I'm back!!
May and June have rather disappeared on me. At my last post of May 7th, we were still looking at potential snowfall amounts, now we are staring straight at the 4th of July. High summer. Why did I disappear for 2 months? I certainly didn’t mean to, but two large, multi-day events occurred in June that my family and I were the designers of. These dominated the month before June and all of June. Exhausting, but both were very successful, we are happy to say. After much sleep, cleaning up, processing paperwork, and catching up on paying-job work, I am ready and eager to get back to writing.
While I was distracted by a thousand other details, Spring happened. Snow thawed, rain fell, mud formed, and the land turned to a rich, deep green, dotted with yellow, purple, blue, orange, and pink. Oh boy, did the rain fall. The months of May and June in the Colorado Front Range and Foothills saw almost 17 inches of rain according to my gauge. The water table in our wetland is very high with lots of mushy ground.
As the rain fell, Spring did its thing with animals, birds, and bugs all pairing up and making nests and dens. From fox kits to ducklings, robin and redtail nestlings, fawns, and elk and moose calves, the next generation thrives on the abundance of spring. We took a pause for just a moment in late May to watch a family of black Abert squirrels romping, all in a line, Papa out front, 5 kits following, and Mama in the back, as the parents took the family on their first outing to show them all the good trees and hidey places in our woods. Working outside, we watched them romp by several times, all in a line, but, of course, I never had a camera handy.
The Ponderosa Pines are producing what looks to be a mast year in pollen and pinecones. Waves of pollen roll off the trees with each breeze, covering everything in yellow dust.
The pond is a busy place with minnows, sculpins, ducks, snakes, turtles, water-skimmers, dragonflies, and a heron who visits. Dusk brings the whirring sound of the Wilson’s Snipe flying overhead. We always hear him, never see him. A snipe hunt.
Mama Duck proudly brought her 4 babies out to the pond. Two ducklings remain and they are growing fast.
The forest and meadow are bursting with flowers with so much moisture this year. Golden Banner, Pussytoes, Wild Mountain Iris, Pasqueflower, Milk Vetch, Mouse-ear, locoweed, and Indian Paint Brush to name a few.
There is much to pull me back to the natural activity going on around me. Much I am curious about, and much to research and write about. My camera has been busy and we all take in the hushed moments as we watch a moose in the wetlands. I want to dig into all of it. The photos are a taste of what has been happening and what I will be covering in the coming weeks.
Thanks for sticking with me through an absence, and please stick around for essays to come!
