Home

If someone had told me

Just two years ago

That I would be living in 

Fort Collins, Colorado

I would have said,

Where?! 

They say home is where the heart is

And yes, my love is here,

But this pretty little town

An hour north of Denver

Population approx 150,000,

Has, in less than two months,

Become home 

I love Old Town

With its multitude of fairy lights

And hipster stores

Selling Tibetan and locally-made crafts

And burgers and pizzas and 

Yoga mats 

I love the Bean Cycle and 

Wolverine Bookstore 

With its shelves of second-hand books

And coffee aroma 

I love City Park

With its rolling green hills

And large sparkling lake

Its waters now frozen and home to 

Impromptu ice hockey games

And ice fishing

And ice skating ducks 

In the summer 

When the water is liquid 

It is filled with paddle boats 

And swimmers 

And cries of joy from the adjacent water slide 

I love cycling to rehearsal 

Down wide streets with designated cycle lanes

And along the Poudre Trail 

Following the bends and turns of the river

Through parkland and forests 

Within a ten to fifteen minutes you are out of suburbia

And into the open expanse of 

Colorado with 

Mountains on the horizon

And nothing but sweeping brown vistas

All around you 

And everywhere you go

Ducks and geese fly in V’s up above

Black dots against heart-breakingly blue sky

The sky is always blue

With an average of 

300 days of sunshine a year 

Every time I catch the silhouette 

Of dark leafless trees against that blue

I gasp

I love the extremes in temperature

One day will see you shivering at -26C/-14F

And the next day will be 12C/53F and you wondered what it was like to feel cold. 

The way the air smells fresh and crisp after snow

And when it’s warm, the scent is tinged with manure from the surrounding farms. 

The way the wind whips down the streets

The way the snow falls

The way the sun shines. 

I love that Craigslist works

We have a lovely handmade coffee table 

And a keyboard

And babysitting gigs 

I love that people interact and connect 

I’ve built more of a community in two months

Than I ever did in two years in London

Every other person brews beer

Keeps bees 

Knits

Fort Collins is full of artists and students and hipsters 

I fit right in. 

I love our farmer’s market

And driving fifteen minutes out of town

To Jodar Farms to buy eggs

And pork and chicken for Aaron

I love the taste of local kale and spinach

And those eggs

With their bright yellow yolks 

And multi-coloured shells. 

I love being here

This unexpected place 

That once, didn’t even know existed

Colorado

From the Spanish, meaning, coloured red,

For now,

My home 

The end.