A Sunrise to Remember

This morning, I decided that I had to do something to bring some uplifting happiness into my life. I have spent a lot of this week fighting the pain. Why not accept the pain and try to do things that make me happy?

So, Shyla and I headed out early this morning, with me absolutely determined to be up at a good viewpoint when the sun crested the ridge to our east at sunrise. We succeeded. And, I had the opportunity to photograph Shyla in that wonderful, almost-winter, reddish light. Photography is one of those things that makes me forget everything else and lose all track of time. I love that about it.

The low angle sunlight is one of my favorite things about winter. Shyla glowed at sunrise.

And I took approximate 87,000 photos because I love taking them at sunrise. I think of the look on her face in the next photo as her "motherly" look. I don't know why exactly.

And Shyla adores sprinting in the cool air.

As you can see, almost all of the thin layer of snow that fell the other day has melted, leaving a wonderful playground for me and Shyla.

Being out at sunrise lifted my spirits immensely. Shyla seemed pretty happy about it too.

It reminded me that my life is what I make of it. If I try, I can make myself happier and see the beauty around me.

I think that Shyla agreed, as she levitated over a fallen log. It must be a joy to be as pain-free as Shyla. I'll enjoy it vicariously.

Life zips by as fast as a shooting star. I'm going to do my best to soak it up.

This photo was from the desert last spring. I never looked at it until today. What a pleasant surprise!

A Week to Forget

It has been a hard week. My spine pain has not let up in the 18 days since it started, not even today when I started taking steroidal anti-inflammatories. That's discouraging.

On top of the pain, the weather has been dismal - in the 30's (F) with various combinations of snow and rain.

We still have a few lingering autumn leaves but most have now fallen under the weight of the wet snow.

As always, my pups help keep me smiling and forgive me quickly after I'm cranky from the unrelenting pain. I smile when I see Shyla zoom through the snowy world.

I love when the sun burns through the clouds, even just for a moment. It shined on us briefly this morning, and Shyla glowed in a sun puddle in the forest.

During that brief moment of sun, the clouds lifted so I could see the local ski area. The skiers are happy! And I'm happy for them.

Shyla is telling me to "be brave" and maybe this spinal issue will heal. In the meantime, she says she'll keep me smiling.

Yes, she will! Her antics can make me laugh, no matter what!

Hugs from the Rockies

Today is a special day when we are all thinking of our friends over at The Three Little Pugs. All of them have had such a rough time lately that we wanted to make today a Hug Day to help comfort and cheer them.

The cutest kind of hugs that I know are between our two dogs.

They are so bonded that it brings tears to my eyes sometimes (notice that Shyla has a chocolate paw and a black paw under her chin).

They also have kisses to share with the Three Little Pugs.

But mostly, they snuggle together, happy to share their warmth.

All of us are thinking of our friends who have been through so much. We wish good health for all of them, and that means a smooth journey back to health for their dad.

We hope that all of the hugs being shared in Blogville today will make them smile just a little bit!

Wordless Wednesday - In a Shower of Water Droplets

This series was my favorite due to the bright water droplets all around R. These photos were from his birthday celebration last weekend.

Happy Birthday, R!

We celebrated R's 8th Birthday last weekend by doing one of his favorite things. He leaped with happiness.

And he even flew over the water.

Shyla did too.

She did the most creative landings.

When both dogs went for one ball, R still won almost all the time.

However, there was a FIRST. Shyla beat R to the ball once. She brought it back triumphantly, and R was a good sport about his little sister beating him. But he didn't let it happen again.

R hasn't lost one iota of his intensity during his eight years on this Earth. He quivers with anticipation when someone is about to throw the ball, like in the next photo!

We hope to celebrate many more birthdays with R. Along with high intensity, he also has a very sweet and sensitive side. You might not see it in these photos but it's there. We love our black dog so much!

Happy Birthday, R!

Saturday: A Day of Wildlife

Shyla and I got out early on Saturday morning, with our paws crossed that it would be a good day.

There were still a few spots with golden leaves, and we played in them in the light of the sunrise.

Then, I went out to ride by myself. I passed an old mining building that I've seen thousands of times. On this day, the golden leaves looked spectacular next to the weathered wood of the building.

My goal for my solo ride as to check a couple of trail cameras. I was rewarded richly! I think this is the mother mountain lion we've been seeing a lot. She was out at 4 PM, letting us get a full color view of her!

She's so muscular and yet seems so cautious. I bet that she was listening very carefully for anyone coming her way.

Shortly later, she passed the camera where we saw her kittens a couple of months ago. I suspect she has them in a den near this camera.

She paused briefly to sniff the base of the bear marking tree that the trail camera is pointed at. Then, she was on her way.

It turned out that the mountain lion photos were not the only amazing wildlife part of the day. Every year, Sandhill Cranes migrate south. In recent years, some of them have started coming almost directly over our house. On Saturday, we were given the gift of four big flocks of Cranes flying over our heads as we sat on the deck.

The first sign that a flock was heading toward us was the sound. I found that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great recording of what a large flock sounds like. And, they really were as loud as the recording.

We think there is a thermal that the Sandhill Cranes circled within to gain altitude almost directly over our heads. Here they were circling:

On one occasion, they circled for a couple of minutes, continuing to make their loud sounds as they circled. It was hard to imagine how they avoided crashing into each other because they were so close together.

Then, somehow, they started to organize themselves into V's to continue on their southerly course. I counted 136 Cranes in this photo, and I couldn't fit all the birds into my camera frame.

After getting organized, one of the big V's looked like this.

Then, multiple V's, all flying in parallel, departed from our view.

It was amazing to see Sandhill Cranes. I hope that they come over our house again next year!!!

Silhouette Sunday

One evening recently, every cloud in the sky lit up in pink at sunset. One of my favorite aspen groves was bathed in pink light.

When I see a sunset like this one developing, I'm always torn about whether to head to the view of the Continental Divide or head for my favorite spot for silhouette photos. On this evening, we hustled to the silhouette spot. It was the tail end of the sunset, almost dusk, but it was glorious.

I think that I notice and appreciate Nature's glorious displays even more now that I am a photographer. I recognize a truly special moment and make sure I don't miss it! The pink sunset was one of those moments.

An Autumn Alpine Hike

Shyla and I took a hike up high near the end of September that I haven't had a chance to write about.

I planned for us to try to scale a fairly high peak, but partway up, I realized that my jacket had fallen out of my backpack somewhere along the way. I knew it would be very cold at high elevation, and I'd be uncomfortable (or even hypothermic) without an insulating jacket so I changed our route. Instead, we followed the same route as I did with Shyla as her very first alpine hike about 3 years earlier.

Here's a photo of 9 month old Shyla up high in the mountains.

And, here's a photo from our most recent hike. She looks more mature. She's grown into her body and her confidence has blossomed. Our bond has grown to be stronger than I ever dreamed.

I've also developed some new photographic skills that I didn't know anything about back then. I had fun making Shyla be the only thing that was in focus in the photo.

On her first trip up there, I discovered that she didn't really know how to swim so she wasn't enthusiastic about the alpine lake. Believe me, that has changed!!!!

I could barely get her to take breaks from swimming in the frigid water for photos! In this photo, she's thinking, please let me go back in the water!

I let her swim for as long as she wanted. Unlike her brother, she has the good sense to voluntarily stop swimming when she gets too cold.

When she was ready to stop swimming, she stood in the sunshine, soaking up its warmth.

Before we started the trek back down to the trailhead, we played just a little bit more. Shyla started in a "stay" with her ears flapping in the alpine wind.

When I called her, she leaped off a boulder to start her sprint back to me.

My heart sung with joy that I have a friend like Shyla to share these adventures with.

We stopped once more on our way down to appreciate the russet color of the ground plants in the tundra. 

It's amazing to realize how far Shyla and I have come in the past three years. I feel so lucky that we found each other. I love our hikes up high together. They turn out to be some of my favorite days of the year.