March Lion and April Lion no lambs allowed

March turned out to be a toughish month: summer heat alternating with below-freezing temperatures and foot deep slush-snow (or deeper!). Along comes April, with more temperature see-saws. I cannot recall that the weather was so erratic 25 years ago, but you know that us old-timers tend to embroider our memories. I do know that we had a good deal more snow, since Boulder built a set of cross-country ski trails. These seemed like a lot of wishful thinking in the late 90's to about 2004, but now we do get enough snow to occasionally motivate the City Parks people to crunch a few trails out in the open park spaces. I haven't looked at the founded trails to see if they have even been maintained. Right now, one of the nicest ones is being demolished by alternate park construction, with all the wild plums and chokecherries being ripped out from along the irrigation ditches, a lot of the cottonwoods being chopped down (there go the hawk and owl nests!) and terraforming for X-bikers trails being performed. I suppose that there might be some consolation in having ditches covered so toddlers won't drown when their parents forget them in a fit of socializing. But losing all that shrubbery is sad...

Another day, another snow fall!

Big wet plops of snow like dog licks on your face are falling with distressing density. The hoophouse requires multiple brushings to keep it on its feet. And someone told me it might snow over 16 inches! Oh noes!

But this is blessed moisture for spring. Providing we don't have a disastrously hot heat wave with a short drought as we had a few years ago, we should have a blossoming of plants we don't always see. Last year the plains got enough moisture that they were covered near the Pawnee Buttes area with evening primroses. The local news talked to some loquacious rancher who assured them the flowers were prairie roses. I was washing dishes at the time and didn't see the video, and was all agog to see these prairie roses that only bloom every few years! And then the next day I saw the video and saw that they were Oenothera caespitosa, which is the most common Evening Primrose around here. Sigh.

What a long winter

Now that spring is officially here, I can say unequivocally that this winter was definitely not great. No, it did not snow too much. But somehow I forgot to plant my vegetables early enough so all I overwintered was a bunch of wondrous two-leaved seedlings. The weather was OK and winterish, but it seemed uncommonly cold, the ice patches never melted and I skated on a lot of the dog walks.

But this is now really the official spring! Each snowfall, no matter how cold it gets (and I still have to cover the plants in the hoophouse) is WONDERFUL. It is moisture for the little tough green leaves peeking out of the ground. I go searching for the nascent cranes-bills (not there yet!) and spot a timid mustard showing off a bit of pale yellow. Those are really flowers! and soon the purple crucifers will spread over the ground, grass will spring up, the violas will bloom...Hurray!

February

I think it means dreary...bored with winter. We are now working on getting out and rambling somewhere at least once a week, instead of suffering cabin fever, but the weather is not cooperating. Indeed, it snows on weekends. If we hustle, we can make a quick run up to Chatauqua, but the drawback here is that most of the trails are actually in the shade and hence solid ice. Me and ice do not get along.

Found some petrified chokecherries along the Bluebell trail. Also saw some CU wildlife gathering at the Bluebell shelter for a night of roystering.

Falling into winter

Already we have had more precipitation in the last two storms than in the last two months...and the snow is wet. The trees branches are cracking under the weight. The red and withered crab apples peek out from under a pile of snow covering them. A little kestrel kept a close eye on me when I was waking the dog. I believe it was scouting the wide open fields around the buildings here. Although covered with about 6 inches of snow, the weeds have enough bare ground around them that mice and voles are probably visible to the little predator's beady eyes.

A few shots of this lovely little bird: from a local biologist
and from one of my favorite wildlife photographers on the East Coast

Fall in the Foothills

Went for a hike on the Legion Park trailet. It was really crispy. Not too much blooming there.

Went for a hike on the Chatauqua trails. Crispy again. The little and big bluestems were fried, no blooms this year. Although their leaves were a lovely fall russet.

Drove up to the Brainard area. At least, the plants were still thriving up there. I ate the only two blueberries I found, and they were OK. I have had much better in the Poudre Canyon. I tried the gooseberry currants. Bland.

If I was depending on these for dessert, I would lose a lot of weight!

Ripe wild plums

Walking the dog, I noticed that now there are the tall coyote scats full of plum pits. For some reason or other, the dog thinks these are great. He totally ignores the regular scat with rabbit hair and other bits, but plum poop!

At any rate, even though the plums are a little sad in the whole, there are still large patches of lovely sweet ones. I ate a few, and offered one to the canine companion. He turned his nose up at the nice raw plum, full of sweet juice and filling the air with its lovely rose-like scent.

But the composted ones! How interesting.

I am glad I am not a dog.