My Roses

Today was an ugly, drab & drizzly, cloudy & chilly day. Bill's mother, sister, Terry and family joined us for a delicious lunch - but we had to eat inside, and even had a fire in the fireplace to take the chill off the cold, damp air.

Between rain drops (more of a light mist actually) Terry went outside to see our roses. She called me outside and said to bring my camera.

The mist had transformed the roses into exotic, shimmering living pieces of art. They almost look artificial - but I have not enhanced these pictures - just cropped them a bit.

The rain drops highlighted the colors.

Even the leaves were beautiful.

Please click on any of these images to see a larger picture.

What a beautiful yellow - especially against the green leaves in the background.

After our company left and headed back to Denver, we took a short drive to Falcon and Peyton - east of the city. This beautiful Swainson's Hawk was sitting on a fence post on the side of the road.

I wanted him to turn around so I could get his beautiful rusty-colored breast in the picture - but he did not cooperate.



















Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skys are not cloudy all day.

This is the antelope from the song we all sang as children. When my sister came to visit in 2007, she saw antelope for the first time. This is what she wrote in her blog:

"the herd I saw at the side of the road were antelope (as in deer and antelope play). For some strange reason, it never occurred to me that there was an actual animal called an antelope. Don’t know what I was thinking!!"

As the sun was setting, I went out to again check my beautiful roses. This picture was taken with a flash.

Colorado is Beautiful!

Yesterday, Bill and I went for a hike at Red Rock Canyon Open Space. It was a beautiful sunny day. The temperature was perfect.

Parks and Open Spaces here in Colorado get lots of use. We passed other hikers, dog-walkers, bikers, horse-back riders and resident wildlife.

At the top of the ridge, Bill stopped to enjoy the view. We had gone off the path to locate a geocache and our GPS led us to this beautiful spot.

We have no idea what this plant is - but it surely is unusual - in a very cool way.

We only hiked a couple of hours before heading back to the homestead. I had laundry to do and Bill wanted to cut the grass before the afternoon rains arrived.

Just two pictures of humming-birds today - so bear with me; I can't help myself. This is a female Broad-tailed Humming-bird. I'm very pleased with the detail on this shot.

This must be her boyfriend - the original redneck. It looks like he needs to fatten-up a bit before heading to Mexico.

We do not see as many males at the feeders as we do females and juveniles. The youngsters of both genders look like the females.

Today, after Bill returned from the flying field, we headed over to Palmer Park. I wanted to hike the Templeton Trail - that circles around the north side of the park. It is one of the more advanced trails.

I love walking in this section of the park. The views are spectacular and the rock formations are magnifi-cent.

There was a parade and celebration downtown to welcome home the troops. While we were hiking we saw several different kinds of planes flying overhead. Some were restored military planes from WWII. This is a huge Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane that flew right over us. The wingspan of the C-17 is 170 feet and it is 174 feet long.

We have a new volunteer in the garden. This sunflower is just opening. One of the birds must have dropped a seed from the feeders.

The skies are darkening and I hear thunder in the distance. The afternoon storms are beginning.

Coffee, Conversation and an Unusual Encounter

This morning I met my very good friend, Nancy, at Einsteins for coffee and chit-chat. Nancy and I always have a great time and the clock spins when we get together. We talked about everything from the death of Ted Kennedy and health insurance to children, grandchildren, sisters, husbands and girlfriends (ours, not theirs!).

During the conver-sation, I looked out the window and saw this most beautiful parrot sitting on the railing outside the coffee shop. I went out to investigate and take a picture with my phone camera - when the police arrived. I thought he was going to arrest the bird for loitering but he just wanted to make sure the bird was with someone and not an escapee from the local zoo.

The owner was inside the coffee shop - but came out to rescue his bird - who apparently comes to the shop on a regular basis - and calmly waits outside while his owner gets coffee and a sandwich.

The owner asked if I wanted to hold him and, of course, I said yes! Nancy took my phone and took the pictures. I told the bird he was beautiful and was rewarded with kisses - much to my delight.

Now, having the picture on my phone and getting it into my computer was a challange! I had no idea you could send a picture to an e-mail address! I learned something new.

My afternoon was no where as exciting or enjoyable. Today I had my annual mammogram.

Red-tailed Hawk

While visiting friends in Alamosa over the weekend, I stopped to take this picture of a Red-tailed Hawk perching on top of a pole. Red-tailed are the most common of the hawks I see in Colorado. They are large birds - 19 to 25 inches long with a wing span that can be up to 4 feet. Their colors ranges from dark brown to nearly all white.

Yesterday, during a short hike in Palmer Park, I found this rock. It looks like any other rock in the park except......

It's hollow! Just perfect to hide a micro-cache inside. The cache container is a small stainless steel pill box that I covered with camouflage colored duck tape. Inside the container is a piece of paper for people to log their visit with name and date.

One of our other caches, Leverite, is inside a similar rock that we found at Pulpet Rock Park. I can't believe I've found two hollow rocks! There must be a geological explanation - maybe it's a geode gone bad.

Since this is our second hollow rock find, Bill wants to take it to Florida and place it there. I'm afraid the Colorado rock will look out of place in Florida - but I guess we'll see.

Five weeks from today Bill and I along with our new pet rock leave for a two week road trip visiting friends in Missouri and Kansas and family in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland on our way to our winter home in Fort Myers. I'm especially looking forward to seeing my four grandsons along the way.

All Hummingbirds

I just can't seem to get enough pictures of our little feathered visitors! First, because they are so much fun to watch and, second, because I have a camera that actually will take decent pictures!

This is a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird. The female Broad-tailed and the female Black-chinned look similar but the Black-chinned is slightly smaller at just a smidgen under 4 inches. I love the way her back shines emerald green with touches of orange in the sun. The male Broad-tailed have a bright red throat patch (gorget) while the male Black-chinned have (surprise, surprise) black throats.

Look at her tongue! They need long tongues to get nectar from flowers or from our feeders. I was just lucky to get this shot! She is sitting on the perch of a faux birdhouse we have near the feeders.

Notice something missing in this shot? It looks like she has no wings! They move so fast, the camera doesn't even see them.

This is the bully - Ms. Rufous Hummingbird. She rules the feeders!