And in other weather related news....

We have more moisture and more cool weather. My evening primroses are putting on a new show! My roses have mildew! I either overwater (it is raining!) or underwater (sudden hot spell). Sigh.

The wild plums look pretty sad this year, with galls, insect bites, and sun-burn. However, chokecherries are abundant. I should go out and gather a basket full to make pancake syrup with. The last time I tried to make jelly, we ended up with syrup. So maybe if the goal is syrup, it will work out well.

We also need to go into the Boulder Canyon and see if the grapes look good. If so, maybe some grape jelly is in order.

On a side note, I went to Hotchkiss this weekend, and stopped on the way at the Grizzly Creek rest stop in Glenwood Canyon. There, everything looked nice and green. The dogwood was blooming and in fruit at the same time. I don't know that I have seen that before.

The Colorado had a nice water flow going, and lots of people were out rafting and canoeing.

July! July!

and the living is easy...Went hiking up by Blue Lake and Mitchell Lake this weekend, and had the pleasure of being pelted with rain, snow and hail. Since we were a little ways below the tree line, we did have some trees to take cover under (I know, I know, lightning strikes trees! but what was our choice?) sort of...if we wanted to scrunch down under the not so tall spruce and fir. But then the sun came out...and all was well until the next stormling.

The flowers were beyond wonderful. I did not take that may photos, due to the distraction of the DOG. He tends to want to sniff things as we go along, and I may practice my best Cesar Millan dog whispering, but that DOG is so obstinate! So he will yank on me at the worst moment.

Meanwhile my spousal unit is off taking landscape photos, and trying to catch a shot of flying birds.

Just as an aside, there were tons of flowers (well, lots of flowers) on the mountain blueberries. Bodes well for this fall. It has been a long time since I have them covered with blooms like that. The bog laurel was magnificent too. Violets were everywhere. Parry's primroses lined all the streams. Virginia bluebells joined them, along with marsh marigolds. It was enough to make one forget about the steepness of the hills, the angularity of the rocks on the path and the streams to cross.

Dang that rain anyhow

So we are now getting what we used to have in this part of the country, the regular evening showers after a nice moisty day. The good part is that the plants are mostly happy. The bad part is that my beautiful xeriscape flower garden is now a beautiful leaf garden with flowers peaking out from the leaves. The evening primroses look very coy, but not spectacular as they have in the past. The roses are hidden behind large plumes of grass. The Russian sage is looking pretty intimidated, but it will have its day I hope, later this summer.

It is interesting to hear people gripe about the unusual weather. Of course the weather reporters on TV (one cannot call them meteorologists with a straight face) babble about how unusual this all is, but looking at them you realize they haven't lived in the area that long, especially since they all look about 25 or so.

And summer is soon upon us. What this will bring we shall see.

End of drought for a while, I guess

Haven't written for a while. This year has been a little traumatic, we had a couple of layoffs at work, and the last was the worst. I don't know if that situation will improve, but the weather on the Front Range has! Real spring monsoons! Real thunderstorms! The weeds (let us call non-native and invasives, weeds, the others, ruderals) are leaping up for joy. My garden looks like a jungle. My vegetable garden needs some upkeep, but I have started the tomatoes, the peppers, and other spring/summer stuff. No earwigs this year, but! Elm tree bug nymphs!

OK. The wild flowers are also in great shape this spring. If you look at my Flickr account, you will see some of my photos. I missed some this go round, but that leaves more for me to catch next year.

Strangely, the wild plums seem to be attacked by some (blight? gall?) disease that made a lot of them hollow shells of themselves. They turned yellow and disgusting looking.

Chuck and I have been out learning our new cameras. It has been both fun and frustating. Chuck is learning the joys of bird photography (it isn't as easy as one would like). Flowers cooperate much more, although this morning I sat next to a prickly pear and it threw its glochids at me. Got more in my hand this afternoon rescuing the dog from a patch of cactus. Not fun.

So much for now.

Blue jay territory

Some research shows that the blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata ) does cover this part of Colorado up to the foothills. I simply have never seen them in this area at all. Stellar jays, scrub jays and gray jays yes, blue jays no. This is a mediocre shot of a jay trying to avoid my camera. About 15 shots with blurs, blobs, branches and finally!

Rain rain rain

So, I go on vacation for a couple of weeks, with brown Colorado in my rearview mirror, and I come back...and everything is green! It rained. Asters (white and purple), gayfeather, big bluestem, little bluestem, blue grama, all are blooming and perking along as if there never was a problem. Grass is green. However, the trees haven't really recovered.

On a more somber note, I understand that the fungal blight on theaspens may reduce our display this year. We shall see.

Earwig damage to corn

Very icky. In the top one you can see that the anthers have been completely chewed off the top (no pollen no corn!). The other photo shows how the leaves get chewed at one end and sort of wrap into a cocoon that is full of squirming earwigs.

I never really loathed them before, seeing them as harmless detritivores.