Guadalupe reflections

Some modest rains last week were nonetheless enough to make the Guadalupe River paddle-able. So we headed to our favorite stretch (Zoeller Lane-Sisterdale) last Sunday*.

The cypress trees are just beginning to leaf out, but the birds were in full-throated song. Plus gorgeous, but not-yet-hot weather, and we were in our own little heaven.

I didn't notice the really cool contrasting cloud types until I downloaded this snap of the Zoeller Lane bridge

Whether the trees are in spring finery or not, the Guadalupe's cliffs are great sights in any season...

...and those puffy clouds and blue sky were a perfect metaphor for our happy frame of mind...

With summer fast approaching, who knows when we'll be able to be on the river (comfortably) again? 

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*We are normally the "Saturday Paddlers," but some of that rain and cooler than comfortable temps on Saturday encouraged the bump to Sunday.

Wordless Wednesday: Bike art

Ice-house, Colorado-style

Since it's finally looking like spring down here in south Texas, and that means summer can't be far away, I want to enjoy one more look back at winter in Colorado.

Since it warmed up a bit most of the days we were there last month, and then froze again at night, we were treated to a great, ever-replenishing array of gorgeous icicles. 

If you're from a climate where this is not an unusual phenomenon, it might be hard for you to understand how entranced I was by these elongated crystals. 

I just couldn't seem to stop taking pictures of them! Even after I realized they were interfering with the low-channel reception by hanging down in front of our satellite dish. I still could only see the beauty and exotic-ness.

And even though such fascination probably marks me as a hopeless flatlander...

They are just so gorgeous! Please have patience with me as I show you a few more...

Maybe memories of these scenes will help keep me cool when it gets close to triple digits here. At least until I can get back to the mountains again.

Wordless Wednesday: it must be spring!

Snow from both sides now, Part 2

Last time I showed you what the recently-snowed upon Colorado landscape looked like from the air. Today I'll take you in for a closer look.

This is a shot of the piles of the stuff that greeted us upon our arrival...

Our driveway was plowed, and our little front-wheel-drive Versa made it up ok (although I had my eyes closed most of the way). But some shoveling was required before we could get into the house either through the front door or the garage.

When you aren't having to shovel it, though, it sure is pretty...

We were given an easy-to-visualize lesson in how different types of roofs handle a big fall. The roof on our sister property, an old Schoolhouse, is metal, and a lot of the white stuff just slid off of that...

Whereas on our new composition roof, as well as a similar surface on these structures across the river, it just perched like mounds of marshmallow creme...

The view outside our bedroom window gives another perspective on how deep it was...

There was a lot more snow down in town than we think we've ever seen there before, too, from the storm before our arrival. This is the Salida street outside of Little Cambodia, where we had a late lunch on our first day. That warm pho sure felt and tasted good!

Although it was cloudy for most of our stay, there was a moon that shone down entrancingly on the snow parts of some of the evenings. To give you an approximate idea of how that looked, here's our deck with some artificial lighting:

The reason I was out with the lights on was to investigate why our satellite TV picture was wigging out...and just before the final episode of this season's Downton Abbey! It turned out to be icicles! Which are fortunately easy to remove (and also even more photogenic than the snow...there will be more pix of them in my next post).

So how do you clear all the snow out of the way so you can get to the ski area to take advantage of its good qualities?

A neighbor with this amazing machine takes care of this for us. It was so much fun to watch! And his visit made the difference between spending the day stranded in our cabin, or out on the slopes.

A winter wonderland indeed!

Wordless Wednesday: far from home

Snow from both sides now: Part 1

Last week we made a short trip to ski country, and managed to arrive right in between a couple of big snow events. Next time I'll show you some evidence of the later storm, but as we flew in, I was entranced out my window with evidence of the earlier one.

patchwork fields and squiggly rivers

a bigger river...wonder which one? a good use for Google Glass

moving from the plains to the foothills

contours in the farmland highlighted by the snow

more great snow geometry

a very distinct watercourse

This is about as much snow as I've ever seen from a plane window. Except, perhaps, when we we're flying to Alaska many years ago, and we got a few glimpses of what I think might have been Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

When safely on the ground, there was still plenty of the white stuff around, as well as the Denver airport's new addition. I've marked it with a red line in the photo below. Among other things, presumeably, it will be a station for the city's great light rail system...a boon when we come up to visit our plethora of Denver great-nieces and -nephews.

In part two, I'll show you some more up-close-and-personal encounters with winter weather...stay tuned!