Flowers on the trails

After a stormy early week, I had a mellow ride with K this morning. Her steroid injection stopped the nasty allergic reaction in its tracks, and she's back to her normal happy and healthy self. Here, we're on our favorite trail with the snowy mountains at our backs. The trail is in great shape - a perfect trail for the two of us because it's technically challenging, which keeps my speed in check, and has a myriad of wildlife and views. Moreover, the aspen groves lining parts of the trail had infant leaves on them today.
When I dropped K off at home, S busily nosed a kibble-delivering ball around the floor. He's been wearing vibram-soled boots to help him stabilize his hind paws on hardwood floors and a special vest with a handle on his back so that we can assist him when needed. I'm relieved to seem him doing well - one day at a time.After leaving the pups at home, I rolled out, hoping to visit gulches and ridges to see some new signs of spring. I wasn't disappointed as I almost immediately spotted a flower that's new to me. I'm pretty sure that it's Snowball Saxifrage (micranthes rhomboidea). Its 6" tall cluster of delicate white and yellow flowers caught my eye as I rolled along a 4wd road.
Soon thereafter, I climbed up to a ridge, on a sinuous singletrack trail that I love. The views were stupendous.
The Pasqueflowers are having a riotous blooming party in our warm spring weather. I saw this cluster of them and thought of my friend, SMRP, who just rescued a mare and her foal from a terrible situation. She calls her horses her 'flowers', and I thought of her when I saw this dense patch of gorgeous flowers.
Finally, as I hammered home trying not to be late for a doctor's appointment, I spotted a flash of bright yellow on a black bird as he flitted across the trail. He's one of our colorful migrants who I tend to see in the spring and fall, a Yellow-Rumped Warbler. In the photo, you can barely see the bright yellow patch on his rump. His throat is flashy yellow also. The maps say that he breeds here but I rarely see this species in the middle of summer.
My medical dramas seem to be winding down. Based on a number of tests, my neurologist says that my terrifying episode of flashing and zigzag lights in my vision was probably an ocular migraine. Of course, he had caveats - some weird brain waves worried him that I might have a latent seizure disorder - but I'm going to ignore that part for now. The good news is that ocular migraines aren't life-threatening. The bad news is that they can become regular visitors. I can handle that - especially since I'll know what's going on next time. I'm still waiting for the immune system drama that I wrote about on Saturday to play out.

All in all, today was much less tumultuous than the early part of the week - a welcome change.