Elsa here and I’m practically melting right off the sofa it’s so bloody hot. Just like most of the country, but in the good news category at least we don’t have obnoxiously high humidity to go make the hot temps even more uncomfortable. Unfortunately, what we have had of late is high ozone levels but Mom remains vigilant about walking out in it. High ozone can make all of us cough so we’ve been going out at the crack of dawn before traffic and pollution get bad.
Today is the first full day of Summer and with each passing day, there will be about a minute less of sunlight. Fine by me-the sooner we get through this season, the happier I’ll be. And for anyone who is interested, there are 92 days until the official start of autumn. According to Space.com, were you aware the first day of summer actually changes from year to year, arriving on June 20, 21 or 22 because the earth’s astronomical year is actually 365.25 days long. The arrival of summer also coincides with the moon being at its fullest this year.
Because of the relentless heat, Mom’s photo-taking has been dramatically curtailed. Last weekend we all loaded up the pup mobile and went to spend a few days with Mom’s Dad. I totally love traveling to see my Grandpa but with all our foodables and stuff to keep us safe and happy, it can make the car a bit crowded. If only the House Pony didn’t take up so much real estate, I could totally stretch out and snooze through the 120 mile ride. That is until we got close to Colorado Springs, where there always seems to be an accident that causes I-25 to turn into a parking lot. It happened down both ways this time. On the way home, a small aircraft crashed and had all the northbound lanes completely at a standstill for miles. What normally takes about an hour and half ended up taking just shy of four hours.
Wilson: Tell me about it. While the windows are tinted, because I’m in the cargo area, I usually receive the bulk of the sun. At least you have the AC vent pointed at your face in the backseat.
Elsa: Yeah, well I have black fur and it ain’t enough, ok dude.
Wilson: Umm good point, still whenever we’d stop (which was nearly every 28 seconds), I thought that meant we’d get out and go for a walk.
Elsa: Haha, funny. It just means we’re 7 inches closer to home. That was the worst trip going home we’ve ever encountered. Mom checked with the state transportation department to see if there was an alternate route we could take. This was their solution.
Elsa: Nope, Mom said she was surprised they didn’t reroute traffic through Salt Lake City. {growl}
Wilson: While I’m not sure if that would have helped much, let’s share the few pics we do have. Mum has been captivated by these stunning trees called Kentucky Yellowwood since she first saw them blooming. The white flowers are so fragrant, and look a lot like Wisteria-like racemes that can be as long as 11 inches long. They have a narrow range of distribution in the Eastern U.S. but are hardy to Zone 4 which is no doubt why she found a couple of specimens here. They are quite stunning when in bloom and make a beautiful ornamental addition to any garden landscape.
Elsa: Mom sure likes them. We had to stand there for a jillion years while she sniffed all the white flowers. Then she suddenly realized we’d been patient and says “Hurry up, let’s go” {eyes rolling}.
Wilson: I’ve notice uprights tend to do that. Rather ironic, I say.
Elsa: You got that right. Humans are soooo weird. I mean just look at how the human who lived at this garden near our house decorated their front entrance flower pot…what the dog?!
Wilson: Blimey…I don’t know what to say other than, “it’s quite colorful.”
Elsa: ‘Colorful’ is rather diplomatic way of putting it.
Wilson: Well, I’m nothing if not a rather proper chap.
Elsa: Not me, I call ’em like I see them. That is just too weird.
Wilson: Perhaps, but then I saw this when we visited Grandpa. What in the bloody world was that galloping critter? Mum said she’d never seen them as close to the road as this one and once he took one look at me, he couldn’t run away fast enough. I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn’t figure out what it was; I just knew it wasn’t one of those horrid tree rats that make me lose my mind.
Elsa: Bingo, buddy. You’re so right, that is NOT a squirrel. Rather that’s the North American Pronghorn antelope. They have that distinct white fur on the rumps, sides, bellies and across their throats. The males weighs anywhere from 40–65 kg (88–143 lb) while the females are the same height as males, only weigh around 34–48 kg (75–106 lb). Pronghorns are the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere and can run 56 km/h (35 mph) for up to 1.5 km (1 mi). Although slower than the African cheetah, it can sustain top speeds longer than cheetahs can.With their large windpipe, heart, and lungs physiology that allow them to take in large amounts of air when running, they can often outrun most of their predators. With two long, cushioned, pointed toes to help absorb shock when running at high speeds, their extremely light bone structure and hollow hair; they are literally built for speed. Pronghorns have very large eyes with a wide field of vision that are set high on their skull. Both males and females have horns that are shed and grown annually although the females have smaller horns that are straight and rarely pronged. When a Pronghorn sees something that alarms it, the white hair on its rump flairs open and exposes two very odoriferous glands that releases a compound that smells somewhat like “buttered popcorn” which alerts nearby Pronghorns by both sight and smell that danger is present and can be seen as far away as 20 to 30 meters downwind from alarmed animals. Mum found this closeup of a male Pronghorn face which is not really apparent in the photo she took on her cell phone from the road.
Wilson: Well I thought they were pretty amazing and to watch them gallup…well that was something else. It almost made me want to join them.
Elsa: Trust me, they’d have left you in the dust, dude. So what’s on the weekend for you? Our neighborhood has a huge festival kicking off summer where thousands of peeps will attend all day Saturday which we will avoid like the plague. Then there’s the Farmer’s Market Sunday morning so there’ll be loads of peeps and pooches walking past the house. Let’s just hang out with Mom inside and stay cool instead, eh House Pony?
Wilson: Count me in.
{from the other room} Wilson, get off the bed!
Wilson: Oh dear, looks like I got busted. In that case, I’ll get down and wish you a brilliant weekend. Stay as cool as you can and of course keep yourself and your good pet well hydrated.
Elsa: What he said.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Mee-yow Wilson an Elsa an Miss Monika it sure lookss *hot* there! Wee sorry it been liek that. Wee have a few hot an hue-mid dayss an then it rainss an iss chilley! What a weerd Summer so far!!!
THE Pansiess are so purrty! Mee lovess them!!
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Many thanks, yes, today is day 13 of 90+ degree days in a row. We’d love some rain and hope something comes soon.
Java Bean: “Ayyy, that definitely puts the ‘tour’ in ‘detour’ …”
With these guys, detours are commonplace around the Ranch.
We are actually getting some rain this weekend, so our temps have cooled off a bit. We’ll try and send some of it your way!
xoxo,
Rosy & Sunny
PeeEss…We see pronghorns off of I-25 north of Santa Fe, aren’t they the coolest?!
Rain would be so welcome (without the hail if I have a choice). I think we received 12, maybe 15 drops yesterday. Today is just supposed to be hot and dry. Yes, we love seeing pronghorns but usually they are blurry because they’re so far away. Have a great weekend!
I love the smell of wisteria and a great shot of the Pronghorn! Love the colorful field, too.
Yay, on getting to visit your 5 Ugh on the 4 hour traffic delay!
I hope the heat eases up for you. I know you are fried! And poor Elsa is melting off the couch! It also looks like you need a new bed. Wilson claimed yours. 😉 Enjoy your weekends laying low!
Summer is just not our jam. And it’s always hotter when I visit my Dad so there’s that. Sigh. But to see the smile on his face when he sees us makes it worth it.
Awh!! 🥰
Yet another tour de force, kids. This was a blooming beauty of a stroll, complete with what? Antelope! The best I can do is maybe a cantaloupe, so yeah, you win.
You’re too kind, Marc. Seeing antelope so much closer than ever before was a real treat. The alpine glow over the Greenhorn mountains was a bonus. Here’s to a weekend full of cantaloupe, a huge favorite of ours. All 3 of us love it!
Stay cool! (ish)
You do the same, if it’s even remotely possible. I’m walking the dogs as soon as the sun comes up to avoid the heat.
It’s the only way to do it until this ungodly heat breaks.
Thank you Elsa and Wilson. Such a great post, I almost felt being with you on the road. Those antilopes are amazingly beautiful.
Have a great day.
Terveisiä ja kiitos, Kristiina! So good to hear from you. Hope summer is being kind to you. You’re always welcome to come on the road with us. Have a wagnificent weekend. 💙
Kiitokset sinulle. Thank you, is so nice to travel with you.
Feel free to tag along any time. 😻
That sure is a gorgeous tree! I wonder if there are any around our neck of the woods…
We are Zone 5/6, so it is possible.
Maybe we are wrongly placed by those climate zones, it feels like we are in the Jungle Zom=ne with all the humidity. I went out around 8pm, to pick up after the dogs and to water the plants, and I came back inside after about 30 minutes, and I could have washed the floors with my sweaty clothes. UGH. Even now in the ‘wee’ hours it’s 75F.
Thankfully we have AC,, so we hide in the house away from any thoughts of the hot mess outside! I canceled a yard project our sons were going to help with. It will just have to wait for cooler days.
I think the plant hardiness zones are somewhat skewed as the climate heats up. Pretty soon we’ll all be able to grow palm trees anywhere. 🤣 Stay as cool as you can. We were out again at 5:20 am this morning to avoid the heat. At least we don’t have high humidity-just the sizzle setting.
I can’t imagine going through this weather while wearing fur!
I know, right?! Especially black fur!
Great photos, especially the pronghorn. XO
Thank you. It’s so cool watching the Pronghorns race across the plains. They are amazingly athletic!
Hey Elsa, we have a run of the stupid hots here! An antelope? Boy is that cool!!!
My siter and daughter live in Texas and I can’t believe the temps down there so any place that has heat and humidity has our deepest condolences. Here’s to having a great weekend!
Pronghorn Antelope – creatures I have not heard of before and they look quite interesting as do the Kentucky Yellowood trees. I dare say that our summer this year will be much like the weather patterns that are happening everywhere at the moment – hot to very hot. However, right at this moment I am cold and I would be very glad of some heat. I am sitting here with a heated travel blanket around my legs. I would pull it up a bit higher but the bottom part is sort of occupied by a Benji.
Antelope are amazing hooved animals and Mom has always been captivAted by their Great Plains presence. We’d be happy to forward some heat down under for you. The heat this summer has been insane all across the country. And some places have been getting so much in the way of rain. Wish we were in that group. Usually we’ll received 12-16 drops not nearly enough to keep the plants happy. And hail, there have been several bad hail storms. Ear rubs for Mr. Benji from all of us.
I’ve never heard of those elk, so thanks for the report, guys, very interesting. And I love that flower pot!
They are much smaller than elk, even smaller than the mule deer around here. They move really quicker. That pot is soooo over the top, especially considering the garden is rather formal.
North American Pronghorn antelope. I have not seen one of those in a while. They are very rare around Dallas, where I live, but I’ve seen them in west Texas several times. I know they are very common in Colorado and Wyoming.
For a while they were endangered but have recovered and currently are found in these western states, primarily Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. I love watching them run on the Walker Ranch that’s near my Dad’s house. Boy are they fast!
We are melting back here in the east. Buttered popcorn coming out of a butt? That is some critter!
Yeah, we saw the heat indexes. Yikes! After Mom read that about the buttered popcorn smell, she said she was never eating popcorn again. 😆
Finally we found others that dislike summer like we do. The summer solstice means every day we are closer to winter and away from summer, our least favorite season. It is going to get hot here in a few days but right now we have rain all day every day and flooding. It is very depressing. We love that one planter with all the stuff on it, cute! Have a good weekend and tell your mom dogs belong on the bed, it is a good thing. We all sleep on the bed and Mom can hardly find a spot to crawl in, but she loves being cozy with us.
We’re counting down the days until the temps become much more civilized. One can always put another layer on but you can only go down so far. We don’t do heat very well. Mom wouldn’t mind Wilson being on the bed but he resource guards her so Mom says all four on the floor, pal. Have a great weekend.
Elsa and Wilson, it appears like your department of transportation is as helpful as ours on alternate routes lol. Those Kentucky Yellowwoods look and sound delightful. That neighbor’s flower pot IS colorful….and amusingly “busy.” Let those Pronghorns do the runnin’ this weekend and you stay nice and cool…and occasionally on the bed…!
Sadly there aren’t enough highways for all the cars these days. The main north/south highway is I-25 and it’s busy full of cars and (way too many IMHO) trucks. If there’s an accident, everything just shuts down-there’s nowhere to go. We’ll settle for nice and cool indoors. Have a great weekend.
LOL, that’s some alternate route! Cool seeing the pronghorn, in my experience it was more common to see them further north, tons on the way to Wyoming.
Exactly on the route alternative. We’d have probably gotten home quicker going through SLC 🤣 Yeah, pronghorns and oil rigs going north. You can see lots of both heading toward Wyoming.
Loved the stats on the pronghorn, Monika. I enjoyed seeing the Kentucky Yellowoods too. We have the humidity to match the temperature here for this weekend. UGH
You have our deepest sympathies. That humidity thing just wipes us all out. Glad you enjoyed learning about the Pronghorns. They’re pretty fascinating creatures. Try to stay cool this weekend.
We will try. Thank you.
Oops, see, it’s been so long, we’d didn’t put our comment in the proper place. Sigh.
That wasn’t a reply. It was a hi and hello to the puppers!
Sorry.
Not to worry at all. We read all the comments and appreciate them equally wherever they are. Thank you!
Call me weird, but I kinda like that kitschy flower pot 🙂 A little whimsey surely brings a smile to most!
Those pronghorns are very cool!
Ugh on the traffic. I swear it is the one thing that really makes me lose my cool.
It’s a long weekend up here in Quebec where the Francophones celebrate the patriots. I’ll listen to good ole québécois music that my anglophone friends don’t understand how I can possibly be part of that culture. Hey. I’m a proud mix of the two.
Our heat broke today (yay!) and we will have rain all weekend. It’s almost always rains on St-Jean-Baptiste Day! Oh well…I’m good with bingeing whatevs on the old telly if I must.
Happy weekend to you!
It’s definitely whimsical and a bit out of place with the rest of the garden that’s more formal. Enjoy the celebrations this weekend. We’re going to do our best to avoid the millennials and Gen Z’ers at all costs. In our neighborhood, they think common courtesy applies only to accommodating themselves and rules don’t apply to them. Mom rolls her eyes and gets crabbish since they often don’t clean up after their dogs and cater to bratty kids. 😬
I like that it does stick our for that reason. Brings a little silly fun into the fussy.
Oh, I won’t be hanging with the revelers. The called for rain will give me all the excuses I need to stick to home base!
Oh gosh, what I’d do for rain about now is almost sinful. 😉
So sorry. Ours has not really started yet. A few drops here and there.
Rain is allusive in a mountain desert. Usually it may mount to 12-15 drops, then again it could be a gusher for about 90 seconds. Gentle rain showers are definitely an anomaly. We’d more likely have snow than rain 99% of the time.
Wow. Such a different environment.
oooo pretty flowers! We don’t see those around here… it’s too hot for black dogs to be comfortable, around here there’s a lot of water drinking and then peeing.
I had a spoo, Cole, who sniffed the flowers. Once on vacay in Princeton who has lots of pretty gardens, we walked and after I sniffed the flowers, cole would follow behind me and sniff them. A couple came up laughing and told us they watched him doing it.
He was so cool…
now we have a gutter bird to watch, and another bird has built a nest outside the front door… oy vey…
Not a doggone thing wrong with sniffing flowers, whether you’re two or four legged. We had sparrows build a next by the back door and poor things were constantly disturbed. Luckily they fledged soon.
Such interesting information on the pronghorns! Thank you! I am in central Nevada and have a lot to learn about local wildlife. I saw a mommy antelope and her two babies last weekend, but I don’t know what type of antelope she was. Beautiful though.
They are very cool animals but it’s hard to get very close to them. Our mom was flabbergasted they were so close to the road. Usually she just sees them on the horizon as tiny little dots. I think there are 4 different kinds of pronghorns: Rocky Mountain pronghorn & Mexican pronghorn being the most prominent, Oregon pronghorn, and the endangered Baja California pronghorn. The ones you saw are likely the Rocky Mountain species.
Yikes……nothing worse than a car trip that requires a detour! At least you DID get home and you DID get to rest up! That Kentucky Yellowwood tree is GORGEOUS – those flowers are in such HUGE bunches – bet it would take just one to make the whole house smell fab. Visiting is funzies but that old saying about “no place like home” is kinda true isn’t it!
Hugs, Teddy and Mom Pam
Mom kept trying to figure out how to cut a bouquet of those blossoms! We always have a good time visiting Grandpa but it felt especially good to {finally} get home. Mom was wiped out. She’s not very magnanimous driving in hot conditions when the roads are jammed to the gills.
Yeah, we’re the ones with the heat AND the humidity, ha! Like you, we’re just hanging out close to the AC. It’s impossible to be outside except early or late in the day. Hope it breaks soon!
That makes both of us! Have a good weekend and at least try to stay cool.
What beautiful animals! Sorry it is so hot…miserable when you have a furry coat.
It’s miserable for peeps with skin that gets a gross looking heat rash too. We hope you, Leo and the thugs have a pleasant weekend.
Raining, thank goodness, though cut off for a couple of days by a tree falling across the road, taking the electricity and phone lines with it!
Yikes, hope power is restored quickly and fully.
power back after 23 hours, telephone still out.
Ugh; we’ll keep our paws crossed that the phone lines will get restored soon. 🤞🏼
Thank you. I have a mobile, but Leo depends on the fixed line as he cannot manage a mobile with semi paralysed hands.
All the more reason to hope the repairs happen quickly. 🤞🏼 🤞🏼 🤞🏼
Way too hot here (PA) as well. Potty breaks during the day are in the yard, on the grass. Walking on the sidewalks is too hot for dog and human. Even potty breaks are no more than 1 minutes. The pups need to get it done or wait until the next time!
Pretty much the same here. We go for our walk as the sun is coming up when it’s relatively pleasant. After that we hang out near the cool vents! Have a good weekend.
I love your posts. I think I’d like to gallop with the Pronghorns, too. Although, I’m sure they would leave me in the dust fairly quickly. 😀 😂
Mom always starts singing the song Home on the Range…where the deer and the antelope play. Passersby must think she’s some kind of a nutter. 😂
LOLOL I think I’d like her. haha 😂
At first we thought maybe the “critter” was the long-lost donkey now living with the elk herd (ha, long way from California tho!) … just kidding! Trying here to get back to visiting friends: Hi Elsa, Hi Wilson ~ oh yes, keep cool and for now, no long road trips, oh my what a detour that would’ve been! Only 92 days til it cools down some, mmm, hope that’s true … bye now, JUNE
LOL I love it. 🌺🩷
We hope so too. It seems like it stays hotter longer these days. We’re all opposed to long detours. 😉
😂 She’s a weirdo with an odd sense of humor but we love her anyway. 😍