Fire in an increasingly crowded state

Time to at least try to catch up on my blogging. I've had a very interesting, and largely chaotic, month of July, where things didn't go exactly as planned, travel-wise. 

But I do have some dramatic photos to share with you from the time I spent in Colorado concurrent with a large wildfire that was burning not too far from us. It was named the Weston Pass fire and fortunately it's no longer blazing or, I presume, even smoldering, since we actually got some good rains not long after I took these pix. But there are still a few fires in Colorado, in addition to the monster ones that California is suffering.

Even though it's no longer a threat (or, perhaps, because it's not) I thought these shots were worth sharing. Here's my first glimpse, as I drove west on US 24 from Colorado Springs toward Fairplay...

...then subsequent shots as I got closer to the intersection with US 285, which was closed to the north (I was heading south, fortunately)...

These pix make it look like I'm headed straight for it, but it was actually a bit to the north of the intersection I was aiming for...

Perhaps even more alarming, two days later, on a trip into town, I was able to see smoke from the fire off in the distance from US 50; distant, yes, but a little too close for comfort...

However, blessedly, the next day there was no smoke to be seen on another trip to town; the winds must have shifted.

I did glimpse an after-effect of the blaze a few weeks later on a subsequent, previously unplanned trip down US 285. Notice the singed branches on these pines (sorry for the blurriness, I didn't have a place to stop and get a good shot)...

These poor dears were a good bit south of where I'd seen all that smoke the month before, but they must have gotten in the path of at least some super-heated air before the rains finally rescued South Park from the flames.

Wordless Wednesday: nice paint job!

Mountain flora, part 2: along the Divide

A hike with my college buddies along the Continental Divide showed me some different flowers than the ones I showed you last time. But there were some duplicates as well.

For instance, the Heartleaf Arnica you see above was spectacular. Here are a couple more panoramic shots of this gorgeous expanse of these lovely, cheerful flowers...

These weren't the only pretty yellow blooms on display. I think this is a sulphurflower (if I have the name wrong, at least it's apt!). I wasn't able to get anything in the frame for scale, but take my word for it, those little bloomlets are tiny...

Here are some more tiny flowers. I could have sworn that on a previous trip I'd found them in at least one of my flower books (and, of course, not remembered the name), but this time they eluded me...

And here's another patch of unidentified but fabulous flora; this shot doesn't even get the whole expanse...

These asters are especially handsome, don't you think?

That little sprig was 'way up high, at just about the top mark of our hike...

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Hooray! The library's internet is back! However, I'm heading off on a subsidiary adventure soon and won't be taking my laptop, so it might be a while before I can finish off my Colorado postings (think fires and DIY), plus fill you in on my extra trip. So please be patient and stay tuned!

Mountain flora: part 1, around town

First off, I need to apologize for my lack of blogging. I do have good excuses, though! 

For one thing, we were able to host some good friends from college up here for several days, and we rather took lack of internet access as a feature, not a bug, while we visited, caught up, reminisced, and just generally had a good time.

After that group had all gone their separate ways, though, I figured I'd have plenty of time to go down to the library in town and blog. Well, that wasn't figuring with the horribly destructive wildfires Colorado is suffering. The loss of the tower that serves our local library is really one of the lesser tragedies resulting from the giant Spring fire in the SE corner of the state. But it does mean that the internet is even harder to come by up here than usual. (More about another of Colorado's EIGHT fires, one that I got a little close to, later.)

However, I did make the discovery that our local SAFEWAY, of all places, has free wifi! Who knew?! So here I am trying to catch up on some blogging and iTunes downloading before heading back up to our cabin and resuming my painting chores.

Being here at this time of year means that there are lots of wonderful wildflowers to enjoy (later in this dry summer, there won't be much, I'm sure). And I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you. I did my best (with two flower books which often use different common names for the same scientific ones) to identify them, but I'm not really sure about any of the names, so feel free to send corrections!

The lovelies at the top of the post are either yellow peas, golden banners, or false lupines(!). Here's another shot of them, next to a cabin that's being added on to (there's lots of new construction in our little village this summer):

Yellow seems to be a popular color:

I think these are golden asters

Heartleaf arnica

But there are plenty of other hues represented...

clover, by themselves

clover, with a guest

mystery flower that I couldn't find in either book

wild geraniums?

a closer look...wild geraniums?

There's even some wild roses, that smell heavenly, and are just as pretty as the cultivated varieties (and with even sharper thorns!):

I'm pretty sure these beauties, which are quite common around town, are either white checkermallow or wild hollyhock, depending on which book you consult...

The closest I could get to identifying these handsome guys was some sort of Indian paintbrushes, but they're much more delicate-looking than the paintbrushes we have at home. Plus I saw some "regular" paintbrushes along another walk up at the Divide (I'll show you flowers from that one next time). So I don't know, really, what these are. But they are lovely, aren't they?

Well, speaking of paint, I need to get back to work. Maybe the library internet will be working tomorrow and I can get some more blogging done.

Wordless Wednesday: is this heaven?