We ventured up to Salida, CO for a short birthday expedition. The beautiful Arkansas River flows past downtown and there are lots of wonderful views of big mountains.















We ventured up to Salida, CO for a short birthday expedition. The beautiful Arkansas River flows past downtown and there are lots of wonderful views of big mountains.















Another critter collection that includes our resident one-legged thrasher we’ve named Peg and the family of bobcats that Joan photographed. It’s also getting colder and the tarantulas are strolling long the roads in their annual migration.










Clearing out my backlog of movies and photos from the end of August’s weather and sky shots.















We watched a demonstration on paper marbling by our friend Tom Leech at the celebration of our library’s 25th anniversary. Marbling is a process of dropping dye onto water and then carefully laying down paper to create the marbled patterns. Later we visited the Museum of International Folk Art for an exhibition of art coffins from Ghana and then on to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture where we saw a nicely decorated Triumph.













In a bid to shake off our doldrums and take advantage of a relatively smoke free day, we journeyed up to our favorite Holy Ghost Creek. Unfortunately, we found it was pretty smokey the higher up we drove. So we found a nice spot off the road, had a picnic, watched some mule deer pass by and meditated on the sounds of the creek. On past trips, we’ve noticed areas for the road where the hillside is protected by metal fence posts. This is where the rare Holy Ghost Ipomopsis flowers are located (last image below). It’s only found along this 2 mile stretch of road and is undergoing a recovery effort by volunteers and the Forest Service.










Latest collection of smoke plumes, clouds and sunsets.











