On New Year’s Day, Christmas, or any time in between, there are lots of good feelings to be found in celebrations with family and friends. But give me too many Hallmark moments this time of year, and I start to need…a palate cleanser. Something to get the sweet taste out of my mouth. Clark Griswold’s Jelly-of-the-Month Club rant, for example. David Sedaris’s Holidays on Ice. Or my favorite Santa-gone-bad image: Dan Ackroyd from the movie Trading Places, wearing a filthy Santa suit, drunk, chewing on smoked salmon through his matted beard.

So when I saw that the members of the Old Town Writing Group were going to read their original “short tales of bad behavior and social misrule” at Bas Bleu Theater, I didn’t want to miss it. Now that I know where Bas Bleu is, I made it there without incident and, after a quick nosh of holiday goodies, settled in for “Feast of Fools: Tales of Holiday Mishaps.”

I had my pen and paper ready to take notes. But, as I was applauding for the first story of sisters who, to their mother’s dismay, have a holiday tradition of staging crime scenes using Christmas cookies, my pen slipped out of my hand, skittered across the floor, and disappeared beneath the row of seats in front of me. At that point, I had a choice: get down on my hands and knees and disturb no less than fourteen people around me as I groped around under the chairs, or give up the pen and hope my semi-reliable memory was not out window-shopping or browsing my brain archives in search of a Seinfeld episode.

I was in luck, however, as the stories were all so unique and memorable that I didn’t need pen and paper. The murder cookies were followed by tales of: a father's well-intentioned gift of a carnivorous, public-menace unicorn; a redneck’s vengeance against a repeat-offender car alarm; coping with dead guinea pigs at a child's birthday party; a young woman experiencing a Dia de los Muertos celebration under the overly-watchful eye of her employer; and how roughing it frontier-style helps a woman cope with the stress brought on by a trespassing mailman. Adding to the fun was the Bad Santa emcee (that's him at left) who rewrote the writer’s bios as only Bad Santa could.

Thanks, Old Town Writing Group, for sharing your stories of holiday angst. They were funny, quirky, touching, and very well-done—the perfect antidote to a sugarplum overdose.

Friday Feature: Two Local Artists

How's your Christmas shopping going? If you need gift ideas and want to keep it local, check out these two wonderfully talented Fort Collins artists:

Fused glass artist Kathi Dougherty is having her home show and sale this Friday and Saturday. Her work is amazing, and she also teaches classes in her studio. (This picture is from her booth at last summer's Creative Garden.)



Jewelry maker and writer Michelle Mach sells through etsy and also blogs about beads and books. I love her whimsical, book-inspired jewelry. She's offering free shipping on any purchase through December 3.



Mystery Photo:

No mystery photo last week, just my dog wishing for turkey. From the previous week, the man in the photo is Don Brown, the wall dog who painted the Old Town Coca Cola sign (and others).




Where in Fort Collins was this week's seasonal picture taken?