Yuck!

April showers snow storms bring.... 

mud!

The snow from our blizzard at the end of the month is all gone. We have had some beautiful spring-like days, with warm temperatures and sunshine. The Meadowlark has been sitting on the fencepost while I clean up the paddock. No easy task when much of it is a mire of mud!

And, we are expecting rain. We are all thrilled!

Spring

Just the mention of the word, and I envision

flowers, 

and bright green leaves on trees, 

and birds in song, 

don't you?

That is true, part of the time, in Colorado. The other part, the snow, is also part of spring in the Rockies, and on the front range where I live. 

This was the Wunderground prediction for snow as we traveled raced home. We either got home before the snow flew, or planned to spend another week in a campground. We were ready to get home!

It was snowing as I typed the first part of this blog. It had been snowing for over 24 hours, and continued for two more days. Since it is so warm, a lot of the accumulation melted, but there were areas where the snow was over my boots. I laughed when a friend posted this on FaceBook:

Sometimes the weather guys are right on target. For this storm they said the snow would begin at 7:45pm. Darned if they weren't right. Sometimes they predict we will have 24" of snow, and we get 2". Then, the kids are really disappointed as they were sure they would have a snow day! Other times, they predict 2-3" of snow, and we get slammed. 

Spring snow is the norm here. It brings great moisture. But 3 days of gray skies are unusual. It just about did us all in.  Even the horses were grumpy. Then, as the sun was setting last night, it finally peeked around the clouds. 

Malachi actually trotted (he is very old and usually saunters from point A to point B) and cantered out of the paddock to go see his buddies. 

In the morning, the sun made the snow sparkle. It is beautiful, and will be gone in no time! It will be just a memory!

The good thing is that it comes, and is gone quite quickly. I am ready!

Mother's Day 2015

Homeward Bound

It's April. Heck, it's almost May. It is time to head back to Colorado. Winter is over, and my dad and stepmom would love to have me around to help them now and then. So, Mr. Dreamy turned the wheels of the motorhome toward home. We have driven back and forth, from sea to shining sea, so many times since we moved to Colorado in 2007. We have driven in a car. We have dragged a trailer. We have driven in a motorhome....dragging a car. This year, we promised ourselves, we would not kill ourselves with driving. We would not break the three-thirty rule. Nope. We will drive three hundred, thirty miles or drive until 3:30 PM, whichever comes first. Yeah. It sounds good until you actually get on the road!

Day 1: Jacksonville, FL to Pensacola: 354 miles. Oops. We were a bit over the mileage. But, we enjoyed Avalon Landing RV Resort, and it was just a bit beyond 330. We did get in before 3:30! We stayed at this park at the beginning of our Florida tour in February. I liked their abundant pelicans, who amused us with their "synchronized diving". Come to find out, the pelicans only winter there and they are gone now.

Pelicans at Avalon Landing - February 2016

Day 2: Pensacola to Beaumont, TX: 451 miles. Oops, we did it again. Too many miles in one day. But... we found some sort of justification for this overage. I can't recall what it may have been! But, I'm sure it sounded reasonable at the time. We had stayed at this park before. This park is in crawfish territory, and the dog park has crawfish "chimneys". The dogs weren't impressed. Evidently they don't particularly care for shellfish!

Day 3: Beaumont, TX to Lake Medina, TX: 313 miles. YES! We did it! We stuck by our rules! And, not only that, we planned to stay two nights and really relax. A few years ago we met Carlos and Donna on a camping trip in Colorado. They keep their trailer at Lake Medina. We visited them in 2015, and stopped by again this year. We had a great time and can't wait to visit again.

Carlos is practicing using the selfie stick his kids gave him for Christmas

Day 4: Relaxing at the lake... which is a lake this year! It isn't entirely full, but our friends say with a little rainy weather, it should fill up.

Tucker and Gypsy looking for the lake in 2015

Sitting by the lake in 2016.
The rock they sat on the year before is now underwater.

Day 5: Lake Medina to Lubbock, TX: 354 miles. Oops... we were over. But only by a little, tiny bit! We actually had to stop about 30 miles from our original destination because of high winds and dust storms. As Mr. Dreamy battled the wind, and dust, I looked ahead and luckily found a small campground in Slaton, TX. We pulled off the road and enjoyed a wonderful evening with friends. We planned to spend another day in Lubbock... but then, saw the weather report for home. Uh, oh! We better get going.

Mr. Dreaming measures the wind speed: 27mph with a gust of 48.
I didn't line that shot up very well. You can't see the anemometer in his hand.
It was difficult to see anything in the driving sand!

Day 6: Lubbock, TX to La Junta, CO: 389 miles. Darn, we did it again. Too many miles in one day! Originally we had planned two nights in La Junta, wanting to stop and visit Bent's Old Fort. Because of a predicted "winter advisory", we took off the next morning to "thread the needle" and get home before the snow began to fly.

New snow dusted hills as we drove through mixed rain and snow for part of our trip.

Day 7: La Junta to Parker, CO: 161 miles. Yes! This is more like it! An easy travel day. Well, sort of... we did run into some slushy snow. Luckily, the clouds lifted and precipitation stopped. We finally arrived home just after noon. We had the motorhome unloaded and parked by 3:00 PM. We are both exhausted. Even the dogs are tired!!

In the Jungle

We are going green....

Our grass is green. 

The pasture is green. 

The trees are green. 

I live in an area that isn't normally very green, and it is amazing to see how things look after almost a week of rain, on top of a rainy/snowy spring. Mr. Dreamy's new weather station indicates that we have had 2.5 inches of rain in May (all of 11 days), and 4.5 inches since it was installed some time after April 1. That's a lot of water for an area that normally gets 15.24 inches of precipitation a year!

Our grass is growing, and with the wet ground and water/snow falling from the sky we haven't been able to mow. It's a jungle out there!

Elephant exits grass jungle to cross glacial snow

left over from Mother's Day storm. 

Notice the sad day lilies in the background.

Their height was somewhat compromised by our  9" of wet snow!

Things are growing so well that one community issued citations and threatened fines for not mowing lawns! The story is available on 9news.com: http://on9news.tv/1Pq0eYb.

Crazy weather...

Perhaps this week we will be able to take care of our own little jungle!

More April Showers

Snow showers....

April 11

8:00 AM April 16

4:00 PM April 16

7:00 AM April 17

7:00 AM April 17

Wacky Weather

Six feet of snow near Buffalo, then 60* a week later…

Torrential rains that are forecast to bring 3" of rain near Seattle…

Tornado warnings in the southeast...

Crazy weather!

Our weather is unsettled, too.

We don't know what season it is!

We had snow...

Then it melted.

We had mini "blizzards" when we weren't supposed to have snow.

Even the dogs didn't want to go out!

Gypsy doesn't like the snowballs in her feet.

Tucker shakes the snow off his coat.

Yesterday we had ominous skies.

The clouds on the horizon turned out to be snow squalls.

The weather whooshed in…

bringing rain and graupel pelting down…

sideways,

driven by a strong wind.

Snow began swirling in the wind.

As fast as it came…

It left.

On its way to pelt those living south of me!

The Weatherman Didn't Lie

I know that Meteorologists have lots of new and improved technology at their fingertips to help them predict the weather. I'm sure computers have made a huge impact on the art of prediction.

source

But so many times it seems that Mother Nature wants to be ornery and the weather guys just don't get it right. This week was not one of those times. This time the weather guys were 'spot on'!

The prediction for Monday was that the cold weather 

would move into our area around noon. 

It did!

They predicted that we would get 1" - 2" of snow. 

We did!

The weather reports indicated that we would wake to 

temperatures below 0.

Right, again!

(Pay no attention to the time, 3:40 or the date, 9/29.)

The battery that handles this information is not working.

(I'd make a lousy weather guy!)

The correct time: 8:00 AM

The correct date: 11/12/14

I'm hunkered down for the day. 

I have lots of projects I can work on (remember my November List?!)

I made a tent for the plants in the garage.

They are at 50 degrees with the help of an oil heater.

The dogs are holding vigil at the door,

taking brief jaunts outside to chase errant bunnies.

I wonder about the bunnies, the birds and the beasts.

How do they feel about the weather?

At what temperature do they feel the cold?

Do they grumble about the snow?

The local news is campaigning to inform listeners about

bringing pets inside.

This was picture was posted on Facebook by KOAA news.

Evidently the police are on their way to check on the dog,

and educate the owners.

Poor pup...

source

Follow-up: A comment on the Facebook post by KOAA news reported that the owners were visited by the police and have let the dog inside. I hope they keep him in.

The Arctic Express

They say if you don't like the weather in Colorado, wait 5 minutes. A bit of hyperbole, perhaps, but with temperatures plummeting 20 degrees in 30 minutes today, it isn't that far from the truth!

Here is a sequence of photos taken over four hours by Chris Nie, a student at CU Boulder.

It was 56 outside when I left the house this morning. 

It was 34 three hours later. 

It is 13 12 10 now, with some light snow.

Now, that's cold!

I think I'll hibernate!

Go Snow!

The sun is out. The snow is already beginning to melt.

Time to carry on with spring!

OK... so maybe the snow did make Dreaming a bit crazy!

On second thought...

maybe Dreaming has always been a bit of a nut!

Missing Winter

Mother Nature, in honor of Mother's Day, decided to give me a snow storm... just in case I had missed them while I was on my snowbird journey in the south this winter!

The snow began around 9 yesterday morning:

It has not stopped, yet. 

This morning I have a beautiful winter wonderland surrounding me.

And, the snow continues to fall. 

It is beautiful, but.... seriously?! 

On May 12th?!

Not a Happy Camper

I am enjoying a beautiful Saturday morning.

I was just outside without a jacket!

It rained last night.

The sun is shining.

The plants are reveling in the moisture and warmth from the sun.

Many of the trees are fully leafed out.

They are in blossom.

I've been imagining a bountiful harvest of apples and cherries.

(Last year we had a late freeze that killed most of the flower buds.)

The birds are singing.

Tomorrow....

All Hell breaks loose.

I hope the meteorologists  are wrong!

Don't mind me if I wine a bit...

source

Gotta Love Google

I am limping along with limited technology - so I tried uploading a picture onto a blog post from my phone, although I'm actually using an iPad. Yeah, it is a bit confusing. But, it gets even better!  When the application showed the photos, it showed a picture I had taken of one of my paintings. My picture showed a snowy scene. I copied it from one I had seen on Will Kemp's site. I was interested in trying to recreate the picture as it was created with only two colors and two brushes.  I was quite pleased with the finished project. However, Google, or Blogger, or some computer programmer 'out there' decided to add their own artistic license. (Cue mysterious music.) They added falling snow!

Doesn't this beat all? I did NOT tell it to snow in my painting. However, it turns out that Google + will add snow if you tap on a picture. Evidently I did so without realizing it. It does kinda jazz up my work!

If I were more serious about my art, I think I'd be rather ticked off. For now, I find it kinda amusing. 

I describe more of my painting on my other site: Dreaming Does Art

Give a Woman the Tools....

Mr. Dreamy injured his foot. It's one of those mysterious things that just happens... and hurts. I forbade him to clear the snow. We only had about 5 inches, with only a bit of drifting, but the weather isn't supposed to warm up too much in the next week and we need to have the drive clear. I did allow him to start the snowblower for me! Check out his choice of footwear!

So after clearing part of the drive with a shovel, 

I wrestled with the snowblower. 

Piece. 

of. 

cake!

Oh, in addition to the snowblower...

I used the leaf blower!

I had to clear the snow off the gravel drive for the motorhome,

since we hope to get out next week.

I am woman.

I am strong.

I am invincible!

It was all so worth it.

Nothing beats this view!

Brrrrrrr.....

It's a great day to stay inside and work on projects around the house!

It will be below zero tonight.

Even the dogs don't want to be outside for long...

Gypsy, it's your turn to bark. 

Tell her how cold we are 

and we want to come in, 

.... now!