WINTER BIRDS AND SNOW

We haven't had much snow so far this winter and I keep expecting we'll get slammed hard soon.  Time to get the photos up of what's happened so far.  In November we had two small snow events and while short lived, they created beautiful scenes in my back yard.

The birds love their suet in winter, as it provides lots of fuel to keep them chubby and warm in the cold.  Speaking of birds, the bald eagles are back from their journeys farther north and the Swainson's hawks have departed for the pampas lands of Argentina, where their favorite grasshoppers are plentiful.

It is so exciting to spot these majestic raptors, which are growing more plentiful after being nearly driven extinct by poisoning from pesticides.  I never dreamed I'd live somewhere where you see bald eagles on the way to the grocery store!

Here is a photo I took earlier in the fall of a juvenile Swainson's hawk watching a prairie dog field near my house.  He's long gone now, but we'll see them in the spring again. 

A WEEK IN SAN DIEGO

In early October I spent a week in San Diego and went to my friend Debi's retirement party and my friend Margaret M's son's wedding.  Stayed with bestie Mags L and it was lots of fun.  (I have FOUR  buds named Margaret.)  Maggie D threw a wonderful afternoon get together for a bunch of my SD galpals. This was my first trip back to San Diego since moving to NoCo and it was great!  Here are a few pics of the events of the week, including the hen party where pal Candice took so many great photos!

Debi G's retirement fiesta - went there right from the airport!

Joint birthday dinner - Val and Mags L.  I always get honey walnut shrimp/



Mags & Val's annual birthday dinner -  Panda Inn, Horton Plaza, San Diego

Karen, Mary,Valerie at Maggie D's get together - Mary was my
first sewing teacher and she came all the way from Julian!

Candice, Mags - beautiful girls



Joyce, Valerie, Gretchen - I've known Joyce since I moved to San Diego and
Gretchen and I are fellow So You Think You Can Dance aficionados

Cindy, Kay and Maggie U.  Cindy is a master gardener and Kay does beautiful beadwork - with fire!  Maggie U is just a youngster and is working still. Kay and I go so far back it's scary and we sure faced some messy legal stuff  when she was counsel defending cases I had built! 

Valerie and Candice with Pegi in background.  Candce and I worked together for ages in
 the trenches of SPAWAR and its various entities.  Pegi joined us later and then retired,
 looking like she was 35!

We spent lots of time making quilts in Mags' crafty room - here are
Mags and Pepper Ann

Pepper Ann is getting older now and doesn't do naughty pranks any more.
 I've known her since she was a pup.  Very sweet and still so independent and brave. 
She recently took on a pack of coyotes and got her ear torn up!

Val, Pepper Ann and Bailey.  Bailey is a goofy boy but so affectionate. 
He should have been born a Chihuahua so he could just sit in laps all day!
As an aside, I think I am the reason God invented lipstick and I sure need some here!



FALL FOLIAGE REDUX

On September 30 we did another road trip into the mountains seeking changing leaves and sister Stacie was able to come along this time.  This trip was not so high or dramatic as the one over Trail Ridge Road but still very beautiful.  The Peak to Peak Highway showed us gorgeous sights between Estes Park and Nederland.  Our first stop was in western Longmont near Lyons, where we visited the Ya Ya Apple Orchard and Farm.  It was a great place, with apples of course but also some beautiful horses and other critters.

At Ya Ya, they breed fabulous draft horses called Percherons.  These gentle giants are so sweet and the foals weigh 200+ when they are born!  I found them every bit as intriguing as the Budweiser Clydesdales I've seen and so open to interaction with people.

On the left is Sweetie, who came to greet us as we entered the barn. Don't you just love her bangs?  Her son Meister joined her and they let us stroke their faces and necks.

 

There were also some quarter horses and two miniature donkeys named Betsy and John Henry.  I had a lot of fun feeding a bucket of carrots to the donkeys, who were every bit as sweet as the giant horses.

 



We left Ya Ya with the car full of apples and happy thoughts about this wonderful place.

 

On to the leaves, primarily quaking aspens but lots of others as well.  Below is a shot of Long's Peak and sisters Susie, Valerie and Stacie at a stop along the way.

 

 

We stopped in Allenspark to see St. Catherine of Siena's Chapel, often referred to as the Chapel on the Rock. The chapel is a part of St. Malo's Retreat Center, which was severely damaged by a fire in November 2011.  It sits atop a massive boulder and reminded me of a mini Mont St. Michel.

 

 





We really loved this place and did a little exploring around the immediate vicinity - despite the bear warning signs!  Here we are getting ready to leave.  From left, it's Valerie, Stacie and Susie.

 

We cruised over to Nederland for some lunch, which turned out to be quite a challenge.  Nederland is sort of a hippy town but with bikers as well, all in the shadow of Mt. Meeker.  We just wanted a burger but between the crowds and the scary bars with flies, we searched in vain.  We finally landed in a place that seemed a throwback to the 1950s and indeed, it is over 50 years old and nothing has changed, including the waiters. 

 



Here are Stacie and Skipper, who was our good shepherd and chauffeur that day.  Inside the restaurant we entered a time warp.  Waiters in their 70s responded to questions such as "What's good to eat?" with "What the hell do you expect me to say?" Okay, uh, really?  A visit to the single restroom was even more odd.  Here's a picture of the tiny pink toilet, which was very close to the floor.

 

Our food was lousy but the whole experience was quite entertaining, including the patron at another table who took turns leering at each of us female types.  From the left, Susie, Skipper, Valerie and Stacie.

 

So ended a memorable day of sightseeing and sisterly fun.  I am continually discovering new and beautiful surprises in these fabulour Rocky Mountains.



CATCHING UP WITH THE CRITTERS

Before I post my next batch of fall photos, I wanted to share some photos and info on Sydney the cockatoo and the cats Aidan and Timothy.

1.  Avian report.  Happy 18th birthday, Sydney Eugene Miller!  Sydney is doing so well at The Gabriel Foundation - he lives with Director Julie Murad in her beautiful home on the grounds of the foundation and shares life there with several other lucky birds.  There are 500+ parrots in residence at the foundation aviaries, but owing to his outgoing personality, Sydney was chosen to live with Julie and work PR and education events.  He's made so many friends, including a special umbrella cockatoo called Chicken.

 

Here they are in their outdoor flight aviary.  Syd's flight feathers have grown in, but to fly you need wings and chest strength, which he had not developed during his life.  So, he's exercising diligently and one day soon he'll fly around with Chicken!  Chicken has not gotten along well with others in the past and it's a thrill for everyone to see him sharing space and a bond with Sydney.  Sydney has learned to say , "Hi Chicken" in a little Chicken-like voice.  A few more shots follow.

 

 

I see Sydney at least once a month and I'm always gratified by his wonderful adjustment to his new life.  He knows me and greets me and is quite happy to spend time with me - for about 2 hours.  Then he starts getting cranky, which I interpret as communicating that he's had enough one-on-one attention and is ready to relax and be a bird again.  This is exactly what I wanted for him - to be a well adjusted cockatoo with lots of human and avian interaction.  I miss him, sometimes dreadfully, but as we animal people learn, it's not just about us and our needs.

2.  Feline report.  Aidan Patrick and Timothy Preston are doing well and enjoying the milder weather.  Aidan is 2.5 and Timothy 8 months now.  Clearly Timothy is the brains of the operation.  Here he is explaining the theory of magnetic snaps to Aidan.

Their favorite thing is staring at sparrows, juncos, doves and finches from the patio room.  I added this room on to the house thinking it would be extra entertaining space and a pleasant place to enjoy the cooler months, given it has a fireplace.  All that is true, but the cats love it so much and once I got the clear decals up, the backyard birds quit hitting the glass and all is well at the bird feeder.

 

Another favorite pastime is keeping mom company in the sewing room.  A nice chair and a soft pillow is all they need.

 



BLISSFULLY, GORGEOUSLY FALL!

In the blink of an eye, the terrible hot summer died and a glorious autumn was our reward!  The nights turned cool and then downright cold, with the days sunny and just-right-warm.  I made two trips to see the Rocky Mountain foliage display, even though my own back yard was putting on a small personal show for me.  Here are some shots of early September in my Timnath house.  Note the new patio room and Timmy and Aidan guarding the house against the finches.



The first big foliage trip was a long adventure from Timnath to Grand Lake over Trail Ridge Road, a fabulous drive through Rocky Mountain National Park beginning in Estes Park and ending at Grand Lake.  The pinnacle is at 12,000+ feet and is above the timberline at alpine tundra level.  My sister Susie and her husband Nick (aka Skipper) and I set out early on September 16 for what would be a wonderful day full of wildlife and aspens in their full glory.

Shortly after departing Estes Park, we spotted this young Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep.  He studied us intently and was happy to pose until his family beckoned him back into the brush. 

We started gaining elevation and soon came upon view after view of autumn foliage.  The aspens were in every stage of fall colors, depending on their genes and their exposure.   Note the extent of beetle kill in the pines.

While the beetle kill has ravaged the lodgepole pines throughout the Rocky Mountains, a significant industry has developed around harvesting and using the wood from the dead trees.  Additionally, we saw so much new growth of various spruce trees which the beetles do not care for.  In a few generations, the Rockies will have a beautiful display of spruces and the stands of dead lodgepoles will be forgotten.

Here are the requisite personal shots that prove we were actually there:

The high point of the day for wildlife was getting these photos of a female moose and her juvenile daughter.  Moose are very shy and not often seen, though they are reported as plentiful in our mountains.  These two were grazing and although mama moose was alert, she seemed neither frightened nor aggressive.  Here are a few more of these two:

We shot photos until the park rangers came and waved us away.  Their concerns are for human safety as well as prevention of the animals growing too accustomed to interaction with people.

As we continued the forest changed and grew increasingly barren. 

The Alpine Visitor Center is almost at the highest point of Trail Ridge Road and was nearly ready to close for the winter the day we visited.  It was cold and windy up there and all of us felt the altitude.  There are fascinating presentations and photos of life at that rarefied level.  Of course, the usual tee shirts and espressos are also available.

As we summited and started down into stands of trees again, we were lucky enough to see a group of white tail does and their yearlings.  We got a couple of nice photos of these sweet creatures.

From there is was down to Milner Pass and the Continental Divide at 10,000+ feet. 

 

We headed into Grand Lake Lodge for a late lunch and more beautiful vistas.

 



What a piece of heaven this place was!  Just idyllic.  We ate a great lunch of steak and brie paninis and plotted our trip back home, ultimately deciding not to take the short way down and into Denver, but to retrace our steps.  We figured it would be a different view on the way back and so it was. 

Here are some photos of a bull elk and his harem.  He was magnificent with so many points on his antler rack.  The ladies were chatting among themselves and he sat apart from them, with a sort of insouciant attitude.

In all, a wonderful day in the Rockies!