Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees

So much blooming and so much life exploding here. We have two bluebird nests, one with baby birds chirping. the other under construction, and of course the slightly deranged robins. I am staying away from this area as much as possible. The hummingbirds are right on schedule with a lull at the feeders while they feast on the massive amount of wildflowers and build their nests.

The elk are around every corner in singles with babies appearing. As I walk most of the time in the morning when you are most likely to see them I've had to change my route multiple times to avoid very upset elk mothers. They sort of honk at you when they're in their protective mode. Soon they will, at some mysterious signal, gather back together with all the babies and disappear until fall. Happens like clockwork every year. We love seeing the babies and so far we have one not very good photo. Because of that, I have posted two pictures from last June that I took from our living room windows at the bottom of this series. Magic...

Leery mama

Baby way upper left

Another mama this morning heading for her baby in our woods

The flowers are amazing more popping out every day. Wild iris are out, sunflowers are starting and lupine and larkspur still going strong. Plus the dandelions, fields and fields of them. Apparently they are wonderful for our bees, and no one seems to mow them down, so helping in this bad time for bees with colony collapse and wild species nearing extinction. Food for thought, scientists now think the systemic pesticides put in seedlings and plants sold in nurseries may be a major factor. Of course I read this after we bought our hanging baskets and flowers for the deck. Whoops, try for organic next time...

Trout pond going smoothly. There have been no dead fish sightings and they are quite lively at feeding time. Mark has tried to use his fly rod out there once so far, with no luck yet. It may be a salmon egg pond, we'll see. There are certainly a lot of creatures already living in it, salamanders, tadpoles, and leeches of all things, ick.

The deer are everywhere, and many more young bucks than I remember in the past few years. Can't imagine why.

Projects are slowly being completed around here. One particularly nasty one was getting the gravel out of the grasses that had been flung there by snow removal equipment, and back onto the driveway. Many hours of manual labor with shovel and rake, at least I didn't need to worry about using my weights (which I do not like at all).

"Our" historic mining cabin -half is anyway, wow, every winter condenses it further

Late breaking news, Mark just got back from the trout pond and this time caught 3 good size rainbows. So all is good over there (and of course he threw them back - trying not to keep them, since they will not reproduce).
Off to dinner in Gunnison at a new place, Blue Mesa Grill, which is getting some very good reviews. And I will need to do some packing tomorrow. I leave for Virginia for a week, with a short side trip to CO Springs to visit George and Linda, on Monday. I'm coming Penny and Juliet!!