Sunrises galore

K and I have continued our routine of arising early and hiking up to see the sunrise. This morning, we arrived just as the sun crested the eastern rocky hills. Fittingly for this day, an airplane left its contrails above the sunrise.

I received a very special gift from my father for Christmas - a digital SLR camera. It's a much fancier digital camera than I've ever used before. My father gave it to me in the spirit of my mother who was an avid photographer and very accomplished by the time of her death. 

I barely know how to make my new camera function but I used it for all the photos in this post. K's incredible sunrise fur glow wowed me again.

Below, K contemplated when I was going to stop pointing my crazy contraption at her!

The almost horizontal sun rays left a shadow directly behind K on a lichen-covered boulder.

Later in our hike, the rosy hue had faded from our world. K pranced to me through an aspen grove. She's been limping a fair bit, activating my "paw radar" as I monitor her recovery carefully. I'm supposed to continue to let her gradually increase her activity - to strengthen her paw despite the bumps in the recovery road that we've encountered. Tomorrow, a specialist will check it... Hopefully, we're just seeing a normal topsy-turvy recovery from a major orthopedic surgery like an amputation.

We arrived home to find R playing wildly with the stuffed toy cardinal given to him by our nephews.

Our nephews and K posed many times on boulders. R never stayed still long enough for a posed photo!

The elk herd has grazed near our house almost constantly for days. The herd is huge, more than a hundred-strong, so my photos never capture all of them. Sometimes, the coyotes come out and play on the frozen pond behind the herd. Usually, the herd completely ignores the coyotes. However, occasionally, for unknown reasons, the herd aggressively chases away the coyotes. My guess is that the herd acts protective when one of their own is weak and might be vulnerable to the coyotes.

The herd doesn't always completely ignore me. This photo was from about 75 yards away! I love my camera!

My recent sunrise escapades form the backbone of my strategy for keeping my spine happy despite the holiday hoopla. I need to be active to keep the pain tolerable so I arise in the dark to get out early while everyone else sleeps. First, I hike with K. Then, I leave K at home and head out for some mountain bike trail time - the key activity for keeping my back happy. I finally return home when my "regularly scheduled" morning muscle spasms have loosened up. (This whole routine was more compact when K was able to mountain bike with me...) This strategy works but I always need to catch up on my sleep when the holidays end! Here's one of the sunrises that K and I have seen.

 

I hope that you are all well rested and happy after this vacation time!

Sunrise: a new beginning

For the past few days, K and I have enjoyed our morning strolls at dawn. We start in the dark and hustle up to the high plateau to see the sunrise. Yesterday, the sunrise show awed me. We ascended onto the plateau just before the sun crested nearby hills.

We both watched from the darkness as the sun transformed our world.

The clouds glowed from below just before the sun rays touched our faces.

Just after sunrise, the sun cast a purple and red hue on the entire world. It was an instant of grace when time stopped and my heart soared. K's fur glowed red in the sunrise palette.

The moon hung over our heads for the entire sunrise.

It's difficult to believe the the color of K is real in the photo below but it is. The sunrise colors mixed with her chocolate fur created an incredible glow.

Just a few minutes later, I looked to the west as the show ended. I'd missed getting any photos of the Continental Divide bathed in the rising sun. Just a touch of gold remained in the clouds.

Later in the day, our whole family went for a trail walk. K taught the boys how to scramble on the boulders and pose for photos. I had to laugh when the boys called me over, already posed and asking me to take "a photo for the blog"!

During this sojourn with my family, I've realized how thankful I am for so many gifts in my life. Of course, the Duo sits near the top of the list. Walking through the forest each morning with K feels like a stolen moment - or a gift. So far, we've cheated the worst case scenarios, and my girl can hike by my side again. She's reached that age where we have an easy-going partnership, requiring few words. We ramble along, knowing how lucky we are to be together.

I think that I'll be wishing upon the full moon every month - at least until we know that K is completely out of the woods.

I hope that you all have a happy holiday and have many gifts to be thankful for in your lives. I am thankful to have all of you as part of our blogosphere!

Wordless Wednesday

K Zooms (and Bobcat Night)

K and I meandered our forest during the only sunny part of the day today. We saw the sun rise over the clouds oozing up from the plains toward our mountains.

K happily soaked up the sun, although the air still chilled us to the bone.

I've been giving K short off-leash times during our hikes, allowing her to gradually rebuild the strength in her paw. Today, we saw one of her favorite people during a hike, and K broke into zoomies, with her butt tucked like a puppy's. She zoomed and zoomed around in circles, bucking like a filly. She acted happier and younger than I've seen in months. I laughed loudly and gleefully!

Our vet visit still didn't illuminate exactly why she has a lump and swelling above her amputation site. We're going to continue antibiotics for an extra three weeks. If it hasn't resolved by then, we'll start on the fancy diagnostic tests to reassure ourselves that there's no smoldering bone infection despite her powerful antibiotic cocktail.

Today, I went for a mountain bike ride that started in sunshine. I passed a deep blue reservoir.

As I labored up a hill past a meadow, I felt eyes on me. I scanned and guess who I saw?

All elk eyes were on me. The herd of more than one hundred elk wanted to cross my path but weren't sure if it was safe to come out into the open. The herd surged forward and then paused, awaiting my next move.

I quickly pedaled on so that the herd could stop worrying about me.

On my way home, I checked a couple of wildlife cameras. At a bobcat scent post, a stocky cat had investigated the pee-mail at about 10 PM.

He exited the clearing using exactly the same route as the mountain lion who visited this spot a couple of weeks ago.

To my delight, I discovered that the bobcat, presumably the same one, had visited our clearing later in the night... a little after the lunar eclipse reached totality. I wonder what the animals think of an eclipse?

This photo is for Stella, who has been clamoring for a front view of the bobcat for months!

The photos from next to my house are in color, even at night, because I use cameras with incandescent flashes close to my house. In contrast, I use infrared flash wildlife cameras out in the forest to avoid spooking animals in their own environment.

A coyote had also visited our house earlier in the evening. He broke into full howling just as the eclipse started. Did any of your dogs howl at the eclipse?

The mystery animals from yesterday's post were a bear and a bobcat. I have to agree that the bear looked a lot like R in closeup! We've had a very odd winter so far, with little snow and many warm days. I think that, unlike most years, some bears are still wandering in slow motion around our forest.

Winter Solstice

School's out for winter break. Unfortunately, that means that my internet connection moves so slowly that I give up on posting some days. I think that our neighborhood bandwidth cannot handle the activities of teenagers and young adults plus its normal traffic. Over the past few days, I've managed to upload a few photos, taking hours for each one.

We've had some winter weather, and an elegant doe visited our clearing during a snow squall.

Coyotes have been moving through our clearing like apparitions almost every evening.

Here are two funny photos - please guess what animals I captured small parts of with my motion-activated wildlife cameras. This animal gave the camera the eye. Who do you think he is?

This animal moved so fast that I caught only his hind end. Long time readers will guess this one easily.

Although K's paw lump at her toe amputation site has persisted, she seems to be getting stronger each day. One day, we ran into R and the Runner while she was off-leash. She and R briefly romped together for the first time in months.

Later in the hike, she and I had a quiet rest in a brief moment of sunshine. Sunshine has been fleeting lately.

Tomorrow, K's paw lump and swelling will be checked by our vet again. I honestly don't have a clue what to think about it. It looks bad but doesn't seem to hinder her when she walks. However, she did growl when I tried to check it last night. K almost never growls!

During one of our mountain bike rides, R flew over a fallen tree when I called him to me. When I watch him zoom through the forest, I'm jealous of his physical speed and agility. I wish that both K and I still had his athletic grace!

We're hoping that the clouds lift for the eclipse tonight - the next total lunar eclipse won't be until 2014. It seems symbolic to have a total lunar eclipse and a full moon just as we reach the shortest day of the year. I love the Winter Solstice because our days will only get longer for the next six months!

My blogging will probably be erratic over the next couple of weeks. Between house guests and the agonizingly slow internet, I probably won't have time every day to post.

Happy Solstice and Lunar Eclipse to Everyone!

Happiness is...

K galloping in fluffy snow.

Enjoying the mountains.

Snow on your face.

Fluffy snow decorating a Christmas tree.

Being as fast as the wind.

Flying.