U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Glen Eyrie

Location Colorado Springs, Colorado
Coordinates 38°53′30″N 104°53′04″W
Built 1871
Architect Frederick Sterner
Architectural style Tudor Revival

Glen Eyrie is an English Tudor-style castle built in 1871 by General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs. There are 17 guest rooms (12 Deluxe guest rooms and 5 premier guest rooms) in the castle, as well as 7 meeting rooms including the Castle Great Hall (2200-square-foot room that can hold up to 240 people) and 2 dining rooms (the Castle King James Hall has seating for 180 people and the Castle Music & Library rooms for seating for up to 58 people); this house was his and his wife's dream home, and is near Colorado Springs in the northwest foothills just north of the Garden of the Gods rock formations (now a city park). After building a large carriage house where the family lived for a time, Palmer and his wife Mary "Queen" Mellen built a 22-room frame house on the 800-acre (3.2 km2) estate. This house was remodeled in 1881 to include a tower and additional rooms, and made to resemble a stone castle in 1903, reminiscent of those native to England.

Queen Palmer, at age 21, opened the first public school in Colorado Springs in November 1871; the Palmers had three daughters, Elsie, Dorothy, and Marjory.

In 1880, Mrs. Palmer suffered a mild heart attack and was advised to move to a lower altitude, she and the girls moved to the East Coast and then to England where General Palmer visited them as often as he could. Queen died on December 27, 1894, at the age of 44. In sorrow, General Palmer went to England to return Mrs. Palmer's remains and the girls to Colorado Springs. At that time they decided to tear down their home and, in memory of his wife because she so enjoyed the feel of a castle home, they re-built the 33,000-square-foot castle.

Glen Eyrie's use today

Glen Eyrie is an English Tudor-style castle built by General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs. There are 17 guest rooms in the castle, as well as 4 meeting rooms, 2 dining rooms, and 24 fireplaces; the castle has several features that were advanced for its time, including a primitive intercom system and a chimney system that would hold the smoke until the wind was blowing in the right direction to take the smoke out of the valley. Glen Eyrie is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The castle is now owned by The Navigators, it is open for public tours and events, and can be rented for private programs.

The tea room inside the castle.

Events hosted at the castle include English and Victorian teas throughout the week and Christmas Madrigal Banquets beginning after Thanksgiving. Glen Eyrie also puts on marriage getaways, men's retreats, women's retreats, family conferences, and much more. To check on their upcoming programs and different retreats, visit their website.

Glen Eyrie's location at the base of Queen's Canyon leaves it vulnerable to flash floods, a risk that increased after the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire; the fire did no damage to the Glen Eyrie grounds, but it stripped the vegetation from Queen's Canyon. Over a million dollars in flood mitigation has since provided two debris nets and a wider, deeper, concrete-and-cinder-block-reinforced creek bed, which allows water to flow at 2,000 cubic feet per second through the grounds at Glen Eyrie.

A Wise Old Owl

There was an old owl that lived in an oak. Everyday he saw incidents happening around him. Yesterday he saw a boy helping an old man to carry a heavy basket. Today he saw a girl shouting at her mother. The more he saw the less he spoke.

As he spoke less, he heard more. He heard people talking and telling stories. He heard a woman saying that an elephant jumped over a fence. He also heard a man saying that he had never made a mistake.

The old owl had seen and heard about what happened to people. Some became better and some became worse. But the old owl had become wiser each and every day.

Moral of the story :

You should be observant, talk less but listen more. This will make you a wise person.

Painted by Marjolein Bastin

Examples:

My skin was as white as paper.
Моя кожа была белой, как бумага.

She was as white as snow.
Она была бледна, как снег.

You're as white as a sack of flour.
Ты белый, как мешок муки.

He went as white as a sheet.
Он стал белым, как лист бумаги.

Your skin is as white as a snowflake.
Ваша кожа белая, как снежинка

Food For Thought: Vegetarian Cattle Farmer and Butcher

Jay Wilde grew up on a dairy farm in England. From an early age, he felt an emotional connection to the cows who surrounded him. He couldn’t bear the thought of any animal ending up on his plate. And so, he became a vegetarian.

Jay was groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps. When his dad died in 2011, he began running the dairy farm. He quickly failed at his new job.

Jay explained, “To take the cow’s milk, you have to separate her from her baby. This is really difficult. The cows get very upset when they are separated. It takes them a long time to get over it.”

Jay couldn’t do it, so he decided to try his hand at beef farming instead.

On beef farms, cows are allowed to keep their calves for at least six months. However, the stress of sending animals to slaughter was also too much for him.

A member of the Vegan Society offered Jay an opportunity to use his farm to grow plant foods. Jay jumped at the chance.

Jay has since turned vegan, and his vegetable farm is flourishing. He hopes to set an example for the rest of the world. He believes people should not blindly follow tradition. They should listen to their heart instead.

Australian, Tammi Jonas, knows all about listening to her heart.

When she was 19, she read a book called Animal Liberation. Its description of poor conditions in the meat industry sickened her. She became a vegetarian in protest.

She didn’t eat meat for over a decade. During that time, she gave birth to two children. In her third pregnancy, she became anemic. Supplements didn’t help.

At her wit’s end, she thought, “a burger would fix this.” She succumbed to temptation and ate some meat. It was a major turning point. Meat was back on the menu, and her health returned.

Tammi explains she never thought it was wrong to take an animal’s life for food. She just thought it was wrong to treat them cruelly and confine them to sheds.

In a dramatic u-turn, she has since become a pig farmer and butcher. As a meat-eater, Tammi wanted to create a farm that treated animals well.

She said, “I feel justified in eating the meat when I know the animals experienced no fear or pain. They were alive and then they were dead. That’s all.”

No matter which side of the fence you’re on, both Tammi and Jay’s tales are certainly food for thought.

Drop an egg into a glass or bowl of water to tell if it's still fresh.
If it sinks and rests on its side, it's fresh!
If it sinks but stands up on its end, it's a little old.
If it floats, throw it out.

Hey, have you ever tried these weird kitchen hacks?