From Janice and Flat Miss Minton [made by Harper] in Colorado, USA
Dear Friends of Flat Harper,
I am so sorry that it has taken so long. Colorado is a wonderful place, but like you had fires earlier in the year, we are having some now. Not as bad, but still bad. Because of that Flat Harper and I have not been able to go to my beautiful mountains, but I thought I would include a picture of that too.
We have lakes and ponds and beautiful Rocky
Mountains. We are a land locked state –
which means we are not near the oceans, we are surrounded by other states. So, I do not live near beaches.
Although we could not see the mountains, Flat Harper and I have been
on a search for all the local animals.
We don’t usually see bears or cougars because they do not like humans,
but we did find lots of deer, bison herds, and prairie dogs all of which are
adorable but not something you can pet.
Harper could not get close to them, but you can see her head in the
picture. Prairie dogs are smaller
animals. 
You have to look closely behind Flat Harper under the tree – you can
just see the heads of the deer with their big antlers. I did a close up, they are trying to
camouflage in the shade. It was 100
degrees Fahrenheit today in Colorado as our summer is coming to an end. 100 F = which is almost 38 C. I know they say Melbourne experiences
dramatic weather – but today it is 100F and on Tuesday (2 days later it will be
snowing here and be 35F = 2C). But don’t
worry, it won’t stay long.
I also too Flat Harper to the grocery
store. I know in Australia you have
Woolies, but that it is really a Safeway.
We just have Safeway here.
Getting yummy food to cook for dinner.
I know you will be finishing up this
term. In the United States summer is
over and we have just started Term 1.
Where I live in Colorado I am working remotely and the students are
learning from home too.I will try and get you a few more pictures
this week before you leave for the term.
Again, sorry this has taken so long, but
Flat Harper is having fun and learning all kinds of new things she hopes to
share soon.
Cheers from Colorado, United States,
Flat Harper and Janice Carrel :o)
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 12
Flat Harper and Janice Carrel in Colorado
Flat Harper has been very busy in the last few days. The weather got really cold and we had snow here. Not normal for this time of year, but the beauty of Colorado is that snow melts quickly here. I’m glad it came when it did, because it helped put out or slow some of the different fires around our state. We didn’t have time to make a snowman and it was cold so staying inside was a good plan.
While I am currently working remotely, some school districts are not, so Flat Harper tried to get on the school bus in the morning to go to school.
Then I realized I could not find Flat Harper at my school, so we went back today and you can see that all the snow is gone. This is my school - Skyview Elementary, Thornton Colorado.
From Janice and Flat Harper.
That’s me with the townhall in the background. And yes, it’s partially built on water. This river is called “Limmat”.
That’s the townhall of Appenzell. It was built from 1561-1563, so it’s about 130 years older than the one in Zurich. I think this one
looks prettier though.
This is the “Hauptgasse”, the main road. Obviously, there are bigger roads now but they all lead around the center of town.
The cows are coming home. This is still a big thing in most agricultural areas in Switzerland. They wear bells and their herders often
sing traditional songs while walking down from the mountains after spending summer there.
Canoe camping is a type of “backcountry camping,” where you load up all your food and camping gear
into a canoe and paddle to an individual campsite on the shore of a lake (sometimes an island, like on this
trip). It’s a very popular summer activity in Canada, and it is also a very safe way to camp during covidtimes because you only camp with your “bubble” of people and have no contact with any other groups
because they are sometimes several kilometers away!
Mrs. Cornwall, our gang and I launched at Kirk Cove and paddled 5 km to site #15 on Big Gull Lake (see
the two dots on the map above). Here is Mrs. Cornwall all set with my hiking pack at Kirk Cove, loaded
into a boat ready to paddle.
As a small group of sports friends, we go to site #15 on Big Gull Lake together at least once every year. It’s
a beautiful spot perched on a rocky outcrop, with almost 360-degree views of the lake. This is Mrs.
Cornwall’s canine friend, River, as well as her enjoying the sunset and a campfire
This year, we had a bit of a different experience: we were camped when a tornado warning came in. With
that, came sheets of rain and gale forced winds which ripped tents out of the ground and ripped holes in
our tarps. We’ve had a record number or tornadoes in Ontario this year… but lived to tell the tale, even
though it was very scary indeed!
