Spring in the mountains

 We've made it back to Star Mt.! It is early spring here with snow on the peaks and patches of snow on the ground still. Temps still regularly go below freezing so we cannot plant flowers or herbs yet. The aspen trees are leafing out by the day and the first wildflowers are popping up. It is an amazing time of year to watch.

The Castles

Carbon Peak

The deer and elk are out in full force. These are pregnant females with their year old calves and fawns who will give birth in a month or so in our woods. The dads are nowhere to be seen at this time of year.

Crested Butte is very quiet since it's still off season and look at that snow! The winter snowfall was good but we'll still need decent rainfall through the spring/summer to not fall short. We are part of the western states that suffer from drought depending on the year. Water is a very precious commodity here. Crossing fingers for some drips from the sky.

Dusky Grouse

Heard coyote calls in the night, birds are busy making nests, and more smallish creatures (chipmunks marmots, ground squirrels) are appearing every day. A very special place on earth and we're excited to be back.

Montecito wedding and wonderful family visit

Santa Barbara

Back after a whirlwind California wedding trip and an immediate great visit with Tiffany, Chris and the girls. 

California coast - we crossed from east coast to west

seals

with good friends Jamie and Lowell

man with pet turtles - a California thing?

our group before the welcome party

What a wonderful trip seeing friends and celebrating the wedding of the oldest daughter of longtime friends. We had time to sightsee in between wedding events and enjoyed wonderful hospitality with winery visit, golf for the guys, restaurant visits, and a spectacular outdoor welcome party. All a lead up to the main event: the wedding in Montecito.

And what a wedding this was! A gorgeous lavish affair held at the Rosewood Miramar. a good time had by all.

And this pretty much sums up the Walker visit. Water, water, and water. They needed a slowdown after being at Disney. So great to see the family. And Mark was around, just not at the beach. I of course was the invisible photographer. Til next time...

Finally our Maryland visit

⚘SPRING⚘

Back so soon? Yup, a long anticipated trip to Maryland to see Heather, Brian, and the kids. We hadn't seen them in a year and a half!

Aubrey and Braden - beautiful and amazing grandchildren.

As you can see a lot of silliness and laughing came with the visit. It took no time for the kids to warm up after some hesitation at first. We were strangers to them after so long. Lots of active games including the best one- bury Granddaddy under stuffed animals and then fling more at his head. We'd been told Braden had quite an accurate aim with his arm. Yes indeed....

This is currently the wet, wet early spring state of the backyard. Seriously, where's the boat? Every yard I could see was in the same condition. Heather is super resourceful and ordered these amazing rainsuits for the kids. Thumbs up on water play. We did not have anything that would work under these conditions so watched from the deck.

We wore everyone out I think, but the visit was great and meant everything to us. Hooray for family...

Beach, Matlacha, and botanical gardens

 I took some time off of posting but I'm back. After I had two questions in a week asking "where was I?" I figured I better jump back in. Hard to believe it's late in March. It's fair madness here in the height of season. We've had company off and on, traveled a bit (actually leaving for Maryland Thursday to finally visit Heather and family) and more to come.

Sherry and I had so much fun going to a little redone fishing village north of us - Matlacha. Cute stores, art galleries, and fresh fish at the local restaurant. While we played Paul and Mark were working hard at swinging the golf clubs to win their flight in the member/guest tournament. Always a great time when they visit whether it's Florida or Colorado.

I also took Sherry to the Naples Botanical gardens to see the thousands of exotic plants. It was unseasonably hot (89) but we enjoyed anyway. I don't know about anyone else's area but ours cannot stay on the norm. We're either breaking records for heat or cold and not many days that have regular temperature in between. Oh well, just adapt I guess....