Emelyn Morris-Sayre, CRS, REALTOR Lakewood/Denver 303-517-5116

Oh what a difference a few days can make in Lakewood, CO. I live in a wonderful neighborhood called O'Kane Park which is only a ten minute drive from downtown Denver. Most of the homes were built in the early 1960's....mainly ranch style with full basements.

Across the street from my house is a lovely, well mainained home with a large, old tree that was just awash with color on Saturday.....

Well, last night we got the start of our first winter storm.....that translates to snow! Here is the same home just a few days later:

Pumpkins in Lakewood Colorado! I know you are having a hard time believing that there are pumpkins growing in Lakewood Colorado and surrounding areas! But it is true, you can find wonderfully fresh pumpkins for this Halloween season.

As I traveled down Alameda Avenue to Garrison, there is a wonderful pumpkin patch right at the the corner. Proceeds benefit charity and there is a very large selection....from mini pumpkins to large plus some very strange looking species to choose from

Be sure to look up when you are enjoying a walk in downtown Denver. The fall colors this year have been outstanding. I have travelled numerous times to the foothills and mountains west of Denver, Lakewood and Golden to photograph the changing colors.

On Wednesday, one of my meetings was cancelled which freed up about an hour of my time. I grabbed my camera and headed to downtown Denver, specifically Washington Park. Lots of the trees had already lost many of their leaves and their colors had faded but as I walked down some side streets that were awash with color, I stopped a moment and looked skyward.

Truly amazing:

The annual Daughters of the British Empire Victorian Tea in Denver is being held today. This is our annual fundraiser and members have been working all year creating wonderful items for the bazaar and craft sale. Those who like to cook have prepared jellies, jams, breads, scones and other culinary delights for our bake sale.

The tea is an authentic British afternoon tea with finger sandwiches, scones and sweets. For more information about the Daughters of the British Empire in Colorado.

Requests for donations from the elderly exceed harassment. Having just returned from the second of two trips to visit my very sick and elderly mother, I feel I cannot go a moment longer without expressing my concern on this issue:

In a period of 14 days, my mother received over 100 (ONE HUNDRED) requests for charitable donations, many of which she had already contributed to within either several weeks or months! My mother has every right to contribute to whatever organizations and charities she wishes to, but it becomes harassment when a person receives not one, two, three, but multiple requests from the same organizations even after a contribution has been made.

My mother is dying and yet she spends hours at the table reading through all of this junk ( and I mean junk) mail asking her to send money, because she feels like she needs to respond. She then spends hours looking at her hand-written journal of whom she has given to and when. Her hours should be spent enjoying her friends, her family and whatever else she loves to do. We all agree that she can leave whatever she wishes to these organizations in her will.

I am asking for help in how to curb this excessive mail coming to our home. I know this is an issue for many people across the country. The post office should be charging extra fees for this commercial mail....many of these requests come from the same clearing house. Trying to contact these organizations to ask to be removed from their mailing lists is difficult, because most times they do not give a phone number, or email address to respond.

I would like very much to make this a viral communication as so many of our family and friends are inundated by these harrassing requests and many feel obligated to respond.

If you have resources, please share. If you can contact your representatives, even better. Thank you