Time for a few more photos!

It's been a while since anyone has posted.

A Winter Walk

We get some beautiful days even in mid-winter. It might be snowing like crazy 50 miles to the west, and we'll have sun and mild temperatures. If the trails are not snow-covered and icy, it's a good time to head out and enjoy ourselves. Urban open space trails are usually in good shape after a few days of sun and above-freezing temps.




Recently, we went to Red Rock Canyon Open Space, in Colorado Springs. It's a fairly new and very popular open space park. It's not "pristine" in the sense of untouched wilderness, but it is scenic and very nice for something so close to an urban area. The trails are wide and well-maintained.

The park consists of several parallel ridges with a series of trails. Even though the open space is not huge and even though there are usually dozens of people in it, it feels fairly private. The park connects to several other parks and open space areas, which eventually connect to Pike National Forest.

We only walked for a few miles and stayed within the park boundaries.

The above view is from a pavilion near the entrance. The photo to the right is from a quarry in one of the ridges.

We've done other outdoor things this winter, but I don't seem to have any good photos.

Plant photos

Our plants have realized that the days are getting longer.

The top photo is of one of the coleus plants we rooted back in November. This variety roots very easily, so it's no surprise that it's doing well. I like the small oak-like leaves with the dark red blotch in the center of the leaf. It's a very cute variety.

The other photo is a hyacinth. Last year, one of our kids brought home some spent bulbs from school. The teacher had brought them to the class, already in bloom, and no doubt forced. She let our child have them at the end of the school year. We stuck the pots in a corner and forgot about them.

Around New Year's, we noticed a few green shoots poking up above the surface. So we put the pots in the sun and started watering them. Both of the hyacinths bloomed in the past few weeks. One was pink. This one is purple. They smell just the way hyacinths ought to smell.

I'm a bit surprised at the hyacinths' determination to grow and bloom. It's a nice February treat.

Our holiday cacti are finally done blooming. They bloomed for quite a while. We may well get another round of flowers in a few months.

Most of the starts we planted in November and early December are still alive. Our success rate with the temperamental coleus, ivy-leaf geraniums, and scented geraniums was mixed. Some are still in a jar of water, waiting until I separate the rooted from the dead. The ones planted directly in dirt had a higher success rate, but it was not 100%.

We replanted our big Euphorbia trigona into a bigger pot. How big will it get now? It was top-heavy and unbalanced in its smaller pot. With the new pot, the plant is now taller than the doorway.

I keep drooling over all the seed and plant catalogs. I wonder what we'll try to grow this year?