Living in the Mountains - The good, the bad, and the good

I love spring so much. I love the flowers, the long days, the birds, and the butterflies. In fact, I've been known to chase butterflies all over a meadow trying to photograph them. Needless to say, I've had almost no success with that strategy!

This morning, Shyla and I were sitting atop Hug Hill. I just happened to have my macro lens on my camera, and a swallowtail butterfly landed right next to us. It was drinking pollen from a "wallflower", and it stayed a very long time. I captured many photos, enjoying every moment of sitting in the sunshine next to one of nature's finest works of art.

So much of life is simply get out there into the world and seeing what happens. Some days, I'll have a good, but unremarkable, day. Other days, a swallowtail butterfly lands next to me.

As I sit here typing, the hummingbirds are drinking sugar water at our feeder. The feeder has six holes and all six are occupied by hummers. The hummers are drinking sugar water faster this spring than any year in recent memory. I love trying to photograph them as they move a warp speed in the air above my head.

Those are the things that made me smile today. However, a couple of things discouraged me. It was a weekend day, which meant that there were visitors to our beautiful area, some of whom were dirtbags. Some bad visitors brought pictures of people and then shot at the pictures. I found those shot-pocked pictures. I found them to be too disturbing to show photos of them here. Some people who visit here are incomprehensibly messed up.

Then, as I pedaled onward from the shooting site, I found that a group of transients had set up camp in a truck camper that a homeless group abandoned more than a month ago. The area was already strewn with fresh garbage by the new "campers". I have repeatedly asked that the truck camper be hauled away so that it wouldn't become a hotel for bad campers. Obviously, I lost that battle. However, the larger fight goes on...

No matter what, I adore this area and the life that we have here. Aside from my spine pain, I feel like I'm living the dream version of my life.

I ride my bike with Shyla by my side through fields of wildflowers every morning. It's almost too good to be true.

Sunday Sweet Things

I have two good things to tell you on Sunday.

First, we have a very sweet dog visiting. She has beautiful brown eyes, and she doesn't scare Shyla! This is the first time that we've taken care of a visiting dog since Shyla arrived. This brown-eyed girl was the perfect choice as the first because she is so sweet with everyone, including Shyla.

Second, I saw an incredible moonrise last evening. It was the smallest full moon of the year because the moon is further from us than at any other full moon in 2017. Also, it was called a "Strawberry moon". I've actually seen more reddish moons in the past but this one was beautiful nonetheless.

Happy Summertime Sunday to readers in the Northern Hemisphere. Happy Snuggly Sunday to all of you "down under"!

A Mother Bear and her Cub

It is truly springtime here in the mountains, when the wildflowers bloom and the black bear cubs appear. I love this time of year more than any other!
At a secluded spot deep in the forest, a mother black bear and her solo cub have been staying near a spring with a bear marking tree next to it.

These are photos taken of the pair just a few days ago. Mom checked a bear marking tree with her cub in tow.

Then, they turned and went the other way. Solo cubs are fairly rare, and mothers taking cubs to marking trees during mating season is also rare. I really hope that the single cub is nursing enough to prevent the mother from going into estrus. That has happened occasionally - and the mother mates again, often to the detriment of the solo cub who might get lost or hurt during the process.

Pushing aside those worries, my cams caught delightful footage of this pair at a spot where there is a bear marking tree and a spring right next to each other. I have two cams there, one pointed at each spot.

First, you'll see the cub arrive at the bear marking tree. It is comical how tiny the cub is compared to the bears who mark the tree. Many of them are taller than the tree itself!

Then, you'll see mom taking a bath about 10 yards away. As mom bathed, something spooked the cub who then climbed the tree that my cam is mounted on. After the mother finished bathing, she first examined the cam closely - making me momentarily scared that she was going to attack it like Bandit did with another cam.

Then, mom started calling the cub down from the tree with soft grunts.  Be sure to have your volume turned up so that you can hear these sounds that humans very rarely get to hear!

Enjoy the video either here or at Youtube.

I hope that seeing black bears going about their everyday lives makes you smile like I do!

P.S. The cam that Bandit appeared to have destroyed was fixed by the trail cam company for a low cost. That made me smile too!

See Beautiful: Wildflowers going wild!

The wildflowers here are bursting into bloom all of a sudden. Shyla and I visit meadows filled with yellow flowers frequently.

Blue Flag Irises have also started blooming in the meadows. Whole meadows have a purple tint thanks to the flocks of irises shining.

I love the vibrant purple of irises...

...and the intricacies of their incredible petals.

Every year, I find spiders on irises. Usually, they are yellow spiders but today's spider was different. Whenever I brought my lens too close, the spider made a string of web and rappelled down toward the ground. When I backed away, he climbed back up onto the petal.

My reading tells me that spiders lurk on flowers so that they can capture and eat insects who come to the flower for the pollen.

I adore the meadows at this time of year. On the edges of meadows, the chokecherries are blooming now. In the late summer, these blossoms will be bright red chokecherries that bears gorge upon.

After Shyla and I finish playing in the meadows, we often take forested trails to get back home. Our resilient orchids, Fairy Slippers, are still blooming! You might remember that they first started blooming in late May. Then, we got a huge snowstorm (36" of snow fell), and they survived against all odds. I think that they are nearing the end of their time to shine this year so I'll show you one more photo!

In the meantime, I don't think that the meadow wildflowers are even close to peaking yet. I'm hoping that the late season snowstorm didn't hinder their development because the meadows usually have much denser yellow flowers by now. Time will tell!

I adore seeing Shyla gallop through the wildflowers at this time of year!

I especially love when she makes a funny face while doing it!

Happy Friday!!!!

Thankful Thursday - An outhouse is wonderful in a hail storm!

Today started out gloriously sunny and warm. Hummers were dancing in the air as I ate my breakfast.

Shyla snoozed in the warmth of the sunshine, show her well-earned silver fur at age 5!

We headed out for a ride through fields of wildflowers.

When we finished, there were still no clouds in the sky. So, not surprisingly, I forgot my rain jacket when I headed out on my own for a bike ride. It stayed sunny for a while although I could hear rumbling from a storm to my northwest. Then, the sky turned black, and huge hail started pelting me. I hid in an outhouse!

Years ago, I met a wonderful couple who own a mining claim that was on today's riding route. They have no structures on their land except for an outhouse. They told me that I could use the outhouse whenever I needed to. I'd never gone into it until today. I was SO grateful for the outhouse today. It saved me from a pummeling by Mother Nature.

The hail was hitting the outhouse roof so loudly that I could barely even think. Thankfully, the storm passed quickly. I peeked outside. Compare the hail size to the pine cones!

I picked up a hail stone, and it broke. However, the photo still gives you an idea of how big it was.

I hurried home, with only a few small hail squalls hitting me as I rode as fast as I could.

After my sprint home, I was amazed to find that it was sunny there. There was no hail on the ground - and someone else confirmed that it hadn't hailed at our house. What a crazy mountain world we live in!

This is the first time that I've ever felt so grateful for an outhouse!


Thank you to our friend Brian for organizing a Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!

Wordless Wednesday - Springtime!

On Top of the World!

Springtime in the Meadow

Last Elk Sighting - They've migrated to the high mountains for the summer

Bonus Question: Do you see the subtle but funny thing in the first photo? It's oriented almost vertically.

Baby Moose

Nearby, a mother moose has given birth to a calf. The pair has been hanging out near my neighbor's house, and she took these photos. She was kind enough to give me permission to share them with you.

Look how tiny the calf is!

The pair has positioned themselves for days on end so that my neighbors must walk past them to take their four dogs for a walk. I'm sure that it's nerve-wracking but my neighbor says that the mama moose just watches them go by. Of course, their dogs are leashed!

I just can't get enough of seeing how little the calf is compared to the mama moose!

It has been a pattern in our neck of the woods that mother moose are giving birth close to houses, and then they stay near those houses for quite a while. I've started wondering if being close to humans gives a bit of protection for the tiny calves. Both mountain lions and bears could kill a calf, and neither likes going close to houses.

Knowing that this pair is nearby has added a new level of vigilance to my scanning of the forest whenever Shyla and I start a ride together. I suspect that a mama moose is most protective when her calf is so tiny. And, I bet it won't be long until the pair starts moving around. It's not far to our house.

Part of what I like about wide open meadows is that I can see whether there are dangers lurking nearby, like mother moose who might not want us around!

Happy Moose Day!

Warm Sunshine Brings Smiles!

Here in the mountains, it feels as if spring explodes all at once. After having 3' of snow piled on our deck a few weeks ago, I am now spending almost every daylight moment outdoors, enjoying the warm air and sunshine. I start with breakfast on the deck, which both dogs adore. They find the warmest sun puddles and bask while I have breakfast.

Meanwhile, I watch our Cordillaren Flycatcher pair work on building their nest. We made a "nest tray" for them under our deck years ago. Every year, a pair stakes out the tray as their own and starts building the nest about now. I'm not sure what building material this flycatcher has on his beak. He was waiting for me to look away from him so that he could "sneak" under the deck.

The hummingbirds buzz around the feeder on the deck, making me smile with delight. They battle for supremacy over the feeder, not understanding that I'll always refill it. There's an unlimited supply of sugar water. This one was doing a crazy maneuver to chase off another male before landing on the feeder.

After that, we usually head out for a mountain bike ride. More flowers are blooming with each passing day. Look at that smile! I was smiling too!

Yellow is the dominant flower color at this time of year.

To fill out my day outdoors, I spent time on the deck working on my computer, I did nosework with Shyla, I worked a little on my veggie gardens, and we finally went for an evening walk. One highlight of the day was when a wild turkey landed on the deck railing! She took off right away upon seeing me. This photo was after she landed a short distance away.

I love being out in the fresh air all day long although I have to admit that I am pleasantly tired at the end of the day!

Sunset and Silhouette Sunday

Our spectacular sunsets have been few and far between recently. One evening this week, we walked to our sunset viewpoint, and we walked away, thinking that it was not a colorful one. Fortunately, about 5 minutes later, I looked over my shoulder to see a fiery glow on the western horizon!

We hustled back and enjoyed watching the end of the sunset.

It truly did look like fire in the sky. And, my favorite bird singer - a hermit thrush - was singing nearby during the sunset. Perfection...

Some of you know how much I love taking photos of dog silhouettes against a colorful sky. Shyla is my usual model but she was out of commission for a long time until, finally, I felt that the clumsiness side effect of the phenobarbital medicine had passed. It was wonderful to have Shyla do her silhouette routine again! All that I have to do is point at the rock, and she eagerly scales it to pose for me.

I think that the phenobarbital-keppra combination is going to work for Shyla. She is still improving in terms of side effects, and she hasn't had a single seizure since adding the phenobarb. I feel hopeful that we will be among the lucky fraction of epilepsy cases where the seizures can be controlled. I am so grateful for that.

Happy Sunday!

Silly Saturday Trick

It is amazing how much fun Shyla and I have with one silly little trick.

 She sometimes tosses the treat in the air and snarfs it like it's no big deal.

But she often doesn't and makes hilarious faces as she tries to snarf it.

Sometimes she flips the treat into the air with too much gusto, and it completely disappears, leaving Shyla with crazy looks on her face.

Ah, she says... do you see what I have put up with around here to earn my treats?

Actually, she doesn't mind at all. She's always ready for another silly game.

Happy Silly Saturday!

Flower Friday in the Colorado Mountains

It's breathtakingly beautiful in the mountains these days.

Little jewels buzz all around the flowers.

Chocolate Labs zoom through the flowers.

Even the tiniest flowers are mesmerizing.

So, I was shocked to find that some visiting thugs thought that it was "fun" to haul their old TV up to the forest, hang it in a tree, and shoot at it. Can anyone explain this behavior? Look at the damage that the bullets did to the tree.

That was someone's Memorial Day remembrance. Our mountain world is so gorgeous that I don't understand how anyone could think "let's go to the mountains, shoot out our old TV, and then leave it there". What?
Back to the beauty... I'll try to keep my mind away from the ugliness although I will keep fighting it for as long as I can.

The beauty is that Shyla and I have had some glorious mornings together playing in the flowers!

Happy Friday!

Thankful Thursday: Shyla and the Blondie the Black Bear!

I love "Thankful Thursday". I feel thankful for so many things these days. One is that Shyla is getting her mojo back! I cannot overstate how happy it makes me to see her romp joyfully.

I have observed that she is far more sensitive to my moods and tone than ever before. I'm not sure whether the reason is her new epilepsy medicine or the woman who hit her. Either way, I am trying very hard to always have an upbeat tone with her (even when I have a migraine - which is not easy!).

I am also SO grateful to share our world with such cool wildlife. With it being the beginning of bear season, I sometimes have to pinch myself because I cannot believe the cool bear things that my trail cameras let me see.

We have a new bear in the area, a young male who is almost completely blond! I immediately named him "Blondie".

When I saw the footage of Blondie for the first time, I was overwhelmed with gratitude that we share our neck of the woods with such cool animals. 

Without further ado, here is some footage of Blondie marking trees. For comparison, I also included Bandit, a slightly bigger male than Blondie, and our two dominant males.

You can watch the short video here or at Youtube.

When you see the size of the dominant male bears compared to the youngsters, you know that the youngsters are doing everything that they can to avoid a confrontation with either of the big guys.

I am thankful beyond words to live in this incredible place!