Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

It didn’t take long for our Colorado bluebird skies to return after a day of snow. The welcome sight of stars overnight means cold, cold temps in the morning.

Those single-degree temperatures mean the dirt roads solidify again in their frozen state, which enables access to the places where the wild things roam. And that clear, sunny sky also means that bright ol’ sun melts snow faster than the air temp would have you believe. … Which means that before long, that solid road you rolled in on isn’t so solid when you finally get the unmistakable message that it’s time to leave the wild things!

Madison and Temple were finding plenty to eat as they browsed amid the snowy lumps and bumps … and napped … and browsed again.

We got enough white stuff to make the earth happy for a little while – and very soggy! And not nearly enough so that we’re (still, again) wanting more. 🙂

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As it turns out, this white, wet bounty for us coincides with my mom’s birthday today! So the photo of two beautiful, strong mares fits nicely with the beautiful, strong woman who is my mom, Nancy. 🙂 She did say that the snow was better here (in Colorado) than there (in Texas). She grew up with horses (and other animals) on her family’s farm and her grandparents’ nearby farm in Ohio, so she knows snow.

Happy birthday, Mom! 🙂 I love you!

As I type this Sunday night, we’re getting snow in Disappointment Valley. We didn’t get much (hardly any) rain (spits driven by howling wind), but the snow is very wet. 🙂

As I type THIS – the update to the post on which I’m about to hit “publish,” on Monday morning – we have 2.5 inches of white stuff on the ground in lower Disappointment Valley. Snow kept covering the satellite dish last night, making it impossible to keep an Internet connection.

And it doesn’t look like Word Press has enough oomph (!) to allow the pic to attach, but if it DID, you would have seen bright orange tamarisk providing some color behind snow-white Piedra. Also known as salt cedar, tamarisk is a hardy, water-sucking shrub found in arroyos and other water ways, so it’s not very desirable … but it does provide some color in the high-desert basin during our autumn days.

In any case, the pic doesn’t match current conditions (!), so maybe it’s OK that for the first time (?), this’ll be a blog post without a pic (!).

Today, for a while anyway, we’re looking at a white, white world, and it’s 18 degrees. Happy moisture. 🙂

The wind came. The smoke returned.

Neither wind nor smoke can dim Chipeta’s beauty.