Stopping to smell the flowers

WARNING!!! The following post is FILLED with FLOWERS.  If you have allergies, please leave now.

Longmont is so beautiful right now, with bulbs and trees a bloomin', so Jo and I decided to take a little walk around the block to enjoy the gorgeous flowers.  It really has been a long winter, so, now that Spring's finally here, we want to soak it up. These are the tulips in front of our place.


And this is a shot of the breath-takingly beautiful trees that are blooming all over Longmont right now.  I think they're flowering crab-apple, but I'm not entirely sure.  Regardless, I look forward to these beauties every year, so I'm in heaven right now.  We took a stroll down our street to snap these shots.

And, not only are they stunning to look at, but they smell good too!

This little bee agreed.

The flowers range from white to bright pink.  I think the pink ones are my favorite, but the white ones are lovely as well.  Very angelic looking, methinks.

Jo's so good to me.  I kept telling him, "Jo, smell the flowers! Smell the flowers!"  And, like a good boyfriend, he obliged.

Another bee shot.  I'm obsessed with bees, just as much am I'm obsessed with these flowering trees.

And I'm obsessed with Jo just as much as I'm obsessed with bees and flowering trees.

This is one of the lampposts that run up and down 3rd Ave.  I love the way it looks with the flowers.  It's always reminded me of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

And here's The Boy, looking so handsome amidst the flowering boughs.

And just a few more pics of the blooming trees...

I asked Jo to give the dandelions a sniff for me, and he didn't know about the sweet little flower in his hair.

We came across these beauties as we were walking down the street.  We walked up a random driveway to get a few shots, but luckily no distraught owner came out with a shotgun, so we were okay.

And we eventually made our way back to our place, where we took a few more shots of the lovely tulips out front.

 I lovelovelove the color of these!

Jo and I weren't quite ready to go back inside, so we decided to head down to good ol' Old Mill Park to see how things were looking down there.  Along the way we stopped to enjoy the flowering bushes in the lot next to our apartment.

This wasn't a bush, but another type of flowering tree that was just outside of Old Mill.  Following the theme of the day, Jo gave it a nice big sniff...

And found out that it smelled foul.  I gave it a whiff myself, and can verify how nasty this thing smelled.

Here's how Old Mill is looking right now.  Lovely.  Just lovely.

We strolled around the park for a bit, then took a break from all the strenuous flower-sniffing and layed out on the lush grass.

This is the view from where we were laying.

We hated to go, but eventually we needed to get back, so we took a few last shots of the spring flowers in the park...

And took a few last sniffs...

And then we went home.  Lesson of the day: TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE FLOWERS!!!!!

Springtime in the park

It has been a long, long winter, and Jo and I are thrilled to death that spring has finally sprung.  We both had some spare time, which has been a rarity for us lately, so we decided to head on down to the little park behind our place and soak up the springiness.  The birds were singing and it was a warm day, making it impossible not to feel good.  I do love winter, but, boy, am I glad it's just about decided to leave and let spring take a turn at the reins.





Here's Jo posing for me.  Even though the trees haven't budded yet, the grass was green and flowers were blooming.

These little blueish purpleish flowers Jo's looking at were so charming.

And there were many blooming branches that had just opened and were looking lovely.

An exposed bird's nest in the tangled vines crawling along the fence.

And a shot of one of the tucked away corners of the park.  Actually, this picture makes it look like a creepy axe murderer lives in Old Mill Park, but in real life this shack is less scary and more charming.

And here he is, the proud senior!  No, I'm not calling Jo old.  I am, however, calling him cheesy as all hell, what with the "I'm in the last year of highschool and I'm posing for my senior photo" pose he's striking here.  Don't worry, folks.  This was intentionally dorky.

Some random shots of the pretty flowers in the park.

And some more.

And a few more.

We took advantage of the cool front LCD screen on our Samsung to get this shot.

And, a few more flower shots.  What can I say?  I like them.

Then we played around with taking some "detached heads" shots.  Don't ask.

Both of us are feeling giddy with the green and flowers and warm weather and bees and grass and SPRING!

Even if we're not too sure about each other...

Our obsession with Lost

We. Can't. Stop. Watching. This. Show.

That is all.

Hall Ranch

Jo and I have been so busy with school and work that we have not had many opportunities to go out hiking together. We couldn't take it any longer, and decided to go on a short hike at Hall Ranch, a trailhead in Lyons which is only about 30 min. from our house. I had to be at work at 2:00, so we were tight on time, but we decided to do our best...





This is a very popular trailhead and it can be a muddy mess when there's a lot of rain or melting snow, but luckily, today, trail conditions were good, so we were ready to go.

First though, we had to take care of some business.  And, by business, I mean dumping a squashed squirrel we had picked up on the road on the way over out of the plastic bag it was being kept in and leaving it behing a bush a little ways off the trail.

Don't ask.  R.I.P, little squashed squirrel.


Hall Ranch is a rather arid environment, which is interesting because it's so close to the mountains. The trail goes way back, but since we didn't have much time we weren't able to make it all the way back yonder, to the top of this mesa. Oh, well, maybe another day.







Some random B&W shots of the trail. I am obsessed with dead branches- there is something about them that is just so beautiful to me. Especially when they are in B&W.



We see deer all the time around this area, but this is the first time we've been able to zoom in on them, seesing as we have the Canon now. We took advantage of the zoom lens to capture this youngin'. Jo made a good point: its ears are about as big as they're going to get, even though it has a lot of growing to do.


A few more shots of deer...

And a few more...

I really do wish we had had more time to explore this trail. Like most trails, this one is fairly busy at the trailhead and gets less crowded the farther back you go. We pass by this trailhead all the time, but we really do need to take more time to get to know it better. We did, however, have time to get to know this rock fairly well.




And there's always time for Jo to stop and observe some random detail he finds on the trail.

We came across these two ravens flying in tandem. So fun to watch. The swooped and dived together, and eventually drifted off into the distance.

Perhaps this is where they come home to at night?

Another thing I lovelovelove, besides dead branches, is exposed birds' nests. I like 'em in all shapes and sizes. Little itty bitty nests made of hair and feathers, and bigger ones made with twigs, like this one.

We came across a little stream along the way. Where the water wasn't flowing there was a thick layer of green algae.

And, a few more random shots. A jet and, surprise, surprise; more dead branches!

This is about as far as we got before we had to turn back. At least we got the pretty view before having to turn around.

And these last shots are not as random as you might think. Jo and I are gearing up for wildflower season, and we needed to get an idea of how the Canon would perform with the close up shots. This little succulent was the perfect stand-in for the wildflowers that will follow. We are still figuring out the lens, but with a little practice we should be fine.