Family

Me and my big sis, Carol, at Christmastime.

Ma and pa in their matching chairs. What a cute couple.

Mom in her kitchen, a place where she hangs out a lot.

The "kids" at Christmastime. If I were in the picture, one could see how tall they all are (compared to me).

Good friends

I met friend April on my 44th birthday in Ouray. Now it is my 50th birthday. Even though we live far away from each other, we stay well connected. It is good to have friends.

Daycation to Grand Mesa

Ach du Lieber! A field of columbines!

A beautiful lily pond in bloom.

The Emerald Isles.

This is someone's front yard as part of the loop to the Grand Mesa!

Daycation on the Mesa. Because of the long wet spring, the mosquitoes are especially bad this year. When still, you can hear the very loud collective buzz. When we stopped for lunch, we built a little fire, which helped clear the air of mosquitoes. There is standing water everywhere. But because of abundance of water, it is especially beautiful too.

The cycle of life

New tree grows out of fallen log.

Mountain Flowers

If I were to choose a favorite flower, mountain Columbine has been it for a long time. I am attracted to blue, and I love the shape of it. Another reason to love summer in the Colorado mountains. Thanks to Andrew for fixing up this photo for me.

Red paintbrush amongst aspens.

Gary recently gave me a field wildflower guide. While camping last weekend on land's end on the Grand Mesa, I gathered flowers, one of each kind and brought them back to camp to look them up in the field guide. I then grouped them by color (that's the way they are in the field guide) and also counted them as I am wont to do (of course). I counted over 40 different kinds of flowers! Amazing!

The call of the wild

While camping out on the Uncompaghre plateau (the closest place for us to go camping in summer, about 45 minutes west of here), we went for a hike. Chubs, the hound dog (although his mother is German Shepherd) likes to sniff out and chase animals. He doesn't chase bears, though, just barks at them. He has a propensity to chase skunks and porcupine too (he has had a few mishaps). We were hiking and as usual I was far behind the rest of the pack (Gary, Chubs, Buddy, and Bear). I turned a corner and there was a straightaway, and I couldn't see any of them ahead of me. All of a sudden thunderous noise. I hear Chubs doing his hunting call, which warns the animals he is chasing. Then I hear something galloping towards me to my right. He's headed right towards me. I see through the trees a massive bull elk charging my way (at least 500 pounds with nice big racks). I then see Gary running out down the trail as he saw the elk was headed towards me. Instinctively I get behind a tree. The only thing around is about 3 skinny aspens growing together. Those will do. Fortunately as soon as the bull elk sees me, he pivots and veers and runs back the other way. Whew! Unbelievable I wasn't scared but just thrilled and acting instinctively. Didn't have my camera for this one. I probably wouldn't have been able to grab it soon enough anyway.

Hooray for Ouray

Enjoying a day in Ouray. On the road, we can see the "W" in the mountains. At the base is Ouray and the hot springs pool.