Leap Day - Because there is no calendar day so rare!

"Happy Leap Day!" A day where 'this time last year' and 'this time next year' does not apply."
  --Anonymous

I couldn't resist writing on this special day, when the calendar is adjusted to make up for extra time and when women are (perhaps) more likely to take marriage proposal matters into their own hands--or, so the folklore goes.

I like the idea of having an extra day for February, 2016.  What a month this has been, thanks to my ol' pal El Nino, Valentine's Day, winter-end clearance sales, art receptions, sharing laughter with friends, my annual pre-spring purging, sorting and cleaning binge--and, our Denver Broncos winning Super Bowl 50!!  

Let's start with an early blizzard...

Right on time, all sorts of favorable (if one likes snow like I do) weather forecasts began to converge on Feb. 1 to bring us LOTS of beautiful white snow!!  

How I love those complete snow days that cancel all unnecessary travel, enable school kids to sleep in and create a quiet solitude only broken by the sounds of snowblowers, snow plows and shrieks of laughter as I convince Ken to sled down the hill with me!!

Queen of the Snow Blower!

Molly shares my joyful enthusiasm!!

 "This is a wonderful day.  I've never seen it before."

 --Maya Angelou 

Ken skillfully navigates down our freshly-plowed street.

I'll never outgrow the excitement of looking out my window and seeing falling
snow!




It was a bit hard to believe that Feb. 2, after we shoveled over 17" in our driveway that it was Candlemas, the date marking the middle between winter and spring!

By February 12 it was 65 degrees.

The world will never run out of wind...

Perhaps I should call this next story "The Sad Encounter of the Favorable Wind-Spinner Meeting A Most Unfavorable Wind."

As a Wyoming girl growing up with the wind, I LOVE the wind!  I've loved it everywhere I've lived--from North Dakota to Indiana, from Illinois to Ohio.  My Dad loves the wind as well and creates nifty wind-spinners to play with it, like wooden airplanes with propellers that spin in a breeze and sailboats with copper sails to catch the wind and move the boats in circles.

When we first moved here in 2011 my Dad gave me both a wooden airplane and a set of sailboats.  He even created a bucking bronco that with the wind would give the attached cowboy quite a ride!  Joyfully, we set them up to enjoy watching them play in the wind.

Well, they did more than PLAY--they LAUNCHED!  By the end of the first summer I was still picking up pieces strewn all over the neighborhood. I suspect that some parts were even blown to Kansas and will never be found!

So, imagine my delight when around Christmas I saw online a METAL WIND SPINNER--big and strong enough, according to the description, of taking on THE WIND, ANYWHERE.

A rare photo depicting a brief moment in which the Metal Wind Spinner was still in one piece, spinning in the wind,

Eagerly, Ken and I put all the parts together carefully, tightening bolts, screws and anything we thought could be pulled apart by our not-so-gentle WEST WIND.  We planted the long stake into the garden by the back gate so we could enjoy watching it spin from the kitchen and living room.

Gosh, it was fun, that first week when it spun just like it was described to do! Then, one morning, in WEEK 2, I noticed that it didn't seem QUITE RIGHT.

When I looked closer, it seemed that the whole middle section had disappeared!
How could that have happened?, I wondered as I found the missing parts on the other side of the fence.

By WEEK 2 the middle section had been blown off and the cups on the two circular arms were becoming lopsided and in a couple of cases, inverted.

Well, it wasn't long before the WEST WIND finished putting the Metal Wind Spinner out of it's very short and feeble existence. With only a few cups remaining on the metal arms it was almost a reprieve when I looked out the window one morning and the whole darn thing WAS GONE.

Naturally, it was buried deep in the snow and just recently emerged. Sorrowfully, I went down to the soggy part of the yard to see what parts I might find.

Broken, mashed and grateful to be out of the wind, I found the parts
in the soggy lawn.

  Never underestimate
the
West Wind.

Eventually, I gathered the parts together.

Clearly, this is a mighty wind we talking about.  I felt rather disillusioned that this STRONG METAL WIND SPINNER would so easily blow into pieces. It didn't even make a month of fully-intact participation!

Sigh.

In lamenting the demise of the STRONG METAL WIND SPINNER with my friends, one suggested I think about Tibetan Prayer Flags.

Maybe she had a point, I thought.  Afterall, I see strings of them fluttering with happy gusto in all the photos of Mount Everest's base camps.  

Surely, if they're able to survive the winds of the Himalayas, wouldn't one expect them to survive a season in Colorado?  

With unstoppable hope and enthusiasm, I bought a string of brightly colored flags online after researching the significance of the colors and the prayers they embodied.  

The five colors represent the five elements and the five Pure Lights,

After testing one string of Horizontal Flags, also known as the "Wind Horse" for over a week and being impressed that they continued to flutter in our back yard, I ordered a second string, just in time to take advantage of February's MIGHTY WEST WIND.

Now, I feel like THE MIGHTY WEST WIND is my most effective means to bless the surrounding countryside, promoting PEACE, COMPASSION, STRENGTH AND WISDOM to benefit all.
HAPPY LEAP DAY!