The special days of late summer

Gorgeous weather with a thunderstorm or two thrown in. Makes for wildly atmospheric photos.The late wildflowers are starting to bloom with as much variety as the early. Only for a few more weeks.

view towards Ohio Pass road

The waterfall

We did another hike although this one was not completed up to the summit. Ohio Peak and while we made it 2/3 of the way, I was really the one responsible for the abort. Suddenly not feeling well, light-headed and breathing irregular. We turned around and went back down, and what I thought was a high altitude reaction turned out to be a some kind of virus that took me a couple days to shake off. Oh well, another time to do the summit.

Cows are fat and happy at Star Mt.

The mass of summer visitors is starting to die down. Lots of working people in action - haying and ranchers eagle eyeing their cattle. Can't hardly believe it, but school is starting soon in many places. We still have family coming the end of the month and mid Sept. which makes us very happy.

Hummingbirds are ferociously eating after a short lull. Going through a gallon of sugar water a day right now. The chipmunks and ground squirrels are training us to feed them on the deck. And if we don't move fast enough they start chomping on our pots of flowers. Ha. All the nests of birds under our deck are grown and flown away- two bluebird nests and the slightly kooky pair of robins. Actually no idea what happened with the robin baby birds. I made a vow not to watch since they were destined to fall out of the too small nest. Three fawn sightings only, one of them this morning. That is an extraordinarily small number for here.

Books read. I now realize I haven't reported since early July. Whoops.
Ruth Reichl - Delicious
Diana Gabaldon - Written in My Own Heart's Blood
Deanna Raybourn - A Spear of Summer Grass
Anna Jean Mayhew - The Dry Grass of August
Julia Reed - The House of First Street, My New Orleans story
All good, but the highlight definitely was Diana Gabaldon's latest. fyi her first, Outlander, is a mini series on Starz starting on 8/9. Can't wait!