From Flowers to a Blizzard

Yesterday, I was reveling in the flowers that had begun to bloom. Some yellows were showing up in our meadows.

A small patch of Irises stood out bright and tall in a south-facing meadow.

A very old apple tree was covered in zillions of blossoms yesterday. It has never had more than a couple of blossoms in the many years that I've observed it.

And, to my utter surprise, my favorite orchids had burst into bloom weeks ahead of time. I didn't even have my favorite camera for photographing them with me. And, alas, I fear that these orchids and the other blossoms were killed overnight.

We awakened to this view out our bedroom window this morning. We have had more that three feet of snow so far and more is falling. On the left, our "La Fuma" deck chair looks like a sculpture. I wrote yesterday's blog post while sitting in it on the deck. On the right, our patio table has snow up to the bottom of its surface and then several feet of snow on top of it.

Shyla and I went out for a very short and slow slog through the cement-like snow. She was immediately in over her head but leaped up and out, starting her porpoising gait that she saves for snow that is deeper than she is tall.

She was fantastically happy the entire time, which makes me smile no matter what! Absolutely nobody else had tried to go in the forest besides us. I wonder if her carefree joy was possible because she felt so safe from other people.

It seems odd to see green aspen leaves in the midst of the snow. That's a big problem with this storm. Our aspens were tricked into leafing out early by warm weather, and now they're weighed down by very dense snow. I hope that we don't lose too many.

Look at the insane happiness in Shyla's eyes!

Even during our short hike, it seemed like the snow got even deeper as it fell incredibly heavily. This photo is from the very end of our hike.

Yes, this all happened in late May. I did get out on my fat bike for a short tour of our roads. Even our "main" dirt road wasn't really plowed. But our driveway was in fine shape thanks to help from one of our wonderful neighbors!

Happy Snowy May! Our world desperately needed this snow so it's a gift, even if it's not my idea of idyllic May weather!