Photos and Rambling

Fall is rolling in. Yesterday was cool and damp. This morning, there was fresh snow on Pikes Peak. The snow line is clearly marked.

As usual, thoughts turn to blogging when the weather changes.

Here are a few photos from the spring and summer.

This first photo was taken this past spring. I'm not totally sure where I was when I took it, but it looks like this is a view of Garden of the Gods from the south. I think I was in Red Rocks Canyon Open Space and thought the foggy view was a nice contrast to the red of the Fountain Formation. It's clearly from before the oaks leafed out in the spring, which probably puts it in April or possibly May, 2009.




This second photo is of some newly planted sedums. I went to a plant exchange. Skybird, a member of the Rocky Mountain Gardening Forum on Gardenweb, graciously brought some hardy sedums to share.

I planted them out carefully, and set them on our upper deck where they would be safe from extreme weather and the depredations of our vicious predators, namely the deer and rabbits.


The plants were gone the next morning, less than 12 hours after they went outside. Gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Completely gone, down to the ground, no sign they'd ever been there, only the identifying sticks left behind.

I suspect Alien Abduction.

Chances are that the vicious predator was some kind of squirrel or chipmunk. It's even possible that it was a bird, though they usually leave some kind of detritus when they nibble.

In any case, the sempervivums I got from the same exchange stayed indoors for the summer. I'm considering some kind of squirrel-proof cage to put them in after the weather cools, so they can color up a bit for winter.

This third photo is of part of our yard in mid-June. We had a cool, wet summer, and thus a very nice wildflower display. These are the small penstemons that bloom in early summer, probably Penstemon strictus.



This last photo is of sedums blooming at Loveland Pass. The elevation is nearly 12,000' above sea level. Even though it was the middle of August, the weather was quite brisk. The temps were in the low to mid 40s and the wind was chilly. We went for some short hikes at the pass and at other areas nearby.


And that's it for today's photos!

What else... EE still has some scouting and band photos to upload. We had a busy summer involving all the usual fun -- scouting, band camp, karate camp, pottery camp, swim lessons, playing with friends, fighting with siblings, reading zillions of books, playing too much 'puter, watching too much TV, hiking, biking, playing tourist, and everything else. We only had one or two weekend days free for the whole summer. Even now that school has begun, our weekends are still very busy.

We set up our big goldfish tank. One day we'll get photos of that uploaded. The cats are very fond of it. We often find one of them sitting on top of the tank in the morning, staring wistfully at the fish below. He used to dip his paws into the water, but we put something over the open area so that he could no longer go fishing. The fish seem oblivious to the cats. They sure notice us, though! That's because we feed them.