Back in Colorado

Br-r-r-r it's cold! We arrived back in Colorado on Thursday - with help from our friend Wendy in Florida who picked us up at 5 AM for our trip to the airport and from our friend Nancy in Colorado who transported us home after we landed back in the land of soon-to-be snow and cold. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to you both!

Thursday night was Einstein's Bunko at Joyce's house. It was great to see the coffee house crowd again - we always have such fun together! By the time I got home, I had been awake for almost 24 hours and was more than ready to hit the hay.

The birds had mostly abandoned us. Our feeders were barren - but I made a quick trip to the bird store and we were back in business. This is a Dark-eyed Junco. We see them only in the Fall.

Juncos are mostly ground feeders - looking for dropped seeds.

This Blue Jay was the most beautiful jay I've ever seen. First, he was huge; and second, he has a snow-white chest and belly with chrisp shades of dark and light blue with black and white accents. I took this picture through the storm door - which is why it is a little blurry - but I didn't want to spook him by opening the door. According to one of my books, there are two color versions - one dark and the other lighter. This one is the much rarer light version which is why he was so pretty.

This blur is the same jay taking a bath. He splashed water everywhere!

Over the weekend, Bill and I took a short walk in Palmer Park - our favorite place to hike. I had brought two Geocache Travel Bugs back from Florida and needed to put them in a cache here in Colorado. We located the final leg in Progression - a multi-cache that we had completed over the summer - and dropped off the bugs.

On the way back we could see that a storm was heading in our direction.

The sky was darkening and we could feel the first drops of cold, wet precipitation. Bill celebrated the cold by making a delicious pot of red chili. The house smelled delicious. Joe and Nancy came over and we ate, played dominoes and celebrated mutual November birthdays with Nancy's special cake that she knows is my very favorite.

This is Bill on Sunday morning - shoveling the back patio. Colorado Springs was blanketed with about 6 inches of heavy, wet snow - the kind that melts during the day and freezes into black ice at night.

Early today, on my way to the gym, I stopped in Palmer Park to take a couple of pictures of snow-covered Pikes Peak as the sun was just coming up. It is one of my favorite views.

The storm has passed just as quickly as it rolled in - and today is a beautiful sunny (but cold!) day.