Watery Reflections

For Weekend Reflections, here are a couple of watery ones from a hike on Monday, which was a holiday here in America.

It's been raining for ages so the blue sky was nice to see.

Peak Moods (1) - Stormy

From our new house we can see Pikes Peak (elevation 14,114 feet or 4,302 meters) so I thought this would be a good time to start a new series for Skywatch Friday. I'm calling it Peak Moods, and it will show occasional views of the Peak in various guises. The first one is taken when the clouds cleared one recent morning.

But the clouds moved back in, resulting in an obscured, stormy view a few days later.

I do enjoy seeing this mountain while I eat my breakfast every morning. I had to edit these photos to crop out all the rooftops, and they originally had no contrast so I played with the color curves; hopefully I didn't overdo it...

Spruce Mountain Rocks

I've been posting on a Spruce Mountain hike for a couple of weeks, and this week I'm focusing on the rocks.

I love the rock formations in this area.

They're like something from a painting.

They often look like they should fall off the cliffs but somehow they hang on tenaciously.

Our World Tuesday

Stormy Mount Sherman

Here's the last of the photos from my 1997 climb of Mount Sherman, taken on the way down. Storms blow up quickly in the mountains!

Vintage Weekly

Not More Snow!

Yes, our rain turned to snow briefly yesterday, but I'm not going to show you that. Instead, this week's Skywatch Friday shot is of a beautiful storm last summer.

Spruce Mountain (2)

Continuing with my series on the nearby Spruce Mountain hike, here is a shot of the trail itself.

I liked this fencepost.

And the tree made for a nice contrast against the grey sky.

From the top I could see this ranch with its own lake.

Our World Tuesday

Friendly Dogs

Socks & Laika know where to get their treats - just hang around my wife!

And they know where to relax too.

Camera Critters

Pets Forever

Saturday's Critters

Rain Clouds

Taken on the last day in our old house last week, especially for Skywatch Friday. We had 4 months worth of rain in that week.

Back To Winter

We just moved to a new house, and picked one of the worst weather weeks in the more than 20 years I've lived in the Colorado Springs area to do it. We've had hail and lightning the last five days, and 3 months worth of rain this week. And this morning we woke up (in our new house) to this.

The trees, complete with leaves, are weighed down with 5 inches (13 cm) of new snow and a temperature of 21° F (-6° C). On May 10!

At least the mountains above the rooftops will be pretty when the skies clear...

Our World Tuesday

Spruce Mountain

Just north of where I live, as you drive between the cities of Colorado Springs and Denver, there's a lot of open space.

It's a rather desolate landscape with lots of buttes and hills rising from the grasslands.

One of these hills is called Spruce Mountain, and it makes for a good winter hike; the area isn't too high so it doesn't hold a lot of snow. My next couple of Monday posts will probably be from this area.

Our World Tuesday

Mount Sherman - View From the Top

Here's the rewarding view once you make it to the top of 14,036 foot (4,278 meter) Mount Sherman.

If you've got old photos, please visit Vintage Weekly and link up. It's a fun meme!