🎵 Oh give me a home…where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play…🎶…oh, hi,ya remember me? Elsa here and after a long time away, I’m back from the Thanksgiving Day break visiting Mom’s Dad in Southern Colorado. It wasn’t intended to be extended but Mom was kinda stranded with poor cell phone coverage and no Wi-Fi. I don’t know what Wi-Fi is but it spun my Mom into a real tizzy. She’s not a techno-wizard type and really had a hard time dealing with all the behind-the-scenes machinations of getting everything back to normal and restoring the network so to say she was stressed out was an understatement, but I came to her rescue providing just the kind of Ninja support she needed…but no I didn’t chew anything up. After working 87 hours and a few days on getting the network up and running with lots of crossed paws…we think everything is ok. We’ll be talking with Grandpa later this morning to make sure nothing fell through the cracks.
So here we are, the first Friday of December and that means we’re going to some views of Mother Nature from the past week or so. As always, we’re joining our friends, Rosy and Sunny from LLB in Our Backyard to share photos from Nature this week from time spent in southeast Colorado over the holiday. You ready for this?
Before Mom went to PW, she saw a rare sight in late November-a butterfly on a walk before the weather turned cold. It startled her when it popped up but true to its nature, stayed fairly low to the ground and hung out on the fallen leaves. They’re super skittish and didn’t linger long before flying away.
A rare November snow storm hit Pueblo West on Thanksgiving while the extended family gnawed on turkey, ham and all the trimmings. Mom’s sister and her family drove up from Texas and her grandkids enjoyed the little snow that Nature kindly provided. The adults weren’t quite as enamoured as the kids were, but everyone enjoyed being together, eating, laughing, playing games, watching football and yes eating again. Talk about a food coma!
Mom can’t stop gawping on and on about the view of Pikes Peak, the prairie and sunrises. She never gets tired of seeing one of Colorado’s most famous peaks. On the other hand, I’m happy to sniff for bunnies when I’m there, but it’s more like I can take it or leave it. Mom says I’m missing out on all the teeming wildlife. I keep telling her unless she’s actually letting me chase a bunny or two or better, prairie dogs instead of watching sunrises and wide open spaces, I’m more…meh.
Mom says she could watch the sunrise every morning and always takes a jillion pics as it goes from intense colors to pale as the sun rises. She raves about those pink and orange skies. I, on the other hand, am more interest in seeing prairie dogs, bunnies, deer and antelope. Talk about curious creatures. Those prairie dogs stay well away from the ‘jaws of death’ and as soon as they see me, they scurry their chunky bodies down into their burrows. I’m surprised they can fit. Those were the chubbiest prairie dogs Mom’s ever seen. Guess with the rain this summer, the grass was in abundance. I told Mom it wasn’t fair they’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving for months if their little chubby tummies were any indication. This guy is hard to see as he was pretty far away and Mom only had her cell phone with which to capture him so sorry for the crummy pic. They don’t pose for long before diving into those light tan burrow mounds.
Even deer avoid getting close, preferring to stay far enough away from humans and dogs. That said, sometimes they come close to the road in evening hours and end up paying for it. Nature is nothing, if not cruel.
Still don’t know why she wouldn’t let me have that antler. I could have chewed on that puppy for ages.
On a morning walk before the snowstorm, Mom captured the Spanish peaks far to the south. Usually they’re pretty pale bumps from Grandpa’s house since they are over 102 miles way to the south of Pueblo West even though they range in height from 13,623 feet (4,152 m), to 12,708 feet (3,873 m).
We’re waiting for a couple of new fronts this weekend that will likely include a flurry or two. Seems like a good time to stay inside and may pull out some holiday decorations. This is the time of year where the house is filled with the scent of hot cocoa and evergreen boughs. Whatever you do, we hope you have a lovely weekend and spot some scenes from Nature. Stay safe and warm.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
It sure beats seeing this Silver Maple that didn’t fare nearly as well, with the owners cutting it all the way down. As you can see, the interior is quite hollowed out and even carving probably wouldn’t have made a difference. This is the biggest problem with Silver Maples here and the city has all but declared war on them and having homeowners remove them. Still, we can’t help but mourn the loss of any mature tree.
The orange light was stunning, if I do say so myself. Now if I can just get Mom to get some software to edit out those doggone electric and cable wires. What are you going do with moms some days?
Good Friday morning and welcome to another edition of Nature Friday where we join our pals 
