Before the bath

In Colorado, we tend to get some late Spring snowstorms that come in, drop several inches of heavy, wet snow, and then move off rather quickly. It's great for watering our newly-awakened spring lawn... but tends to make something of a mud-pen in the parts of our backyard that aren't covered in grass.

A few Mondays ago, I woke up to a gorgeous sight. The storm had snuck in overnight and let loose with snowflakes, and the city was just blanketed. In fact, it snowed for several more hours that morning, I think we ended up with about 5 inches all told.

(Oh, please pardon the reflection of the lamp in that picture. I took this shot at 5-something in the morning and it was too cold to go outside in bare feet! I guess there really are some lengths I just WON'T go to for a good picture, hahaha. )

Not being sure what the weather would be like, I kept Keena inside that morning, and headed off to work. At lunchtime, I zoomed back home so she could be outside for a bit. By then the skies were mostly clear and it was much warmer, so I thought it might be a good idea to leave her outside in the backyard while I was at work for the afternoon. That way she could play in the snow and have fun outside. At least, that was my plan.

Then I came home to this mud-ball of a dog!

Hmm, so it turns out that the really heavy, wet Spring snows also tend to melt rather fast... and in doing so, softens the earth quite a bit, so that digging is the MOST FUN EVER. There was a sizeable hole in the yard over by the well-head... and she was out-of-control hyper.

Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard at the sight of her when I got home, I think she was a little embarassed! But, we went on our afternoon walk anyway, with me giggling about it pretty much the whole way.

I had to pick Chuck up at the airport later that evening, so we didn't have time for a thorough bath. But Keena and I DID spend several minutes in the bathtub, washing the worst of the mud off.
I was kinda sorry to see mud-dog go, she was fun.

It must still be Winter...

...because the Canada Geese are still hanging out in our front yard!

It's fun to watch them splash around in the snow melt by the street.

Chukani took Keena for walks around the big park down the street a couple times a week throughout this past winter, and at times we would see flocks of several hundred geese at once, hanging out on the flat grassy areas. Lately it's only been a few dozen at a time. So I think a good portion of the Canada Goose population has already started their trek back home for the year. But with all the snow we've seen in the last several weeks... I'm hoping they don't decide to linger too long.

The birdseed feeders in our front yard are certainly attracting more than just the little finches and songbirds I was expecting. In addition to the aforementioned geese, we get woodpeckers coming to visit, a few pigeons now and again, and even a couple neighborhood squirrels who climb the pole and shake the feeders to get at the bird seed and sunflower seeds. Those squirrels are little rascals!

I do enjoy the Canada Geese coming to visit, except for when they decide to lay down in the flower beds out by the street. Pat and I planted tons of bulbs there last fall, and I don't want the tulips and daffodils to get squashed by a goose-tush, if ya know what I mean.





These pics are from a couple Fridays ago while I was home from work. One of the geese was a bit territorial about "his" puddle and was chasing everyone away that tried to come near.

Here he is enjoying his private bath:

And here he is sqwaking at a possible interloper!

I was standing pretty close watching the geese toodle around, and none of them seemed to mind me at all. Now, that's not to say that I would ever actually approach one of them, as I've seen how fast they can move, and I have no intention of getting bitten, or... (oh, you know it's coming...) GOOSED! hahaha

Sorry, that was a bit corny I know, but someone had to do it.

As I was wandering around outside for the goose photo-shoot, I saw that the kids across the street had built a little snow man (more of a snow-mound with eyes and a hat!) since the snow was so wet and heavy. Then I saw that our next-door neighbor decided to take the inspiration and go a little farther...

His snow monster was enormous! I think eventually he had a nice colorful hat on the snowman's head, and created a little friend by his side as well. I didn't have my camera with me for the final art installment, and unfortunately (luckily?!) the snowman didn't last more than a day under the Colorado sunshine.

Easter is next weekend, so Spring can't be too far away... I hope!

Blizzard '09... the day after

Good Morning my friends! Snowy Colorado is living up to it's name... We woke up this morning to a marshmallow-fluff world. It's a brisk 16 degrees out (brr) and the snow is still lightly falling.

The best news is that my agency is closed again today, so I have another day off without having to use vacation time. Yippee!

It's nice to have a break from work. I am helping my friend Samantha with her friend Megan's baby shower on Saturday, so I actually have several things to do and bake to get that ready, and now I won't have to stay up late tonight to get it all done. We are having an afternoon tea party, so I am making scones, tea sandwiches and cookies. We've got pretty teacups and teapots, fancy hats for the ladies to wear, and it's going to be a fun party.

So this morning I think we're going to make a nice big breakfast at home- eggs, bacon and maybe pancakes! Chukani will drink hot cocoa and watch a movie, and then when (IF?!) it warms up a bit and stops snowing, we'll bundle up and take Keena for a long walk in the snow.

Here are some more pictures of the snowy scenery from this morning... I know we've certainly had deeper snowfalls, but this is a doozy here nonetheless.



I think we've gotten about a foot of snow... it was so windy yesterday the high drifts are misleading.

Looks like Narnia to me!

Chuck promises we're not stuck here... we can get out just fine in the truck. (He doesn't know I was standing in snow above my knees to take this picture!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Spring Blizzard '09!

It's snowing in Denver today-- In fact we are in the midst of a Spring Blizzard! The weatherman says it is supposed to continue snowing throughout the day and overnight. I took these pictures at about 10:30 am, and there's already about 6 inches on the ground. Yeah! We sure do need the moisture here, and it's nice to have an unexpected day (or two) off from work.

I went in to work this morning (Chuck drove me actually) and then I called him and asked him to go get us a dozen doughnuts (since all the drivers were just hanging around the office as we were shutting down.) His efforts were VERY appreciated!! :) Then at a little after 9am, my boss sent us all home, so I called Chuck yet again and asked him to come get me. (thanks honey!)

We are home and playing in the snow with the dog now... fun times!

Hope you all have a great day wherever you are- snow or sunshine. :)

Snow Dog

Our siberian husky Keena sure loves the snow. She really enjoys playing in the deep snow up at the cabin, but even here in town... if there's only a couple inches on the ground, that's enough for her.

A few weeks ago we had some snowfall overnight, and the next morning chukani and keena went for a quick walk through the neighborhood. It was a beautiful morning, not as cold as you might think, and the sky was so bright and blue, just wonderful to see. I think the late winter snows in Colorado are great, because the storms usually blow through quickly and you are left with gorgeous scenery, cobalt blue skies, and temps nicely above zero. (a real plus!)

The backyard was just dusted with enough white to look pretty for a while, until the sunshine kissed it goodbye.

Keena was thrilled with the white stuff all over- she gets so hyper running around and playing fetch in the back yard. You can see that her footprints cover nearly every square foot of the yard!

Here she is by her water dish (a big ice cube really) and looking at me- probably wondering why I am standing there with the camera instead of going to get her fresh water. lol!

I can hardly believe she's nearly a year old already. Keena is an April Fool's puppy- born April 1, 2008. She's become such a part of our family since we got her last year over Memorial Day weekend. I think she is about full size now, less than 60lbs- which is great. She still likes to sit on our laps on the couch- she doesn't realize just how big she is... but luckily at her size it's still somewhat manageable. And I don't feel too squished when she jumps into my arms.

We still use the puppy gates to keep her in the back room. Funny thing is we just lean them up against the doorways... she could easily knock them over, or better yet leap over them- I've seen her make a standing jump higher than the little 2 foot high gates. But in her mind they are as imposing as a closed door. Keena certainly has a healthy respect for the little gates. And I intend for it to stay that way!

Lately, we've been moving one of the gates into the kitchen on our side. We still block her off from the rest of the house, (and away from the cats) but give her the run of the back room and kitchen. Keena seems to really like to be in there with us, like when I'm cooking dinner, or if we're doing dishes. I think we'll let her in the kitchen while we eat dinner in the dining room now- and see if that curbs her whining to be near us.
Hope you are all having a good week!

A cold, but beautiful sunrise

It snowed here in Denver over the weekend, and I absolutely love how everything looks all covered in white fluff!

Chuck normally takes Keena out for a walk each morning at about 5:30 am. He came down with a bad cold over the weekend and wanted to sleep in a bit Saturday, so I offered to take Keena for her "morning constitutional."

Since it snowed Friday night while we were over at Bill and Di's (we went over there for a game night with Bill and Donna, it was lots of fun) I stayed in bed until about 6:30 Saturday. I wanted to be closer to sunrise in hopes that it would be a tad warmer.

I sleepily bundled up against the cold, and got Keena on her leash and out the door.

BRR!! It was so cold... but the dog was oh so excited to be out in the white wonderland. We walked for about 40 minutes, and she just kept running and jumping through the snow whenever she could, it was so much fun to watch.

The sky got lighter and lighter, and as we rounded the last corner a block from home, the grey sky turned the most gorgeous color of salmon pink, it nearly took my breath away. All was so still and silent, it seemed like Keena and I were the only ones up. I could hardly believe the colors... the snowy landscape so bluey and white, with the sky just as pink as could be. And wherever the sunlight glanced off the snow, it made everything glow.

Pardon all the wires in this photo- I couldnt get a better shot and the light was fading with each passing second, so I snapped what I could before the sun rose up into the clouds and fog again.

The light on the Chinese Elm in Pat's front yard was so pretty!

This is my absolute favorite photo from that quiet frozen dawn. I think it was the best reward for getting up early on a day off. Just lovely!

Frolic and play the Eskimo way...

Yea! It's snowy at the cabin!!

Since we'd heard the mountains got lots of snow recently, Chuck and I took Friday off from work last week and took ourselves and Keena up to the cabin. Her first real snow... and of course she loved it, as any Siberian Husky would.

Brr- it was just above 20 degrees when we arrived Friday midday, and lightly snowing. See the "jack frost fingers" hanging over the eaves:

We really enjoyed the quiet time together, and Keena was such a good pup. While eating a leisurely breakfast this morning, Chuck and I both agreed that this was the best behaved she's been so far at the cabin. Partly because she's more used to it there, knows the routine and what's expected of her... and I'm sure it's also partly because she gets so much of our attention up there. We're with her all the time except for when she's sleeping in her crate at night, and when she's outside on the lead. With all the snow to play in, she mostly wanted to be outside during the day, and when she did come inside, she was so tuckered out from frolicking in the snow she just crashed out on the carpet. Yesterday afternoon she even napped with me on the couch after our walk, the first time she's been mellow enough to do that. It was very relaxing.

Here's a picture of Rabbit Ears Pass, from our view walking along the upper road near the cabin. If you look closely at the top right side- you'll see the rock formation making the "rabbit ears" as the snowy clouds drift by.



And here's a pic of a man and his dog:

It was about 40 degrees Saturday, and a bit warmer today before we left. The sun finally came out, and I bet the snow melts in the next day or two. But it was lovely to have a winter landscape for a bit! It's still Autumn here in Denver, we haven't had a metro snowfall yet, although I've heard we might get one soon enough.

I've really been enjoying the fall colors on the trees as I drive to and from work... and on our afternoon walks with Keena. It's good to stop once in a while and notice the changing seasons, time seems to travel so fast, and I tend to get to caught up in worrying about tomorrow and not just letting God be in charge and paying more attention to the "now." The snowfall this weekend made me realize just how close winter is, and how much I need to slow down and focus on today more so I don't miss out on all the amazing things around me right now.

Especially moments like this!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well. I've spent the last hour or so uploading a bunch of pictures from my camera (I had misplaced it for while, but it was under the couch cushion at the cabin!) so I have lots more to share from the last few months while I was "off the reservation"... so stay tuned!

Here's one last photo I just have to share... in contrast to all the snowy pics above. This is the flower bed in front of Pat's side of the duplex, I was so thrilled at how well it turned out this summer.

Enjoy!