No lady’s hairdresser could do better – or more natural. 🙂
Streaks
15 04 2023Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Elemental
14 04 2023
This photo of Chipeta wasn’t taken all that long ago, but that snow in the distance is currently doing a lot of rushing and rolling and flowing as muddy water in area creeks and arroyos. … And that area in the distance isn’t nearly as white as it was.
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Handsome on the range
13 04 2023
Handsome Flash is getting more grey and – if possible – more handsome.
He and a pal were grazing peacefully, far from chaos.
Dust in the air … we need some rain on the land again (though what it will do to our roaring creeks, I don’t know!).
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon
Signs of spring
12 04 2023
All of a sudden, it’s spring in Disappointment Valley. How do we know?
The greasewood (above) is budding. We always look forward to this (at least partly) because it provides an early source of protein for the horses coming out of winter.
Grass is rising (sparse, but it’s there).
Cottonwood, silver poplar and apricot (!) leaves (in my neck of the not-so-wooded woods) are budding.
Robins are hopping.
Meadowlarks (how I love them!) are trilling my favorite song(s).
Butterflies are fluttering by.
Disappointment and Dawson creeks are running high and fast (Spring Creek *is* actually trickling), and places that AREN’T even creeks are channeling higher country snowmelt into arroyos rushing muddily to Disappointment Creek.
Mustangs are shedding.
Humans are wearing – *gasp* – short sleeves and baring winter-white skin to sunshine – which means it’s sunscreen season again.
I can ride my bike outside (instead of inside on the stationary trainer), and as a result, I think I have the first slight sunburn of the season.
High temps have gone from 40s to 50s to 60s to 70s (near 80!) in about as many days. (And by Friday, we’ll have a 30-ish-degree temperature drop.)
I initially thought this was phlox, but I think I’ve identified it more correctly as filaree or storksbill/cranesbill. (Remember the post about April’s full “pink” moon? Filaree is part of the geranium family, not phlox, but it IS very pink!)
What signs of spring are YOU seeing where you live?
Comments : 16 Comments »
Categories : Spring, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Being watched
11 04 2023
I was sitting in a little stand of trees along a shallow little arroyo when Seneca grazed her way into the perfect spot framed by the branches of the juniper.
It was a lovely evening location – for both of us!
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Gentle night horizon
10 04 2023
She was just doing her thing, moseying after another, better, patch of something to eat … but that light on the side of her face and her mane and shoulder … ah!
I just adore sweet little Spirit. In a band of mostly greys, she stands out for her gentle self as much as for her unique coat pattern.
Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Long-range beauty
9 04 2023
Can we do any better than to give them these wild-and-free lives, that they were born to live? It’s the least and absolute best we can do. I’m so glad we can do it in Spring Creek Basin.
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte
‘Pink moon’ rising golden
8 04 2023
April’s full moon is known as the “pink moon” for pink flowers in the phlox variety that bloom in April. It’s also the first full moon after the start of spring, which was March 20, which makes it the paschal full moon, which is the full moon before Easter Sunday.
Phlox (I don’t know the exact kind) is usually the first tiny wildflower that blooms in Spring Creek Basin. I haven’t seen any yet, but with the warm temps and the winter moisture, it can’t be long. Phlox here is usually white, but it also sometimes takes on a pale pink blush. … Pink moon, indeed. 🙂
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Moon, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area
Rimrock Aspen
7 04 2023
The sunlight through clouds on the landscape a couple of evenings ago was sooooo beautiful. Aspen kindly consented to model the beauty of the wild view.
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
This girl
6 04 2023
Sometimes, the horses just happen to be behind things (trees, greasewood, etc.) when I aim my camera in their direction. It’s hard to tell whether they really think they’re “hiding” with something between me and them. It does make for humorous thoughts/comments to go with the images.
But in this case, Chipeta stopping behind the tree most definitely was deliberate. She stopped on the side of an arroyo near where I was sitting and gave me the eyeball, then trotted down and through and up the other side – and stopped right as you see her and gave me another eyeball from there! Ha!
She waited a few moments, and when I didn’t move (other than to take more pictures), she walked on out to graze. Smart, beautiful girl. 🙂 (And such a character!)
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 