Wednesday, May 1, 2013

April Recap: Challenge, Friends and Dreaming's Doings

April went by in a flash. The A to Z Challenge kept me on my toes and kept me busy while the snow was blowing outside. Yes, I did say snow!

April 16
We had a visitor!
Flat "Malia" came in the middle of one of our storms.
I made her a snow suit so she could play in the snow.
It was too cold to stay out for long!

We have had crazy weather, with weekly (Yes... I do mean weekly) snow storms! And not to be outdone, May is coming in with her own storm. We are expecting 4-8 inches of snow. It began last night and will run through today. Our poor plants - although I am sure they like the moisture, each storm has come with bitter cold and blowing snow.

April 10
Snow covers the tent I made over our tulip bed.

The same tulip bed on April 28.

 Tulips that I dug up and divided last year dot another garden.

I covered as many perennials as I could to try to protect them from the 20 degree weather. Hopefully rain that came at the beginning of the storm may have created ice blankets for the buds on our trees. A few have tried to leaf out and were burned badly in other storms. We'll just have to see how things go. There isn't much I can do about it - fretting won't help a thing! 

Between snow storms we have had some wonderful weather. We found time to take a few bike rides.


We saw Mr. Red Fox on a bike ride through a Denver area neighborhood. He was enjoying the fine spring day, too! It was so warm, he was trying to sneak a drink of water from this drain pipe.

We visited the zoo. This 450 pound silverback was on a quest to find spinach that had just been placed in piles throughout his enclosure.


I took Clyde to see my dad. Clyde is the sweetest Golden Retriever. He belongs to my house sitter friend.

Dad seemed to like the fact that Clyde wanted to warm his toes!

We also went to the Botanic Gardens. The snow storms and cold weather burned a lot of their plants, too.

Despite the freeze, there were flowers out and the bees were in a frenzy to harvest nectar.

The A to Z Challenge was great fun. It was a challenge, for sure! Trying to come up with something for each letter of the alphabet was tricky, and by sticking to the topic of our motorhome trip, it was even more of a challenge. I have included links to each of my blog posts below, just in case you missed one or two!


Reading others' posts for the A to Z challenge was the fun part of the challenge. I enjoyed randomly visiting different blogs and seeing what the blog author had to say for a letter. There were 1656 participating blogs by the end of the month, so the possibilities seemed endless. I "met" new friends, and I have also had new friends follow me. I'd like to welcome the new challenge followers. You can find out more about them by clicking on their "Member" icon on my sidebar, or visiting their blogs. They include:
Rowena who writes Designs by Row
Phillip who writes Ariel's Jottings
Sopphey Vance
Judy
Damyanti who writes Amlokiblogs
and
Sylvia Ney

A to Z Challenge Posts

I. Iron-y
J. Jump
R. Rally
U. Uh-Oh
Y. Yes
Z. ZBV

So I bid April good-bye, and look forward to May and whatever she will bring. Happy spring to you!

11 comments:

  1. Gee, I sure can relate to the long, and actual wintry spring, and even today on this May Day our weatherman in Minnesota says, our rain again will change over to snow tonight and into tomorrow! You did a marvelous A-Z posting!

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  2. You did great with the challenges. We had Flat Adam visit a few years back..he had quite an adventure here..he had lots of adventures that were documented in photographs and then mailed on the next destination..what fun!! Tou have been busy..your tulips are beautiful..the snow not so much and here you thought you escaped winter:)

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  3. I really enjoyed your A to Z challenge! It was fun to read :)
    Wow, I can't even imagine snow right now (it's going to be 80 here today!) What a month you have had!!

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  4. I enjoyed following you on your trip in the motor home. I know it must have been a great experience.

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  5. Hi, I am retired too, and I saw you are living your dream including having horses. I have long adored horses, and wrote for a horse magazine for many years. Nice to meet you. I also read your previous post and the info about the backscatter machine was interesting.

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  6. You can keep the snow. I'm soooo done with it! Hope your flowers can recoup from it all.

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  7. Wow, what a difference from snow to flowers. Your dad looks so sweet and happy with Clyde. :)

    Hope you had fun with a-z. :)

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  8. Your Dad looks good!
    We haven't had anything leaf out yet. I'm thinking that with this weather, that's a good thing.

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  9. Spring certainly has been confused and confusing this year! Snow in May? That's unusual! We are on the other end, very short of moisture here this year, no measureable snowfall at all this winter, and that means if it doesn't happen soon, wildfire season will be upon us. Praying for rain, but I'll pass on the May snow, thank you! :-) I've very much enjoyed your travel posts, some to places I've been too!

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  10. Thanks for taking the time to post your A-Z links. I'm going to sit down some evening and read them. It'll be easier now. If I see snow one more time I'm going to cry...even in a picture! We got that same snow storm. The Monday before Easter - 10 inches. I can't like it. LOVE the silverback. Did you ever see the movie Gorillas in the Mist? I fell in love with them. It's a true story about Diane Fossey. That Golden Retriever is adorable. I've wanted one for awhile now, but that hair....I dunno. Dogs do keep you warm though, especially during winters like this one!

    Cindy Bee

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  11. OK Well first of all, weather is nutso! That Silverback is amazing, absolutely gorgeous. Love the picture of your dad and Clyde :)

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