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Around Telluride

By Kris Holstrom

The FLASH! BANG! of lightning and thunder strike again on Tomten Farm. The monsoons began just after the 4th of July and have held steady. It’s a blessing and a curse in our region. Blessings after a dry June – the garden, the forest, the meadows, the mushrooms and wildflowers are lush and lovely. The curse in human terms - inconvenience and danger of mudslides, heavy hail and pounding rains that can devastate vegetables and vegetation alike – and make an oil-pan scraping roller coaster ride out of our driveway.

Water catchment is a major theme on Tomten Farm this summer. Our big greenhouse is now home to an awesome 3,800 gallon tank that will soon begin to fill with the abundance of moisture hitting the greenhouse roof. Catchment is now legal in Colorado with the proper permit. We can harvest and store water for the dry times – and that tank could come in handy should fire ever be an issue.

06 August, 2011 /

By Ben Williams

Ford_ka I’m back in the UK for my sister’s wedding, and although it’s only been three years since my last visit,there are many signs that things here are moving into the 21st Century.

On a trip to visit my Grandma we were driving through a small village called Crick, and there in the fields were two immense 2 MW wind turbines ponderously circling.  Everywhere small 70-miles-to-the-gallon cars bustle about the narrow streets.  On top of a block of flats in Leamington Spa, two pairs of 300 KW wind turbines spin rapidly away.

31 July, 2011 /

By Kris Holstrom

Permaculture Rocks!

“It was definitely a life-changing experience for me!”

“Intense and challenging, but so worthwhile.”

“I’ll never see things the same way again.”

Those are just a few of the comments from students during the two-week intensive Permaculture Design Course (PDC) recently completed at SWIRL’s (Southwest Institute for Resilience) Tomten Farm Project near Placerville. Part of the University Centers of the San Miguel’s Summer College series, the PDC found 13 students studying systems and connections in everything from growing plants in guilds and tribes to renewable energy to harvesting water off roofs and in the landscape. Teachers included Biodynamic grower Pat Frazier from Peace & Plenty Farm near Hotchkiss; Wind Clearwater of The Oasis, also near Hotchkiss; Daniel Aragon from SWIRL; Kris Holstrom from Tomten Farm, SWIRL and TNCC; and Robyn Wilson, Executive Director of UCSM.

30 July, 2011 /
[click "Play", Art Goodtimes talks about Mushroom Fest]

 

Mushroomfilm The Telluride Mushroom Festival, Thursday, August 18  – Sunday, August 21 bills itself as the nation's "oldest mycological conference exploring all things fungal." Which is saying a tasty mouthful since fungi have been around for a very long time. A lot longer than people, perhaps 500 million years. (The earliest known picture of a mushroom was found on a wall painting in the ruins of Pompeii.)

Fungi come in a wondrous variety of shapes, sizes and colors, from tiny cup fungi to puffballs the size of basketballs. Today, the sorts of wild shrooms sold at retail or served in your local restaurants are generally above suspicion. The main health hazard are fungi we collect ourselves.

26 July, 2011 /

by Dan Collins

Drew Ludwig photo ATLAS of the San Miguel, an exhibition celebrating the San Miguel River Watershed, is kicking off next Saturday, July 30th at the Ah Haa School for the Arts (300 S. Townsend) from 6:30 - 10:30. 

In addition to an art exhibition, the public will experience a great band from Nashville called “Swing Shift”  (those of you who went to Baerbel’s birthday party at the Sheridan Opera House will remember them well), a silent art auction (a week in Florence, anyone? A raft trip down the San Miguel?  Dinner for two?), delicious food and drink, a photo competition, and informational tables featuring the full range of work that the Telluride Institute does in not only our watershed, but globally (check out Elisabeth Gick’s work supporting a Tibetan orphanage, for example).  This is TI’s annual fund raiser.

23 July, 2011 /

Tour and Educational Programs Poised to Expand

After the rain, Mountainfilm 2009
After the Rain
2009 Mountainfilm

Telluride, Colorado (July 20, 2011) – Mountainfilm on Tour has been operating for more than 12 years and takes films from the annual Memorial Day festival in Telluride to several dozen venues worldwide each year. Making Movies that Matter, Mountainfilm’s educational initiative, which started three years ago, takes festival films into classrooms where students not only learn about critical contemporary issues but also how to use video editing software.

Both programs, equally critical to Mountainfilm’s mission to educate and inspire audiences, are set to take big steps ahead with the hire this week of two new directors. For the tour,
successful local entrepreneur Henry Lystad will fill the shoes of Justin Clifton who is departing to take on responsibility as executive director of the 5 Point Film Festival. Tracy Biga MacLean, most recently the head of media studies at the Claremont Colleges in California, will take on the role of scaling the educational initiative to a national level. She will work with Ellen Shelton who created the program and piloted it through its start-up years.

22 July, 2011 /
[click "Play", Kristin talks with Susan about "Red" and "Clutch for the Cause"]

 

Red Bag How goes Milan, so goes Telluride. At least according to fashionista Kristin Holbrook, co-owner of Telluride's ever popular Main Street boutique, Two Skirts.

Two trends emerged on the runways in Milan, Paris,  and New York: fur and red. (Someone must be watching HBO's "True Blood" for ideas.) Won't be seeing much of the former: fur is not too popular around these parts unless it is covering the body of a living thing, like, say a pet dog or cat. But red. Apparently that is a whole other story.

Kristin's story. She says that red in all its variations from Chianti to merlot will show in accessories such as bags from trendy designers such as Marc Jacobs. It's all about punching up the other two popular Fall color themes, grays and browns.

21 July, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan talks about the auction with Rachel Loomis Lee]

 

Ahhaa_7-20 Here's a pop quiz: What does Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts have in common with James Bond?

If you answered that the theme of the upcoming auction revolves around the iconic spy you would be partly right. Ah Haa's 2011 "007" art auction takes place Thursday, July 21, 5 – 7 (for an intimate evening at the school, including a mini-auction), with the main event Friday, July 22, starting at 5 p.m.

The other answer is less obvious, but no less true: Bond is unshakeable and so is Ah Haa. The school is a rock of our community, a hub where individuals get to discover their inner Picasso –  or last year, Gypsy Rose Lee!

19 July, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Steven Lee]

 

Talks are Wednesday in Norwood & Thursday in Mountain Village

Fireside Chats poster Noticed the weather lately? The Telluride Historical Museum is not taking any chances this year. (Last year, of the six Fireside Chats in the series, only one was able to take place around the Mountain Village fire pit in Heritage Plaza.)

The 7th season of the Museum's ever popular (and FREE) Fireside Chats opens this week – indoors– starting Wednesday, July 20, at Aces of Norwood, (in the Livery Building) and continuing Thursday, July 21, at the fire place in the Great Room at The Peaks Resort & Spa. Both opening programs begin at 5:30 p.m. and feature actor Steven Lee as "Otto Mears, Pathfinder of the San Juans."

Steven Lee is a professional story teller from Denver. His depiction of the man who brought the Rio Grande Southern to the San Juans routinely gets rave reviews such as this one from Tom "Dr. Colorado" Noel, Prof. of History & Director of Public History, Preservation & Colorado Studies, University of Colorado at Denver:

19 July, 2011 /

[click "Play" to listen to Sasha Cucciniello's interview with Dr. Kent Gaylord]   by Dr. Kent Gaylord Sore throats are one of the most common reasons for coming to the doctor.  Sore throats are most commonly caused by a virus, but...

17 July, 2011 /