Seriously, though. As we count down to April, it really is time for spring to … well, spring. Ma Nature, can’t you rein in Ol’ Man Winter … just a little bit?!
This was the view yesterday morning until about noonish when most of the lower-elevation snow melted off under the Colorado sunshine. Temps were still in the 30s (the day started around 13, so I guess that reflected a warming trend!).
We may see a high of 58 (!!!!!) this week before another wave of snow (or rain?) late in the week. This most definitely is not the year to complain about moisture! 🙂
Just before I took this pic, Skywalker was standing guard on the edge of a little ridge, looking wonderfully handsome and marvelously picturesque. I didn’t think I’d have time to get my camera out of my pack before he moved … and as it turned out, I could barely get my *phone* out before he started moving. Luckily, Skywalker was still marvelously handsome and picturesque in the middle of the panoramic view!
Little bitty pretty muddy girl! Spirit always makes me smile at her sweet self … especially when she’s wearing some fancy new baubles in her forelock. 🙂
In spite of the snow-heavy winter we’ve had, the mustangs are absolutely thriving, and perhaps no mustang demonstrates this more significantly than almost-3-year-old Rowan, introduced to Spring Creek Basin from northwestern Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin with her mare mates Dundee (4 this year) and Aiyanna (also about to be 3) in the fall of 2021.
A year ago:
This photo, taken the end of March 2022, shows Rowan, in particular, looking a bit lean as a coming-2-year-old.
It’s rare that I have the opportunity of showing some growing contrasts, but I couldn’t be happier with her blossoming. She – and Dundee and Aiyanna – are without doubt wonderful additions to Spring Creek Basin, and I hope they’re happy in their new home (I’m pretty sure that if mustangs understand “happy” as a concept, they are). 🙂
I may have mentioned the wind has been fierce?! Who needs fake wind for fabulous portraits of a most-handsome mustang?
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Between the wind, the sunshine and temps in the 50s (practically tropical for us these late-winter days!), there was a bit of this yesterday:
That’s actual liquid water, flowing out of Spring Creek Basin and under a bridge along which runs the Disappointment Valley road along the southwestern/southern boundary of the basin. I call it the county-line drainage. You can see a bit of snow on the bank of the arroyo. A lot of smaller tributary arroyos feed into this one, including another large one (also fed by numerous smaller ones) that drains a large area farther to the east. These arroyos, in turn, drain to Disappointment Creek; from this point, the bridge on which I was standing when I took this pic, the creek isn’t too far down this arroyo behind me to the south(ish).
Water shapes our world in many ways here. This: a sign of spring on the way!
It’s hard to believe, but some areas of Colorado have recently been in – and/or still are! – under fire weather advisories! That ol’ wind is no joke.
Mariah wasn’t super cooperative in showing off the wind that gave her her name (thanks, Roy!), but the flip of her tail and the streamers of her mane do it pretty well!
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“They Call The Wind Maria,” according to Wikipedia, “is an American popular song with lyrics written by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe for their 1951 Broadway musical, Paint Your Wagon, which is set in the California Gold Rush. Rufus Smith originally sang the song on Broadway, and Joseph Leader was the original singer in London’s West End. [1] It quickly became a runaway hit,[2] and during the Korean War, the song was among the ‘popular music listened to by the troops.’[3] Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra recorded the song in 1951, and it was among the ‘popular hit singles at the record stores’ that year.[4] It has since become a standard, performed by many notable singers across several genres of popular music. A striking feature of the song in the original orchestration (also used in many cover versions), is a driving, staccato rhythm, played on the string instruments, that evokes a sense of restless motion.”
The song is inspirational in a number of ways. This website discusses the pronunciation of Maria/Mariah – which really had its start in a 1941 novel called “Storm” – and other fascinating info.
Hollywood’s band was recently in the most magnificent area to take advantage of this stunning background – made even more stunning by the divine blanket of pristine snow. Hollywood was warning elder Aspen that his proximity to the band was perhaps a little closer than fully appropriate, while a young bachelor napped at a very respectful distance.
There goes Aspen again, posing against a dramatic background. 🙂
He’s back with the band he was with when I took and posted that previous pic of him. He separated from them for a little while and hung out with some young guys, then turned up back with the band. Maybe he likes their company!
For a period of time while I was with Maia and Houdini and their band, the world of Spring Creek Basin was completely, totally, absolutely still and silent – but for the movements of the horses. No birds. No planes. No wind. The silence was NOTICEABLE.
Then the wind picked up and the horses were browsing and moving and watching bachelors, and all was, well, normal. 🙂 And absolutely, totally, completely, utterly … gorgeous.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 