Trees And Blue Sky

Blue skies are a common sight where I live - the American Southwest is one of the sunniest places on the planet and the Front Range of Colorado shares in that lovely weather; the mountains shield us from most storms. I'm always happy to share these skies for Skywatch Friday!

Palmer Park Views

A few weeks ago I posted some photos of rocks from Palmer Park. Here are some views taken on that same hike, all from a single overlook. You'll have to excuse the photo quality, as I don't have a very good telephoto lens. First is a wide-angle view of the sprawling city and the distant mountains.

Next is a telephoto view of Pikes Peak. This is the mountain in the center-right of the previous photo.

Here's a close-up of the downtown area of Colorado Springs. I know this doesn't look like a big city, but the area is home to 500,000 people.

Mining has created some scars on the mountains, here's one of them.

And finally, this is the Garden of the Gods seen from a distance.

And that's this week's tour of my adopted hometown, posted for Scenic Sunday!

Palmer Park Rocks

For Scenic Sunday this week, I'm focusing on some rock formations in Palmer Park, one of the many parks in Colorado Springs.

I love looking up at the spires.

I also love the contrasts of color between the rocks, the sky, and the pine trees.

And when the sun hits them, the rocks themselves can come alive with color.

This is a nice place to walk around in the winter as it's relatively low-altitude, at least for this area. In fact, these shots were taken last December.

Active Socks & Happy New Year

I'm up with my family waiting for 2011 to roll around here in the U.S. mountain time zone, so I've got time to put up a quick blog post. Here are a few pictures of an active Socks for the Camera Critters meme. First he's getting ready to jump up to my lap, which is where he is while I'm typing this post.

Here he's in a playful mood on the floor.

And finally, this last shot was taken during our hike in Palmer Park this week. He's better at climbing up and down rocks than me.

I hope all my readers have a very happy New Year - all the best to you in 2011. Now it's time to get ready to toast with my family.

Cold & Warm, Partly Cloudy Skies

For this week's Skywatch Friday post, I'm uploading photos from two different mornings in the last week. The first two are from early on a frosty morning, after a 24-hour freezing fog finally lifted. This is frost, not snow, in both these photos!

The last shot is from this morning, when I went to Palmer Park to hike with little Socks. It was fairly warm, with skies that were partly sunny, making for flat, colorless light. I've got more photos to post from this hike.

We've got some really cold weather on the way - on Friday our high temperature may be 1° F(-17° C) - but luckily these cold spells are usually very short. Enjoy lots more skyward photographs at the Skywatch Friday meme.