Today is another Tuesday of errands and solitary freedom. After collecting the garbage, packing it and the recyclables into the car, dropping them off at the transfer station, and then mailing those overdue letters of condolence to Dad’s best friends’ families, I left Nederland for the gorgeous drive down to Boulder. My only errands today were banking and groceries. I had a few hours of free time, woo hoo!

I splurged on one of my favorite places in downtown Boulder, the pedestrians-only Pearl Street Mall. I only go there once or twice a year. It’s usually VERY crowded, and requires parking in a huge maze of some garage. The mall is several blocks long, nicely landscaped, and lined with a variety of unusual stores and restaurants, many of which are outside my budget. There are usually lots of assorted buskers performing all along its length. Today was sunny but rather cold. Crowds were thin, and only one lone saxophonist offered entertainment.

Despite what my husband and father think, I am not an avid shopper. However, Pearl Street does have some destination delights for lazy afternoons. Bookstores top the list, of course.

Boulder Book Store is enormous, with three stories of oddly arranged rooms on several levels. I mostly explore parts of the metaphysical area, to see if anything particularly interesting has arrived as a USED book in tarot or astrology. Today I found an intriguing book on noticing and interpreting omens in nature. Cool, I have been seeing more and more Messages from Mother Nature this past year, and I haven’t even been looking for them!

Next destination was the neighboring, cozy, basement-level Lighthouse Bookstore, ALL of it dedicated to various religious and metaphysical topics. I finally broke down and bought my own Osho Zen Tarot, which we use to amazing effect in my dream group. (It’s my third deck!) I also found Dane Rudhyar’s Person-Centered Astrology. Rudhyar has had a huge influence on Anand, my astrologer and astrology teacher. (Astrology will be another set of posts!)

I had a legitimate excuse to go to Peppercorn, an enormous kitchen and cooking store. Now, I do not like to cook, personally; it involves too much work and cleaning. But this store has a fascinating variety of cooking gadgets and beautiful tableware. Then there is the magical upstairs loft, aah! It has fancy, colored glasses and vases in the south-facing wall of windows, creatively elegant table settings, an amazing collection of coffee-table picture books, distinctive purses/ scarves/ jewelry, beautiful bedding, baby shower gifts, bathroom counter accessories you can’t find elsewhere, etc. I like to look at all the pretty things and bright colors.

I tour and drool over the whole store, but I usually buy kitchen accouterments—how mundane. Today, I was searching for a lightweight mug for my father. He can no longer lift a regular ceramic mug, but we enjoy socializing over our evening hot chocolate. I have looked all over for the past two weeks with no luck. Peppercorn had hammered copper mugs, lined with stainless steel, that were perfect and pretty. Hallelujah!

I saved my favorite stop for last, the Boulder Arts & Crafts Gallery, triple-aah! I rarely buy anything here, but I drool over almost everything! They only carry extraordinary artwork, and of almost every medium. It is hard to absorb so much creativity and beauty in one place. It always feeds my soul, just to be there.

A leisurely afternoon of books and beauty–hard to beat that!