We arrived home in the very same kind of weather we left in. Rain. It rained nearly all the way through the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, again. We haven’t seen rain since the very first day we arrived in Laramie to do our shopping on the way in to the cabin. Two weeks without rain! The temperature upon arrival was a chilly and damp 50 degrees F which feels so much colder than the dry-almost-non-existent humidity of Colorado.

The dogs somehow knew we were home the minute we pulled in to the driveway and all three erupted into a frenzied joyful barking. We let them out of the truck and they ran around, barking of course, in the front yard. I’m sure the neighbors at the opposite end of the street knew we were home after that racket. The kitties once let out of their crates in the house roamed the rooms with tails straight up and eyes round. The house was chilly, so on went the heat for the first time this year. It smelled good; comforting. We unpacked the truck in the light drizzle, put some things away and then finally sat down to a well deserved glass of wine. We heated up the leftover chicken pot pie we had brought home with us from the cabin because we couldn’t bear to throw it out and had that for our dinner while we watched the TiVo’d premiere of Terra Nova.

Our neighbors called and told us to be on the look out as a big bear was getting into the trash down the street and we had just put our trash out for pickup in the morning. They said they’d had a bear in their garage three times over the past week. Welcome back to the wilds of New Jersey! Rick turned on our outside lights at the street thinking that might deter him.

Too tired to do anything else, we went to bed. As I lay in bed listening to the soft patter of rain outside I thought not for the first time how good it was to be home. We both love the cabin but now it’s somewhere we go on vacation and not home. At least “not home” in the sense of where we live. When we are at the cabin, we are home. Hmmm ... does that make sense? It’s hard to explain. I know I’ve said it again and again on my blog, but when we are there we are home and when we are here we are home. I think you get the idea. I am starting to come around to the idea of a trial year at the cabin, winter and all, once we retire. What a blog that would make!

This morning as I type it’s raining. The sky is gray and dark. So different from the brilliant blue that we had for the past two weeks. When I look out the window I see a wall of trees crowding the yard instead of an open meadow and golden aspens glowing in the morning light. Our trees here are just starting to change but I don’t think they will be very pretty this year. They look soggy and defeated. But they are oh so beautiful with their many colors when they do change. We shall see if all the rain has made a difference in our normally gorgeous fall.

I have much to do today as you can imagine. Grocery shopping is #1 on my list, then laundry. My new machine will certainly be getting a workout over the next few days!

I’ll leave you with a photo I took last week.

I’ve been lazy the past few days because we’ve had company at the cabin! All photos here were taken when we took a drive the other night just before sunset.The sky and clouds always fascinate me here.
 



Virga both before and catching the setting sun. (Virga is rain that never reaches the ground.)








The beaver pond had amazing sky reflections. We saw the beaver too but it’s not a very good photo. I’ll include it just because the water is so pretty but you can’t really see Mr. Beaver.


















You can see his head above the water and his body just at the surface. He was swimming straight at me!







This photo is untouched. It was the strangest color of sky that night. Here is the view from in back of the cabin and the following photo is looking out toward Bull Mountain. So basically “back yard” and “front yard.”







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For the past couple of days conditions have been just right for con trails. They’ve been spectacular so I thought I’d share them with you.

A very busy morning over Bull Mountain.





And these over Camel Rock on our way in to Laramie. They kind of look like they are forming a flag to me.





And yesterday’s almost over the cabin. This was taken from our front porch.

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I am so behind in posting photos of our walks! The re-threading of the serpentine belt was successful the other morning and took half the time of our messing around that night trying to achieve the same results. Thank goodness! Rick is my main auto mechanic! If I had been here by myself I would be stuck. Anyway, no more rat talk!




Old man sage.

The dogs do so love it up here.




Hailey




Alex




Bella (dry version)




Bella (wet version)

We walked to the UFO landing sight (or at least that’s how we refer to it) which is just a barren circle of ground where nothing grows. Every year it yields up what I call Colorado Turquoise. This year it was just small nuggets, but I have a whole collection here at the cabin of larger stones.









The views are always expansive up here.




Not much left in the way of wildflowers, but still pretty even in their dried state.

Star arnica still blooming!

More pics coming soon!

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This was last night’s sunset as seen through our dining room window. This is a sight we never used to be able to see. In other words, we couldn’t see the sunset for the trees. So, there is some good in losing all those trees to beetle kill.

This photo was taken outside the cabin and looks more like an advancing forest fire.

And again, more late night bedside scribblings led to this:

As I lay in bed awaiting sleep I can see the last of the fire’s light flickering on the logs of the ceiling above. I hear the deep satisfied breathing of tired dogs.

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