Better late than never: This is the pic of pretty Piedra that I tried to schedule a few days ago, before the snow hit. She’s pretty “snowy” (!), but that ground (about a week ago) was without the benefit of recent beneficial white stuff.
I mean, how PRETTY is she?! 🙂
I almost forgot that I’d seen this little guy (or gal, in which case … Ms. Jane Rabbit?) in the basin on Monday as I was hiking down off the hill from my visit with the last bands of the day.
These are pix from my cell phone. My camera in its backpack isn’t easy to get to in normal conditions, but add 57 layers of clothing and vest and shirts and straps and bungee cords and buckles, and it’s impossible when presented with a critter this fast.
This guy (or gal) zoomed across my path and stopped. I fumbled to get my cellphone out of its case (under at least 39 of those layers) before he zoomed back in the direction from which s/he came.
Jack the Rabbit was about the size of his mortal enemy, Bob the Cat (OK, maybe not quite, but s/he was large!). And just as handsome in his thick coat.
Not much is left of the snow that blanketed Disappointment Valley early in the week. Here’s to the fervent hope that we’ll have more as winter arrives!
This was taken from Disappointment Road. Visible are corral hill, the south edge of Flat Top, Round Top, McKenna Peak, submarine ridge and Temple Butte.
All that lovely snow surrounding Sundance is moisture in the ground now. The morning after the snow day, the sky was clear, and the temp was 9 degrees! Yesterday afternoon, the mercury hit 56. Hard come, easy go. 🙂
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!
So it looked a little like this yesterday. 🙂
It’s hard to say how much snow we got. Between a couple of inches and a few. Every tiny tenth counts big when we need it as much as we do. As snow fell lightly most of the day, it also melted into the desperate earth. The really great thing is that there’s still a blanket of such-needed white stuff all over our world.
Also wonderful in the white-stuff department: The major fires burning in Colorado right now also received some relief in the form of snow.
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. 🙂
Skywalker sports a very impressive round belly heading into winter. 🙂
He must not have been getting a very warm welcome from the band behind him. I caught up to them just as he was starting his march to another band, where his bachelor buddy was already hanging out.
If our forecast is to be believed, wet stuff is on the way this afternoon … !
Maiku watches a far band napping and grazing a couple of ridges away.
Our forecast of moisture and cold is getting closer … and they’re still in the forecast. Depending on the source, the chances and days vary, but we’re praying hard for SOME moisture.
The ponies are fuzzy. They’re ready.
The wind came. The smoke returned.
Neither wind nor smoke can dim Chipeta’s beauty.
