If you have been watching Ted Hoff's videos from Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, you can't help being aware of how much dog training is about allowing the dogs to do what they want to do anyway. Of course, Ted is adamant that a...
Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Jupiter Evening: Venus, Mars and Saturn
The Sun enters the mutable air sign Gemini on May 20th at 9:34 pm MDT and initiates a zodiac month of increasing mobility, curiosity and communication. The traditional scholastic year is coming to a close; the thrill of summer looms upon our proverbial horizons and a sense of freedom and excitement is in the air. We think of trips and travel, places we’d like to go, things we’d like to see and people we want to visit.
Our friend Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, doesn't just train and board dogs: he lives dogs. Ted recently attended the sheep dog trials in Hotchkiss, Colorado. His video of the sights and sounds of the day are interesting, even if you have never...
Taurus is the first earth sign of the tropical zodiac and the second zodiac month of the natural year. Its energy manifests in the physical plane via things that we can touch and feel, smell and taste, see and hear. Ruled by Venus, planet of attraction, love and beauty, Taurus attracts and receives, holds and secures. We experience it in the nurturing rain and warming sun, the melting snows and raging rivers that sustain and nourish life. It is here that seeds take root, trees bud and flowers blossom. The inherent fertility of the Mother Earth pours forth; we find comfort and feel contentment in the greening grass, soft soil and recurring cycles of life.
May 6 to 13, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Jupiter Evening: Venus, Mars and Saturn
Taurus and the Four Gates of Avataric Descent
It’s green, green, green down here on Wright’s Mesa. The quickly melting snows of spring have left us with thick carpets of emerald grass, budding trees and delicate wildflowers. The bright reds of Indian paintbrush are popping out amongst the scrubby sage and desert cactus. Bluebirds flutter and meadowlarks sing, a pair of young bald eagles dip and dive, hunting for prairie dogs, and a lone coyote trots through pinon, looking for rabbits. Mornings are still, the air is cool and the wind at rest. By afternoon, the earth has warmed and breezes start to blow. Clouds morph and shadows shimmy, calves frolic and lambs romp. We find ourselves smack, dab, in the middle of spring.
Visible Planets: Morning: Jupiter Evening: Venus, Mars and Saturn
Destructing and Constructing an Evolutionary New Dawn
The Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon took place on April 28th @ 4:20 am MDT, bringing to fruition the lunar cycle which began in mid-April with a late degree Aries New Moon. For many, this lunation was intense. I heard rumblings, mumblings and grumblings of irritability and dissatisfaction from personal, private and professional sectors. The world seemed ill-at-ease, restless and discontent, pulling, pushing, yelling and rebelling. 
The Taurus zodiac month began here in the San Juans with gentle rain, rumbling thunder and magnificent lightning, but this morning I awoke to a world of white. Overnight, the rain had turned to snow. It wasn’t long before bright green popped out beneath Mother Nature’s soft, nurturing blanket - the next few days will paint the pastures shades of brilliant emerald and shimmering jade. There’s nothing like the snows of spring, followed by dazzling sun and blossoming life. For me, this time of year is a time of memories, emotion and nostalgia. As the Sun enters my 12th House of the numinous and divine, I drift back to those halcyon days of childhood, when the world sparkled, fairies danced and the lands of magic, mystery and intrigue lived in and all around me. My imagination saw witches in babushka-clad old ladies, Indians riding ponies along Cherry Creek and dinosaurs traveling across far distant horizons.
