Garden Magic

While I was out of town, wonderful people (Meg & Rick) prepared my dahlia beds.  Once the ground was ready, they proceeded to plant ALL of the tubers.  Of course, the four-legged family (Annie, Oakleigh, Pickles and Wilson) supervised the process making sure the "special formula" was applied correctly.  Although I did notice some rather large craters in the special Colorado raised bed-probably Doakie chasing the frisbee.

Pictures taken while the folks worked on the homefront:

Ah...this is the life!

What can I eat next?

Hey, wanna fly?

Nothing like a good stretch!!

Just doing my "dance"

Very bright!!

I'm watching YOU!

I am happy!!

Found the Big Horn sheep.... at the zoo

Exploring the Denver Zoo turned into a long journey.  On a map, it looks rather small and thought we would just need a couple of hours-WRONG!! After six hours and many pictures later, we finally finished exploring ALL the exhibits.  Unlike the Oregon Zoo, the habitats allowed you the experience for a very "up close and personal" interactions with the displays.  The Big Horn sheep herd within the Rocky Mountain National Park typically wonder through on almost a daily basis a specific area, unfortunately during our stay at the park they were being bashful-so it was exciting to see them at the Denver Zoo.

My better profile

African bird

Are you done with that photo yet?

Please come see me @ Denver Zoo

Blooming Lillies and MORE!

Each bloom is a different variety of lily.

Standing "on guard"

With the arrival of summer, the lillies from Sun Valley Farms in Arcata, CA are busting out in bloom!!  A historical note regarding the Sun Valley business is that it is located on the farm my sister-in-law grew up on.  An exciting experience was searching for bumblebee nests in the fields with a entomologist from New Zealand. Did you know there are 26 species and none were native?  Red clover can only be pollinated by the bumblebee and thus were imported originally from New Zealand (at least that is what the professor told me while we were walking the cow pastures). Funny how youth adventures have become a lifelong learning opportunity.  My enjoyment of the outdoors was fostered very early with my family.

Mt. Evans, CO-it was a very "natural high" venturing to the top of this mountain.  Yes, it was very cold!!

As we climbed higher the trees echo the conditions.

Mountain Goat checking out the photographer (Josh)

Summit Lake?? 

14, 234 feet above sea level!!