Shit I Miss About My Brush Creek Artist Residency

• Seeing our jackrabbit friends at Artist Camp

• Being around fellow kindred artists on a daily basis

• Waking up at 9 a.m. most days

• The view of the snow-filled field and surrounding rock outcrops from my bed every morning

• The ritual of taking off my boots and stepping into my slippers whenever I stepped into my writing studio

• The view from my writing desk

• The comfy couch in my writing studio (great for afternoon naps)

• All the quietude and solitude

• Becoming acutely aware of the shades and play of light and shadow within my studio as the day passed, as well as out on the various trails

• Wearing a scarf and mi chullo on a near daily basis

• Walking into the kitchen at 12 and 6 p.m. on a daily basis and magically having plentiful free food to gobble

• Our communal meals

• Murray’s wit

• Beverly’s mischievous grin

• Susan’s smile

• Elizabeth’s infectious laugh

• Federico’s voice

• Kathy’s kindness

• Sliding over the heated wooden floor in the kitchen in my socks

• The sound of our boots as we walked on the wooden platforms around Artist Camp

• The hills and beautiful rock outcrops around Artist Camp

with my writing partner, Chepita

• All the birds on the ranch: the robins, magpies, the occasional crow, the little small dudes and the rare falcon and golden eagle

• The primordial fear of running into a moose or mountain lion on our hikes past Artist Camp

• The Swinging Bridge!

with photographer extraordinaire, Susan Hillyard

• Taking hikes before or after meals

• Hearing and seeing the creek

• The blue sky on a clear day

• Seeing horses in this snow-filled landscape

Brush Creek Ranch

• The orange sunsets over the Snowy Range Mountains

• Seeing all the stars at night on clear evenings

• Having the writing studio (and Artist Camp, really) all to myself late at night

• Going to a small town on a weekly basis

• The salty caramel ice cream at Lollipops

• Seeing icicles hanging from our roofs

• The snow!

• Snowfall!

• The howling winds!

• Playing in the snow by making snowmen

• Seeing animal tracks in the snow everywhere

• Having to always be aware of where you’re stepping when you’re not indoors or on the wooden platforms (spoken like a relatively young man)

• Having life siphoned down to eating, shitting and writing