See Beautiful - A Day Late

Due to the floods, I completely forgot that yesterday was See Beautiful Friday. It's one of my favorite blog hops so I was sad to have missed it.

I make a conscious decision to try to see the beauty around me, in all sorts of situations, even when floods are inundating our world. You can see the See Beautiful tag that Shyla is wearing below sent to us by our friend Goose.

Despite our stranded state in the midst of floods, Shyla and I have still been out romping in the forest every day. From Hug Hill, the Continental Divide looked awesome this morning.

I was on Hug Hill for quite a while this morning, talking with our vet (it's one of the only places that I get good cell service and our landline is out). Shyla has a relatively minor ear issue that looks like the a small infection to me. However, we can't drive to our vet now due to closed roads. Our vet called around, trying to find some meds up here in the mountains for Shyla. Alas, the mountain vets are sold out of almost everything because so many people and their pets are stranded. So, we are using a "home remedy", hoping that her ear gets better without prescription meds.

As I stood on Hug Hill talking with the vet, I could see and hear a train of helicopters shuttling people out of the high mountains and down to the plains. Some mountain towns are in really bad shape, with no water, power, phone service, food, or access in or out. The residents in the worst shape were flown out today.

After our protracted time on the gorgeous vista of Hug Hill, Shyla and I pedaled through the forest. Aside from nightly fussing over her ear, she seems fine.

After a journey through a very wet pine forest, we came out into a meadow area. The meadow trails had become streams. I've never seen anything like it. One trail had about 10" of water on it, flowing downhill toward the big canyon that had flash floods and is still blocked.

This trail's stream was pretty shallow but I thought that the water that Shyla was kicking up looked beautiful.

On our way back home, it was still sunny, and this flash of beauty caught my eye. The sun made aspen leaves glow!

After we made it home, I wanted to ride some more to see how the torrential rains have affected our world. But, almost immediately, a thunder storm moved over me from the west. It didn't seem too close so I kept riding. Then, it started to rain - again. I wish the rain would stop due to the flooding but the raindrops were beautiful on the wild geraniums.

I was finally chased home by by an intense, almost torrential, rain squall. I walked into the house, drenched for the umpteenth time in the past few days. I found R sleeping warm and dry, looking like an angel. He's much smarter than I am!

Even in the midst of a crisis like these floods, beauty can be found.