Gettin' off the couch and doing some hiking!

Steph and I were suffering from cabin fever from being cooped up all winter. So we decided that the best way to shake off the winter blahs was to get out and hike some trails near Golden. What helps is that Steph was a big winter at this years Banff Mt. Film fest. 'Radical Reels' tour.......

http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/tour/radicalreels/

Every year I go to watch cool videos but hope that I can win some cool stuff as well. Every year I come up empty handed but this year Steph won a stack of books from the Colorado Mountain Club on hiking in the Denver & Boulder area. I priced these same books at Barnes and Noble and they are worth about $150. Not bad! So we have been reading up on cool places to hike and I have been surprised by the trails so close to Denver but really are in nice areas away from road noise and such. I'm all about setting out for adventure (by the seat of your britches) but reading up on places before you go does have some advantages, like finding hidden 'gems' in places you never would think to find them. For about a month and a half we have been going out for a 3 hour hike once a week. We had to take one weekend off because of bad weather. We've been seeing a lot of new places and racking up the mileage on our shoes!

This is a picture of Steph and I on top of Mt. Evans



Here is a picture of Maxwell Creek on the Maxwell Falls trail.


At the end of the "Alderfer/Three Sisters" hike we finally got to get a view of the...... Three Sisters. I can't say that we saw Alderfer though.

Beautiful weeds.

Mexican Thistle


Poppy Thistle


Datura

Although they are beautiful, they are considered weeds here in AZ.

You can buy seeds for the Datura from seed companies. In some parts it is grown as flowers.
Where the ground freezes deeper than hwere in AZ, the plants are an annual. Here in AZ. they are perenial. When we planted the agaves under the windows, we dug one up. It had a tuberous root that was on it's way to China. They are considered toxic but the birds eat the seeds and the wild pigs will eat the green seed pods. I have seen plants 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide covered with huge white trumpets. They are sometimes called Moonflowers because the flowers close up in the heat of day and open again in the evening. They are fertilized mainly by moths. They set on round prickly seed pods that can remain on the plant until the next spring befor bursting open. We have a number of them in the yard. Sweet smell.


The Poppy thistles grow all along the roadsides. In some places they will grow in the fields and yards. We don't have them in our yard. They are coveted by the honey bees. With so many of the plants, the bees must collect a lot of necter. When I took pictures of them they were swarming with honey bees. Very sweet smell.


The Mexican thistles are much shorter than the russian thistles and a whole lot pricklier. They have beautiful huge red flowers. A faint sweet smell and loved by the hummingbirds.

I will post some other flowering weeds in a later post....

Granny

Well blog me that!!

Wow!! did it ever cool down. I got the rest of my marigolds transplanted this AM. Phillip and I took advantage of the cool day to pick wild flower seeds. Some wild flowers are just starting to bloom. The daturas by the end of the driveway have buds on them but I noticed the ones in the neighbors yard are blooming like crazy. I planted some of them up closer to the house but the seeds didn't germinate. They may not have been mature enough when the plant died. It only have one seed pod on it and was dead when we got back from up north last year. There are lots of them blooming along side the road and I will get some more seeds from them after they dry up some. The penstemons are ready to pick and we got some. These are the pink ones. Saw some red and some fuchsia colored ones on the way to town so will have to get some of them next time we go to town. There are some purple flowers blooming on the way as well. Bushy and the flowers look a lot like spider wort. Real pretty. I got a picture of them a few years back but can't find it now. Have to get other picture I guess. Gotta get some of the daturas. Some people call them moonflowers. Have big white flowers that close up when it gets hot. The primroses are about bloomed out. Seeds not quite ready to pick.

Phillip is going to have to move a bunch of rocks so I can plant flowers next to the shop. I don't know if it will be too hot there or not. It might be for some flowers but not the daturas I think.

We have a jillyun hollyhocks that have come up but I doubt if they will flower this year. Maybe.

Have one plant from last year the pigs didn't get and it is blooming now, a deep red. Took all the cantaloupe and watermelon seeds from the ones we ate and planted them all over in the yard. Birds got some of them but the rest are doing good. I doubt that we will ever get anything from them because of the pigs and skunks but at least they are something green growing in the yard besides weeds. Got a big black kitty from the thrift store and put him in the garden. The chard eaters have stayed clear of the chard for the time being. I told Phillip to move him every time he waters so the birds won't get used to him being in one spot and figure him out. There is a big black cat that hangs around and catches a few birds now and then. He likes to hang around the bird baths.

Rabbit ear cactus in the front yard have taken over the place. Had no idea they could get so big and spread out so far. They will have to be manicured one of these days. The barrel cactus have bloomed as well as the red and the pink ones. The staghorn has yet to bloom. It has orange flowers on it. The chardeaters have a nest in it. Don't know what kind of birds they are but they are quite small and have green on their backs and have yellow chests. Cute little devils but hell on chard. We saw them up in the willows by the pond we stayed at in Alder, MT. and up at Charlie creek. We have a pair of tanagers nestin the the hackberry tree in front of the house. They eat a lot of the berries on the tree. We have hackberry trees coming up all over the place because the robins didn't show up this spring migrations and eat them. Usually have a huge flock of them come through and clean up all the berries.

Phillip said dinner about ready....Granny

Hot or cold..... That is the question.

It went from winter one week to extreme heat the next. New heat records set in Flagstaff. Also new heat records set in Las Vegas. Here on the bench it has been running in the high 80's and 90's.

It was overcast yesterday so I transplanted out some of the petunias, pinks and marigolds. Hot today but all but one marigold looks ok. Got lots more flowers to transplant out so hoping for another overcast day to get it done.

The monsoon season should be here pretty soon, unless some quirk in the weather screws it up too. I hope to have all the flowers transplanted by then. Fingers crossed.

Got new tomatoes, and pepper plants and they are doing good so far. A few potatoes are starting to come back from the frost but Phillip will have to replant more. Last year we were eating new potatoes by this time. We did have our first batch of chard, and the radishes are all eaten and the new one are coming right along. I don't know how they will do in the heat. Peas are setting on good so we will have peas next week. No new potatoes to eat with them though.
I doubt if there will be any even when the beans are ready.

Gripe Gripe Gripe....That's what I do best. Granny