The nice thing about thinning the trees is the abundance of wildflowers that have been popping up.
 After a "hard day on the mountain" we are relaxing by dipping our feet in the cold creek water.  My brother and I used to play in this creek just about daily every summer until it would dry up.  Good times!
 Some beautiful flowers and grasses along the creek.
 After a hard day of work and play we went to Nederland for lunch.  On the way we stopped at the Carousel of Happiness for a ride.  Or five.  The carousel is a restored 1910 carousel with all hand carved animals.   The carousel is the result of a vision one man and he is the one who carved the animals, it is staffed by volunteers and the proceeds are donated to charity.
 She rode a donkey (twice), a St. Bernard, a camel, and a dolphin!  There are 56 hand carved animals.  Don't they look amazing?!
 I just had to tuck this one along.  Doesn't every town have a town cat?  Fred the Cat or Freddy the Freeloader was a big orange tom cat that lived on First Street.  He would sit on the newspaper box that sat right next to the door of the small grocery store and everyone would pet him as they walked in or out of the store.  The store employees fed him on top of his newspaper box.  The town vet gave him his shots and took care of him.  One day Fred didn't show up for his breakfast.  He was found in a garage on First Street.  If I remember correctly he had a front page obit in the town paper.  And this gravestone is in the lawn of town hall.   Fred was just one of the characters in the wonderful little hippie town where I grew up!
Wow.  We had a very busy day.  And I hope you enjoyed this short little tour of my hometown.