Author: Ruth Wiseman

As anyone in Teller County knows, it’s there as you travel from the high country down lower. Past the traffic light in Cascade where the tourists are turning left to go to the North Pole or perhaps up Pikes Peak. And beyond the many curves every one of my readers knows by heart and further…

I grew up in Woodland Park, which means I was raised to believe in two simple things: keep your eyes open for deer, and when you want to turn left, you turn left. Now, apparently, Colorado has decided to change that last one by copying Michigan’s traffic patterns. It’s called the “Michigan Left,” and they’re…

Summers in the mountains are more than idyllic. Bugs? There are almost none. Humidity? I’m a teenager and have never sweated. Temperatures? Perfect. There is, however, a small, feathered menace that visits our house most springtimes and this year has been no exception. The American woodpecker. These aren’t the cute, occasional tappers you picture when…

Mark Twain once said, “The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” For me, getting started began last August on one of those nice end-of-summer days when schoolwork felt new and fresh. That was the beginning of my Science Olympiad season. The conclusion of it, a state competition, happens this month and ends at an…

Between all the snow and freezing weather that comes this time of year, mud season has arrived yet again in Teller County. This means that things like getting your car washed and dodging potholes have returned. Potholes seem to multiply faster than the tents do each Friday every summer at Woodland Park’s fabled Farmers Market.…

I walked into the grocery store yesterday, feeling hopeful, and mostly sure I could afford a dozen eggs for my family. I was wrong. It wasn’t always this way. I have memories from when I was younger — distant, blurry, and probably exaggerated, of eggs being a normal price. They were cheap, forgettable even. They…