At the very end of the day, sunlight reached far enough across the basin to highlight the horses I was visiting … and not quite as far as the far hills, where the snow still fell.
With warm days, the snow is melting, melting, melting. It’s a “wealth” of moisture to which we are unaccustomed … and in which we rejoice. Wealth, to those who have no coins at all, is relative. It still seems impossibly wonderful and makes us dream of ponds in the springtime.
Just because I didn’t see it doesn’t mean *it* wasn’t there. Mariah clearly was captured by the thing unseen by me.
Hayden loves his naps. Always has, since he was a baby.
On this day, with snow gently falling, he kept an occasional eye on me … but mostly, he enjoyed his nap.
Kestrel has the wisest eyes. And a heart on her muzzle. That’s probably as good (or better) as a heart on her sleeve. 🙂
OK, maybe not actually 100 percent of the day, but all day long, snow was falling somewhere in or on the edges of Disappointment Valley, up and down and along the ridges rimming the valley.
Best estimates from my own observations and friends-of-a-friend reports are that we have anywhere from about 2-ish inches in the lower part of the valley to about 15 inches at the head of the valley. We’ve gotten more than 2 inches of snow over the last few days, but much has melted before snow fell again (then melted, then more fell).
Even at the very end of the day, when the sun appeared in a narrow blue window below heavy clouds and above a long roll like a crest of waves breaking on an ocean beach, flakes were drifting slowly through the cold air. Temple thought it was a great opportunity for a nap.
Even sleepy-eyed and half-asleep, Hollywood is a vision of handsomeness on the northern flank of Round Top, against a backdrop of Spring Creek Basin’s dramatic eastern horizon.
And we have moisture, frozen for the time being, seeping, soaking and being slurped into the ground.
About 2 inches of snow covered the ground when I hiked into the basin, and snow was still blowing.
I saw one band against a ridge a fair distance away and continued along the trail to look over the edge of the hill I was on – and in the opposite direction, saw a band just disappearing at the bottom of a little drainage. No other horses were visible, so I started toward the closer band … and of course, there appeared a third band, just out of my previous sight in a *closer*, shallower drainage that led to the farther, deeper drainage.
Of course. 🙂 Sometimes, the best things are seen when you’re not looking for them.
Snow pattered my jacket even as blue sky was appearing through the snow clouds across the southern sky. … And just like that, we were under a great blue ceiling, and the sunshine was on us, and the blowing snow had stopped blowing! … And after what seemed to be just a few minutes, the clouds were back – but not the snow.
Sunshine and clouds fought back and forth the entire time I was out (I visited all three bands), but we didn’t have more snow.
Although the melt was happening even as I trekked back to the road, my snowshoes had plenty of snow (mud was showing on the walls of south-facing arroyos), and the road was already muddy from the tracks of previous vehicles. As I drove lower, the ground appeared already brown, the snow already mostly melted. The difference, only a few miles and a few feet lower in elevation; the temperature was already in the 40s.
What wonderful moisture we have now in the ground and among the roots of the growing things.
Chipeta, ever serious, really is very excited about that. 🙂
Disappointment Valley is much browner now after a night of RAIN and a day of melting (of the snow that survived the rain). The ground is absolutely saturated, and the mud is marvelously messy. We still have snow in the forecast as the temperatures drop, so we may yet glow white again.
Madison, of course, knows that brown is beautiful!
If the force is with us, we’ll be getting more snow in each of the next few days.
May the force be with us all!
The swish of her tail indicates that she wonders what the crazy two-legged is doing, again, with the clicky box and the admiring voice.
Is she not about the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen!? I love the curl of her ear tips.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 