Mother’s Day

 We celebrated a belated Mother’s Day today. The kids had planned an outside (secret) activity for the day, but the weather was cold, foggy and wet so we moved the plans to E’s house so we could use her garage. (Warm, dry...perfect!)

My gift was several beautiful (foldable!) benches to put around the fire pit, but best of all was that they decorated the benches with drawings, sayings, etc. for me. They are so beautiful... as soon as I get some clear coat on the paintings, they’ll go around the fire pit. I can’t wait...

Here are a few random photos from the afternoon. (R was struggling with some anxiety so kept to herself and didn’t make it into any of the photos 😢) 

Oldest granddaughter and boyfriend...

...and youngest granddaughter and grandpa!

Silly faces!

E, hard at work...

M entertained himself briefly with a dog in a stroller... yes, it’s a little weird,  but it kept him occupied for a bit! 

B smiled right after I got this shot of her giving me the look... really. 

I love the picture of J and baby T in the kitchen. 

What a fun day it was... It’s such a blessing to be able to get together, in person, inside, without masks. Having to be apart for so long was hard... it will be awhile before I take these kinds of days for granted. 

my pasture walk...

 ...was beautiful this morning. 

More dew diamonds on the grass...

Castlewood Canyon hike

 We had a lovely hike at the old Lucas Homestead at Castlewood Canyon today. The weather was perfect, and we picnicked at the homestead then hiked down to the creek, around and up the other side and then back. 

One of the goals of the hike was to find the old apple orchard and lilacs that the Lucas’ had planted. 

We found them! I was tempted to take a cutting from the lilacs to try and propagate them, but didn’t. It’s amazing they are still there after 100 years or so.

We do love Castlewood. It’s kind of like “our” park...

Snow storm...in May

 Nothing else needs to be said.

McCabe Meadows

 When I planned this week’s schedule it looked like today was supposed to be beautiful... sunny, dry, but not too hot. The perfect day for a hike. So that’s what I planned...

The day ended up not as sunny as I was expecting,  but we got short hike in anyway. 

We wandered down a nice trail at McCabe Meadows, found a little pond and a covered bridge we didn’t know existed, and just made it back to the car before it started raining. 

Pasture walks

 I’ve been taking a walk in the pasture each day... kind of a mental health break towards the end of the day (when M finally settles down to watch his favorite TV show). Although we don’t have much land, I’ve found that each day I see new things... things that I’ve always been too distracted or hurried to have noticed before. This post is devoted to those things...

Like all the deer trails cross-crossing the property. I try to walk on different ones each day... try them out, you know. 

And the dogwood (?), why have I never noticed that some have reddish orange stalks and leaf out later in the year, some have brown stalks and leaf out early? They are definitely different plants!

And my favorite little twisted pine.... I hope it survives.

And the holes the woodpeckers have made in the old tree on the east end of the gully. I wonder how many birds call that old tree home? (It makes me think of the book, Wishing Tree.) 

The first wildflower of the year...

And finally, a few raindrop diamonds on the big ponderosa... such a lovely majestic old tree.