The First Snow of Autumn

We woke up Saturday to cold weather and snow. Clementine was almost impossible to get moving. She complained about the cold and didn't want to get out from under the covers on our bed after I finished putting her hair up.

After ballet, we ran a few errands. Even after the snow stopped down here, we could see a storm up on Pikes Peak. Here are a few photos from around town...

From the parking lot on the way to the tire store. Dan needed new tires and I'd promised myself that we'd carve out time to get them by the end of the week. There is a snow storm on top of the mountain, and the snow is blowing from the top toward the north.

Snow storm with blowing storm at the top of Pikes Peak. It was dry, sunny and cold down here as we watched the storm. After 11 years here, I still find all of this simply fascinating and love to watch it unfold. 

What looks like the top of the mountain in the previous picture is really the top of the storm, as seen here. 

Later in the day, the sun is beginning to set. Taken at the end of Academy Blvd, in the parking lot of the grocery store. I think that we probably have the best view in the world from this grocery store.

Pikes Peak as the sun sets, with Academy Blvd. in view.

America The Beautiful was written after Katherine Bates in 1893. Bates was an English professor at Wellesley College, and was inspired after a trip to the top of Pikes Peak. She was spending the summer locally, teaching at Colorado College. You can certainly see where the line about purple mountain majesties came from, can't you?

I've lived all over the United States, and the sunsets out west, and particularly over the Rockies, stand out for their beauty and breathtaking color.

The last few moments of daylight... time for us to go home, have dinner, and happily snuggle together against the cold autumn night.

Namasté 

deena

Autumn Finally Arrives

Nature didn't seem to want to let go of summer this year. 

September felt like August, and we had very warm weather well into October. 

But finally, Nature yielded, and Autumn seems to be truly and finally here. 

Here are a few photos we've taken over the past few weeks. 

Abandoned house east of town 

on the ranch where we hunt

The prairie looks flat, doesn't it? But it isn't. 

There are dips, ditches, and holes. Animal burrows and trails.

Deep channels where rain water runs off. 

Yucca plants so big that you have to walk around them.

Its anything but flat, and walking across it in heavy boots, 

carrying hunting gear means you're going to stumble. 

Thinking about how incredibly difficult it must have been for 

pioneers, who walked hundreds of miles over land like this,

makes my back ache in sympathy.

Dan on the Prairie. 

The weather was cool and breezy, 

and the clouds were lofty and gray. 

 

 An out building, or what's left of it.

 

 The Front Range of the Rockies on an autumn afternoon. 

Its probably impossible to tell here, 

but the mountains above the tree line

had already received plenty of snow when this was taken.

A outcropping of rock near Kremmling, Colorado 

(about 9250 feet above sea level)

Downed pine trees, 

and an outcropping of rocks.

A meadow shortly before sunrise near Kremmling

 Day break

The meadow as the sun comes up.

Peaceful meadow.

In the distance, three moose have overnighted in the meadow. 

They had layers of frost in their coats as the sun came up.

 Snow in the foreground, 

a taste of things soon to come.

 Welcome, Autumn!

Namaste