blog
Køpenhavn
The colorful buildings of Nyhavn from a recent trip.
raven
At a rest stop in California, nothing around but the interstate, Joshua trees, and empty space, these ravens hung out near the trash cans looking for easy meals.
Not at all afraid of people. There’s no zoom used on this photo, I just walked right up.
kangaroos
For Beth’s birthday we invited a few to the Zoo Chateau in Denver, CO for a writing retreat.
It snowed almost the whole time.
But we got to visit with (and bottle-feed!) two kangaroos that lived there.
alcove nature trail
Today it was windy and warm ahead of the snow storm that arrives tomorrow. Beth and I took advantage of the unseasonable temps and headed toward Fruita, CO, to the Colorado National Monument.
It was our first time going, and we only hiked one trail; the Alcove Nature Trail. An easy hike, mostly level, at around 5800 feet. The highlight was the end of the trail, standing surrounded on three sides by towering rock walls.
snow and sunset
winter 2017
It’s been a bad year for precipitation. Since I got back from Thailand, it’s only rained once–maybe twice.
The first snow of the season (something I’d usually expect in November) comes at the very end of December. It sure is pretty, though.
Sadie has rediscovered snow, after Lucy showed her the joy of bounding through it. All of our dogs are at least some part basset, so even a moderate snow storm like this one has the snow up to their chests.
Fox-like, Sadie likes to shove her face in the snow to check out what’s going on beneath. But she really likes running through it.
Here’s Lucy and Sadie playing:
PS: Penny, the very serious and dignified basset, wanted no part of the snow or the playing.
found bones
The other day, hiking near Round Mountain in Castle Valley (we call it Round Mound), I spotted this spine + ribs just off the path–probably from a deer, probably killed by coyotes.
It has to have been there for awhile, picked clean and bleached white.
pronghorn
I see small groups of these when I drive to Grand Junction once a week. They are fast, and very wary of cars.
It’s been hard to get a picture of them, but today I captured a few. Really happy with how this turned out:
scorpion
My morning routine is pretty solid:
– let dogs out
– drink coffee asap
– have no interactions with arachnids
Found this scorpion in the sink, very startling.
I don’t have the mental fortitude to deal with this so early, so I trapped it under a mason jar, and then put the dish tub a top it so I wouldn’t have to look at it so the cats wouldn’t go after it.
Later in the day Beth helped transfer it outside, where we let it go free.