I did four new things today
I am someone who is life on the novelty-seeking dimension. If you are like me, I will feel bored and restless if everything in life seems the same. I need changes in life, however small the change is. This weekend I did three new things to make myself feel alive and breathing.
- I met a new friend— a college classmate’s sister, who lives only a half hour’s drive away from me.
- I tried to cook a new type of vegetable and enjoyed it—- two heads of fennel root from Trader Joe’s. I know only of fennel seeds that are often used as a spice. I bought the root of fennel plants upon the new friend’s recommendation. After getting home, I stir-fried them along with newly bought sausage link. It was delicious, much more so than juicy steaks in a fancy restaurant.
My kitchen was full of the pleasant and warm scent of fennel once the root is cut. According to Chinese traditional medicine, fennel roots will warm up our stomach, helping with digestion; its scent help improve our mood. Indeed, I felt so when cutting it and after eating it.
- After parting with the new friend’s home, on my way home, I stopped at the open Prairie in Superior just to the North of Rocky Flats and took a long walk there. It is windy and somewhat chilly, the Prairie is covered with new green while all grasses come back to life from underground. The sight of the new green overcompensates the gloomy sense of the overcast sky; it is still cheerful and lifting my spirit.
The hiking trail is well paved with gravel; on the prairie, yellow, purple wild flowers pop here and there, like happy music signs show up in the right place to life the mood of a piano sheet music. Among the whooping sound of winds are birds’ happy chirp calls. They nest on the ground, so you can only hear them but not see them. This Prairie is connected to the Rocky Flats, so the scenery is very similar to that of the women’s creek trail on the Rocky Flat. Surprisingly, I heard high-pitchy squeaks of Prairie dog. Not far from the trail, aPrairie dog is coming up from its tunnel, supporting itself with its back legs, looking at me. I cannot help but taking out my iphone 14 and starting to video-recording its greeting rituals.
A runner on the Prairie near Superior, COI have hiked many times on the Rocky Flats but have never seen a single Prairie dog there. Perhaps animals know where it is safe and where is not by distinct. The DOE (department of energy) had a plant on the Rocky Flat before 70s last century; it was demolished and radioactive materials were buried deep underground after a nuclear accident. It would be dangerous for Prairie dogs to make home there.
001_Prairie Dog’s Call in SpringI posted few photos and videos on the Moments of Wechat. Few friends and relatives in East China have seen such open Prairie in Spring. I received many comments and likes. Perhaps I should start a channel to vlog and photo blogs the mountains, lakes, and prairies in Colorado.
English