Martha Colby

Greetings and salutations from  a beautiful, cold, white, Yellowstone National Park! I hope you are having a wonderful day, regardless of your religion, race, gender,or species. As a special gift, I am posting "Christmas Time Is Love" -- written Steve Raleigh, lyrics by me, and awesome vocals performed by Debbie Major. Winner of the Sonic Bids Christmas song competition in 2009! Woot wooooot!   Let's join our hands together, pass some joy around, make this world better!!!  Love to you all! 

ps. not to push it, but if you are interested, "Christmas Present" is available at CDbaby.com: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/stevemartha  and I think I can promise that there is something in it for everyone to love or to hate, depending on your musical preferences. It's an adventure in Christmas listening, for sure... 

Ahhh... Lovely Old Faithful in winter. It has been snowing, and the skiing is wonderful. I am still waiting to access a piano, so I've been playing my cello tonight and goofing off with the looper and such. Thought I'd share. This is an improvisation I created. It's called "Lullaby". I plan to have it available as a download in a week or so, but you may stream it for free as much as you like. Hope you enjoy. 

Back in the park at last...  Snow has been falling off and on all day. So happy I put snow shoes on the Little Car! It really makes a BIG DIFFERENCE.  Wonderful to see friends who I haven't seen for a while. Kind of sorry, yet pleased, that checking in for the season is now so quick.. It used to be such a social catch up time (several hours worth of catch up time.).. Now barely time to say hello and figure out where each other is working before your called to finish your check in process. The mountains in Paradise Valley look so beautiful with snow on them at last. They seemed so naked all summer without any snow on them.. In fact, all of the mountains in the area were in the same situation.  A lovely soak at Chico Hot Springs under falling snow. And herds of mule deer, elk and bighorn sheep all threatening to run in front of my car as I drove home. This is a magical place! 

Woooot woooot! Back to MST time again. Phew!!! Now all my east coast friends and family can warn me 2 hours in advance of things to come!

 It has been a nice, stress-free journey this December, although kind of eerily warm... I have memories of bundling up - hat, parka, down mittens, scarf -- in order to pump gas at the Montana welcome station 2 years ago. I believe the temp was -40, snowing,  with wind gusts up to 50 mph and a 2 inch crust of underlying ice on the highway.   Not so much like that this year...  It was 53 in Bismarck, ND today, and currently at 9:25 pm it is 40 (above) in Miles City, MT. Ello the cello appreciates this.. Oh wait... Is weather a boring topic??? I could discuss what I ate at Space Aliens today instead.... 

Over the years I have received many passing comments, some of them a repeated theme heard frequently from various sources.  Examples of a couple of the more common ones are " Don't you wish you chose the flute  (or piccolo or harmonica or violin... you get the idea... something smaller than a cello), or "Is there a dead body in that thing?" or.. "You need a bigger car." 

Well... I have to say that I still am happy with my choice of the cello, although it has consistently been a pain to lug around.  It turns out the case makes a great sled, however. As far as I know, there has never been a dead body in my cello case, but I can't confirm or deny that fer sure...  And, as for the car..... welllllllll.....   

I am currently more than halfway to my YNP destination on my 25th cross country road trip since my first summer in the park in 2007. Every time I prepare to pack my car, I assume I have it down to a science and that it will be easy. Every time I pack my car I spend hours puzzling how I am going to fit 2 cellos, a PA system plus months worth of clothes for all seasons, books and camping gear and bears and food and what-have-you in my little honda civic. This year I've had an epiphany. I NEED A BIGGER CAR!!! Random people have been telling me this for years, but I ignored them.  My reasoning being that I need to squeeze the car into a Manhattan parking spot . Today it occurred to me that I no longer live in NYC. I still need a car that gets great gas mileage, but... those Honda CR-V's and Toyota Rav 4s are looking better and better by the mile...  (I do still like the Honda Fit and Toyota Prius).  So, if you are reading this and you happen to be interested in selling a midsize wagon that does pretty darned well with gas and is totally reliable, or, if you have suggestions of such a vehicle,  please keep me in mind... 

ps... There's actually a hint of winter here in West Fargo, ND. 
pps.. Hope you're having a grrrrrrreat day.
ppps.. Thanks for visiting my site! 

Greetings and Salutations! The cello chariot is about to embark once again for the magical land of Yellowstone. We, Yellowstoners, strongly hope this will be a cold and snowy winter with Old Faithful spouting ice crystals, the sky sparkling with fairy dust, and the trees drenched in white hoar frost, just like those fake Christmas trees you can buy at Walmart, only these are colder and smell better. Wishing you a joyous season, and hope to see you at the Snow Lodge!