Catch Up (or is it Catsup? Ketchup?)

Just to show I really mean it, that I'm really going to post every weekend, or more often, here's my second post of the weekend. 

Why yes, thankyouforasking, it DOES so happen to count as a second post...because it has a separate title!

These photos are from this past few months ~ the ones I took for all the posts I'd be writing during my carefree summer days.  

Instead, though, I've wisely chosen to wait to use them until now -- those carefree first weeks of school -- when life goes smoothly, and I have nothing else to do.

Just a Little Rain...

We haven't had much rain lately.  

High Park Fire. Waldo Canyon Fire. Woodland Heights Fire.

And those were just the ones nearby.  

But when we it did rain, tiny moisture-loving plants came out for a while to celebrate, before dying back into the dust.

Yes, the "growing medium" you're seeing here IS manure, and yes...

...I'm taking the photos at ground level.  In the manure pile. In the early morning. 

Wake up and smell the...never mind.

Fairy Mushrooms, Fairy Houses

Those delicate mushrooms weren't the only tiny, ethereal treasures gracing my summer. My sweet neighbor Jess and I were doing a trash clean-up hike at Pinewood, the lake near our homes, and were rewarded by the sight of a half-dozen fairy houses among the pines. Luckily, she knew what they were, or I would have walked right by.

Presumably, children built them while their parents fished, or maybe fairies truly did want to brighten our day; either way, it's a good story.  

Jess had her camera phone, and took these photos:

Here's a close-up of that spectacular stick home and pebbly path above: 

Look closely at the rest of these fairy palaces; there are surprises everywhere!

A Sign of Fall?

One recent evening on the way home from school, I stopped the car (kind of in the middle of the road) to take this shot:

Those rays lit up the darkening sky.

It was worth almost getting run over ~ three times.  I just had to get a close-up...


...but not until I looked at it on the computer did I see the REAL beauty! (Broncos fans, do you agree?)

Or a Portent?

That hole in the sky kept changing, though, and at one point, it looked like a fiery hole above this ridge:

Two days later, that same ridge was struck by lightning, and looked like this (from the other side):

The firefighters were on these two fires right away, and despite the dry conditions, the fires stayed small, and were out within 48 hours.  Whew.  Thank you, firefighters.  All of you. Everywhere.

Isn't This Blog about Alpacas?

Yes, and here's a parting shot I took just today.  I call it "Heads or Tails?"