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Category Archives: color
Hope Springs
Every year it’s the same: as temperatures start creeping up, offering reassurance that winter is winding down, I start obsessing over color. This is a spring thing for many of us living in the world’s temperate zones, I suppose, but … Continue reading
Posted in change of seasons, color, gardening, spring
Tagged Colorado weather, drought, high fire danger, spring snow
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Late Season
Years ago, reflecting on our move from the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado to the more rural center of the state, I wrote about planning the space that would be our garden in the mountains: Despite the high elevation, short growing … Continue reading
Posted in color, fall, gardening, humans and wildlife, rodents, weather
Tagged gardening with wildlife, high altitude gardening, mule deer, walled gardens
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Summer of a Different Color
August: By now, usually, our high mountain landscape is burnished with a brassy gleam, as grasses send seedheads up to nod and wave in any breeze that bothers to turn up. In July, though, a monsoon weather pattern settled in, … Continue reading
Posted in color, observation, weather, wildflowers
Tagged Colorado wildflowers, July precipitation, monsoon rain, mushrooms
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Landscaping in Slow Motion
Most of the landscaping around here came with the place. Contracting crews working on the house in 2002-03 were flustered that we were such sticklers about maintaining a tight construction envelope around the site, but I’m glad every day we … Continue reading
Pink Time
The view never gets old. In winter, the straw-colored grasslands dotted with evergreen-dark have an understated, action-suspended aspect. Snowstorms change things up now and again, padding the view as if packaging it for shipment. The white expanses and mounds, throwing … Continue reading
Posted in color, winter
Tagged bougainvillea, Christmas cactus, Colorado winter, scented geranium, schlumbergera, sunrise
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The Long View
The iconography of changing colors garners plenty of attention this time of year. Deservedly so, I suppose; even here, where the most charismatic foliage species are pretty rare, there’s a good show. The mounded forms of currant and mountain mahogany … Continue reading
Posted in change of seasons, color, fall, observation, wildlife encounters
Tagged autumn in Colorado, bugling elk, fall foliage
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Winterspring
From a distance, not much has changed. Almost-mid-May from the house looks pretty much like just-past-mid-March. The difference, as it so often is, is in the details. The expanses of grass, passive and still eight weeks ago, are now host … Continue reading
Posted in birds, change of seasons, color, gardening, precipitation, rodents, snow, weather
Tagged April weather, Rocky Mountain springtime
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A Monotony of Mild
The winter started out cold—fiercely so, in fact. Icy air preserved the scanty accumulation from small snowstorms for weeks, solidifying it to slick veneers anywhere it was packed down—on roads, on the pathway I follow to and from the barn. … Continue reading
Posted in change of seasons, color, snow, spring
Tagged Colorado Rockies, El Niño, mountain bluebirds, spring snow
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Coming Around to Orange
I’m always reluctant to name a favorite this thing or that thing when someone asks. I suppose I could dodge the line of questioning altogether if I’d just respond that “variety” is my favorite thing, but that might send the … Continue reading
Posted in color, observation, opinions, wildflowers
Tagged color preference, favorite things, flower color, Indian paintbrush, orange
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Fireworks Underfoot
Impressive rains in early May gave everyone in this region plenty to talk about. Water accumulated in places it hasn’t been seen in years, if not decades. Springs sprang back to life, and long-dried-out seeps began weeping once again–presumably from … Continue reading
