Freshly Cleared Skies & Driveways

We've had a dry winter so far, but we've finally had some snow over the last couple of days, and March and April are typically our snowiest months. These fresh photos were taken in our yard this morning.

After the storms move by, we usually get beautiful blue skies - we usually get around 300 sunny days each year!

While we're happy to have the snow, there is a drawback...

Luckily I have a snowblower so it's not as much work as it seems - the shovel is only for the places the snowblower doesn't reach. But it looks impressive there! Visit Skywatch Friday for more photos with skies, blue or otherwise.

Early Summer at Sesame Canyon

To get my mind away from the snow we're finally getting (hooray!), I'm going back to this past June for a hike up Sesame Canyon. It starts by going up a dirt road for half a mile, next to and over this stream.

A trail to the side quickly starts to climb up a canyon.

Soon there's a beautiful meadow.

But the trees quickly close in again as the canyon narrows.

Near the top are some lovely rock formations.

And of course, one of my favorite things about hiking in Colorado, the views, this time towards the city of Colorado Springs!

As it's relatively low altitude, it makes a good early summer hike as the snow will be melted off. For more scenic beauty, visit the Scenic Weekends meme.

Wild Disney

Disney World has some things to see and do for the thrill seeker, it's not just for kids. At their Hollywood Studios (in Florida) there is a motor stunt show, and near the end they set somebody on fire.

The climax to the show is a car jumping through a big explosion. Except for slight cropping, this photo is not altered in any way, it's a single photo from my camera. The car really jumps through that fireball.

And finally, they have the Tower of Terror ride, which drops you 13 floors in an out-of-control elevator (it actually drops faster than gravity). It's fun when you're at the very top and they open the doors, then drop you!

These photos were taken in December when I was in Florida for my daughter's wedding, and it's an Our World Tuesday post.

Horizontal Lightning

I'm digging into my 2011 archives for this week's Skywatch Friday post, and I think it's perfect for Ein Stuck Himmel (a piece of heaven) too. It's a lightning shot which I haven't yet published.

It was taken from our back deck. It should only be a few weeks before our first thunderstorms of the year start cropping up, and hopefully I can get some good shots this year!

Vintage Toilet

For this week's Vintage Weekly entry, here's a vintage toilet in a preserved South Korean village, taken from a scanned 1998 print.

I'll keep my modern American toilet, thank you!

Laika

We recently dog-sat a very friendly little dog for a week.

We think she was a Chihuahua mix of some kind, and was about the size of our Pomeranian Socks.
Although she wasn't well suited to our cold climate with her short hair, she made herself at home, snuggling under blankets and lying in the sun whenever she could.

Her name is Laika and we were sorry to see her go, as was Socks.

Hopefully we'll get to see her again soon. This post is for Camera Critters and Pets Forever.

Palmer Reservoirs, Dry Winter

Normally I can't hike here in the winter as I don't like climbing trails in the snow. But it's been so dry this year that I went up to the reservoirs just west of Palmer Lake last weekend. I'm usually up here in summer so the frozen reservoir was a nice change. It wasn't very cold, despite how this photo looks.

The trail had no snow, which is remarkable for this time of year. But it made for a pretty hike.

I was wearing my new GPS watch which tracks exactly where I hike including elevation, and uploads it to a web site. Here's a screen capture, and you can see on the blue line that I started near 7,200 feet above sea level (2,195 meters), topped out just below 7,900 feet above sea level (2,408 meters), and climbed back down again, all in 1.75 miles (2.8 km). For this area, that's an easy, low-elevation hike.

I'm linking this with Our World Tuesday. And since Tina's PicStory has the theme of "L" this week, I'm linking it there too (there is a frozen Lake in the first photo).