A portent of things to come?

Yesterday was a very strange day weather-wise. We knew to expect rain, but for most of the day all we got were threatening, overcast skies. It finally did rain around 3:30 p.m. and it rained pretty hard. We got a third of an inch of rain.

Then the sun came out.

And we were treated by yet another beautiful rainbow.

It was so nice that we took a walk after dinner. Everthing was sparkly clean.

As we came back up the hill from our walk, we noticed that Bull Mountain was disappearing from view behind a fog bank. Creepy, really.

We came back in and sat out on the porch for a while just listening to the silence. We came inside and started a fire (the first one of the stay) in the big fireplace and prepared to watch a movie. When I turned around to look outside, gray tendrils of fog were making their way through the trees and in seconds we were surrounded in a cloud. I have never seen fog so thick up here before. It stuck around until we went to bed. Heavy, thick, wet fog. Everything was dripping.

At one o'clock in the morning we were rudely awakened with no warning by what sounded like a freight train coming through the cabin. I jolted upright in bed and said to RIck "what the ??" At first we thought it was just really heavy rain. The dogs were freaking out. Hailey was shaking and Bella jumped up on the bed. Rick got up and turned on the outside light to see that it was hailing and big clumps of ice were sliding off the roof. Have you ever heard a downpour of pellet-sized hail on a metal roof? Let me tell you from experience -- it's LOUD! It continued its onslaught for about ten minutes, then the storm let out a big flash of lightning and a big boom of thunder and it let up. A few more blindingly bright (even with curtains closed) flashes of lightning and booming claps of thunder and the storm rolled on to annoy others in its path.

This morning there was still some hail left that had come off the roof.

The weather station said we got just over a quarter of an inch of hail in ten mintues' time.

Weather in the high country is always interesting!

This year we've had more birds of prey than other birds except the ever present Steller's jays. We've seen kestrels flying over our meadow and posing on trees near the bird feeder looking for an easy chippie snatch. So far I've not seen them be successful. The other morning this beautiful Merlin showed up and shook up the whole bird neighborhood. No one wanted him around. Look at those claws!

He would come swooping in very low -- below the bird feeder -- scattering jays and chippies alike. He was heckling the jays and chasing them around and around. This beautiful Flicker got into the act too and engaged in mid-air battle a few times. I was pretty impressed with his maneouvers. Amazing.

All for my viewing pleasure with my morning coffee, right outside my dining room window. Who needs television?

The sky up here fascinates me. It's constantly changing. From not a cloud in the sky to dramatic displays.

No matter what time of day it is. 

I had a rare treat the other day. The chance to go horseback riding with my neighbors. I love horses. When I was fourteen I had a love affair with horses and had a horse of my own: King. At that age my parents had a love affair with Colorado too, and for several years we went to a dude ranch on vacation. I don't think I ever got off the horse except for lunch (sometimes) and dinner. Ride, ride, ride. I've ridden on and off through the years, but never anything steady. Plus, since a horse tried to remove my left breast once in Amsterdam, I've been a bit head-shy of horses, which I hated. 

They trailered the horses to forest land. In the above photo, draw a straight line from the right-hand edge of the road upwards through the valley and you can see the route we took to the top for an observation point over the Laramie River Valley and back towards Bull Mountain. They loaned me a pair of cowboy boots and we saddled up. The ride went through golden aspens, little creeks and muddy bogs, to sage covered meadows. We encountered two bulls and made a wide berth around them in case they got any idea of challenging us. Big Angus bulls! The trip up was pretty much uneventul except for my saddle sliding off to the side, which was easily corrected. I think they were more concerned for me than I was about myself. I'm tough. I may not have ridden for years, but pretty much nothing fazes me.

Here are Debra and I at the top. I am riding a horse called Rawah with the Rawah mountains behind me. Debra's horse is named Rawhide and he's what is known as a smokey Palomino. I didn't get a photo of David's horse, Cash, (named after Johnny Cash with a cute story to go along with his naming) but he's a gorgeous big buttermilk buckskin. One day I hope they will let me ride him when they feel more comfortable with my riding abilities. I need to brush up, although it all felt pretty good. I felt like I really didn't find my seat until we were on the way down.

When I got off the horse I felt as if I was walking like Dick the Tree looks. From the knees down I was wobbly and weak. What a weenie. Today I am pretty good except I can feel it in my butt and thighs if I am climbing.

Here is the view from the top of the Laramie River Valley (Rick and I took a drive on that very road below us today). More aspen pics to come from that!

And the view back to Bull Mountain from the way we had come from.

We might get in another ride where Rick can join us early next week, but it all depends on the weather and the forecast is for a rainy start to the week.

Until then I have some beautiful photos to share with you. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Storm clouds on the march! These distant gray clouds lead to a half inch of rain on Sunday late afternoon. The thunderstorm just sat over us and kept reforming and reforming. It was wonderful! Not your typical Colorado afternoon thunderstorm which usually come and goes in a hurry. This one stuck around for hours. eBay opens "her" closet  (the closet where the hot water heater and furnace are housed) and hides. She is very smart. It's a bi-fold door and she sticks her paw right where the door folds and works it until she opens it. Sometimes she does this just for fun, sometimes it's just her safe place at the cabin. She's been known to do this and hide when we get ready to go back to New Jersey and gets on the side of the furnace. We have to get the broom to push her out. That is not fun.

We also had rain again on Monday morning, but not as much as the day before. Still, not typical weather.

Although it did clear up Monday evening for the "cowboy cookout" that our neighbor's invited us too. The weather was perfect. Here I am embracing my inner cowgirl while petting black barn kitty Fluffy, who is the most unshy cat I have ever seen. Thank you mom-in-law Lynn for the gift of the cowboy hat!

Overnight we had more rain and this morning a big black rain cloud dropped rain on Bull Mountain while giving us the gift of this gorgeous rainbow right out our window. It started to be a double rainbow and if you look really hard you can see them both.

What a way to start a day!