Midas was here: panoramas

What else can you think, when you see a sight like this, but that Midas just flicked his fingers randomly across the mountainside?

The aspens we were just in time to see (two weeks later, the area had several inches of snow!) weren't just gold...they were electric gold, especially when the sun hit them...

They looked for all the world like someone had plugged them in and made them glow with an almost unnatural brightness.

Even though we were obviously in central Colorado after a good many of the changed leaves had blown off the trees—take a look at all the bare trunks here...

...and here...

...the color was still spectacular, at least in our experience.

Here are some more rather pallid attempts to share this experience with you. I couldn't stop taking pictures, but unfortunately none of them can really convey the glory of the gold and green...

...or even the gold on barer hillsides—still spectacular!

of course, aspen trunks are quite handsome, too

Clover Mt. at the end of a bi-colored road

multi-level color along US highway 50

golden sprinkles at Cottonwood Lake

the view from our deck!

a last look at Cottonwood Lake

Next time, I'll feature some more up-close-and-personal looks at this gorgeous vegetation, where the Midas metaphor is even more appropriate!

Wordless Wednesday: There be dragons...

Flying frequently

I heartily apologize for my last of posts the last few weeks, but I think I have a good excuse. And, the traveling I've been doing will result in, I hope, a raft of interesting entries in the days and weeks to come.

Some hints of what's on tap:

Wordless Wednesday: odd man out

Fall color

I was surprised to see that it's been a couple of years since I posted about the lovely flowers we have around here once the days get shorter and [at least a little bit] cooler.

But I've been impressed again this fall with some glorious floral decorations on my walks to and from my bus stops, as well as my weekend-trying-to-reach-10,000-steps-a-day walks around the neighborhood.

Here are some samples:

another look at these wonderful yellow flowers (name unknown to me)
in one of the yards in the St. Mary's neighborhood

another flower I don't know on a vine near the San Pedro bus stop
(there are better pix of these in the older post, but I couldn't help snapping them again)

Bougainvilleas are among the flashiest flowers in this part of the world, and they almost impossibly seem to last all summer. But they are really coming into their own now. 

The same yard on the west side that has those lovely yellow blooms also has a couple different shades of bougainvillea...

the nice couple that live here really love to garden!

Then, just this morning, I saw another impressive two-toned display of these beauties in my neighborhood...

East side, west side, all around the town...it's a great season for flowers!