What do we do...

What do we do with the drunken sailor?
What do we do with the drunken sailor?
What do we do with the drunken sailor?

Early in the morning!

Way hay and up she rises, 

Way hay and up she rises, 

Way hay and up she rises, 

Early in the morning!

Oops, wrong start! Let's try it again... 

What do we do when we have a day off and it happens to be a Tuesday? Obviously... we wake up early, have a quick breakfast, and drive forty minutes through the morning traffic to reach a trailhead. Not just any trailhead, but the Morrison trailhead of Mount Falcon Park. I hiked this trail a couple of years ago and decided it was time to do it again. Right from the start, the views were stunning, and I had a really good feeling about the day ahead.

 

Water Lilies' Kingdom

I'm not sure I've ever seen so many water lilies in the ponds of the Denver Botanic Garden. There are always plenty of them, but this year feels truly special. And I know, I know... this yellow columbine isn't exactly a water lily :) But let's be honest, there are plenty of other flowers around, and it's hard to walk past them without stopping to snap a photo or two...

 

Bright morning on Barr Lake

What happens when you arrive somewhere before sunrise? Well... you wait... because without light, there is no photography :) But sometimes you can find something else to do while waiting. Perhaps have a bite to eat and fuel yourself for the hike ahead...

 

Sunday morning in Hudson Gardens

Hudson Gardens & Event Center is one of those places where you immediately feel at home. Flowers, ponds, and winding paths give it a cozy and welcoming atmosphere.

 

Quiet morning...

Well, there is nothing better than wandering through the Denver Botanic Garden before it is open to the general public...

 

Columbines in the gardens...

By the end of May, the Denver Botanic Garden is finally in full bloom. Everywhere you look there are bright colors, fresh foliage, and flowers competing for attention. It feels as if the entire garden suddenly woke up and decided to put on a show.

 

Blackbird day

The last time I visited Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge, I didn't see many birds (click here to refresh your memory - Water, trees, birds... animals too ;)). But there were plenty of blackbirds, and last Sunday I fully expected to find them there too ;) So, I started the morning with a walk around Lake Ladora…

 

All the different colors...

Sometimes I am not even sure why I do it again - getting up early and going to Denver Botanic Garden to take another dozen photographs of flowers. The same flowers. Again. But then I remember how beautiful they are in the morning light and... well... I know exactly why I want to do it again :)

 

Mostly irises...

One nice, sunny morning... I was walking along the paths of Denver Botanic Garden, taking pictures of everything bright and beautiful... like these California poppies...

 

It feels like May now

After a crazy February, an even more bizarre March, and a somewhat ordinary April, this spring hasn’t quite felt right. And the snowfall a couple of weeks ago certainly didn’t help. But now… it finally does. Even though many flowers seem to be blooming a little ahead of schedule, everything finally feels as if it’s happening at the right time.

 

Blackbirds... steel birds… all kind of birds...

Cherry Creek State Park is a great place to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday (click here to see a previous hike there from a couple of years ago - Mountains and trees). And it’s an even better place for birdwatching… or simply admiring the mountains :)

 

Sunny morning

Well... not much story to tell. Just a peaceful morning in the Denver Botanic Garden.

 

Water, trees, birds... animals too ;)

That morning, a week ago, turned out to be cold and cloudy. An interesting combination for late April... But by 9am the clouds had parted and blue sky lured me to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge, where I hoped to find something interesting...

 

Cloudy day and an old friend...

It was another cloudy Saturday morning, and we were wandering through the Denver Botanic Garden really enjoying the rare day with almost no sun. The tulips were still in bloom and it was a nice thing to see..

 

Surprise, surprise...

Mid-April is a perfectly normal time for snow. It’s Colorado, after all, and I honestly can’t remember a spring when a sudden snowfall didn’t take a toll on the flowers. Still, we always hope this year will be different. The forecast did mention a hard frost, but who really trusts the meteorologists, right? So we were genuinely surprised when snow started falling last Friday with great enthusiasm and didn’t stop until the afternoon. The accumulation was just under an inch, but it was enough to affect the flowers at Denver Botanic Gardens.

 

Cloudy morning

The morning turned out to be chilly and cloudy. Usually, on a Saturday morning, everyone craves sunshine, but we didn't complain, on the contrary, we were actually glad for the clouds - photographing flowers is much easier in soft light.

 

Daffodils, tulips and...

...other flowers :) Let's just wander around and look at the flowers that can be found at the Denver Botanic Garden...

 

Chilly Morning…

Mornings in April can be chilly. Not truly cold, but just enough to make you pause for a second before stepping outside. Still, nothing could stop one from heading to the Denver Botanic Garden in search of spring blooms. And, oh boy, it didn’t take long to find the first subject to capture ;)

 

Denver in Blue

I was in Denver with a couple of hours to spare… and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t walked downtown in years. There were plenty of reasons, first COVID-19, then the 16th Street Mall renovation project, not to mention parking headaches and crowds. Well, I decided it was time to change that. I grabbed my camera and headed out, wandering the streets and looking for what had changed.

 

Twist of weather...

Living here in Colorado for so long, you’d think we wouldn’t be surprised by its sudden mood swings. Just two weeks ago, the weather shifted dramatically - from warm and pleasant to full-on snow (click here to see that story - Two Days, Two Weathers…), ending with feet of snow covering the ground and flowers (click here to refresh your memory - Beauty of Snow...)... So why were we surprised again last weekend, when everything changed overnight? A beautiful, warm Saturday turned into a bitterly cold Sunday.

 

From flowers to wilderness

I left Denver Botanic Gardens, where I had spent a couple of hours looking at plants buried in snow (click here if you’ve forgotten what I found there - Beauty of Snow...), but decided against heading straight home. I was curious to see how much snow the plains had received, so I drove to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge to follow the Wildlife Drive. My first stop was right at the beginning, where I took a picture of my favorite trees just uphill :)

 

Beauty of Snow...

Last time I wrote about the crazy Colorado weather - when one day the sun shines brightly and the next day snow covers everything (you can find that post here - Two Days, Two Weathers…). On Friday, roughly a foot of snow fell across most of the area, and on Saturday I simply couldn’t stay home. So… you guessed it - I drove to the Denver Botanic Garden to see how much damage the snow had caused. Everything was covered with a thick blanket of snow. Everything. Leaves were poking through the snow here and there and, surprisingly, they actually looked pretty cool - bright patches of color breaking through the endless white.

 

Two Days, Two Weathers…

It was a surprisingly warm Thursday, so I drove up to the mountains to spend some time in the woods. Before starting my hike, I stopped at the Buffalo Overlook to see if the bison were around. And they were :)

 

Blooms in February...

Yes… it still feels a bit crazy that flowers are blooming even though it’s only the end of February. I had been watching them for two weeks (click here to refresh your memory - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), but back then they were small and hesitant, as if unsure whether it was really their time to appear. But last Saturday the flowers had no doubts anymore. They were growing confidently, looking as if it were already the end of March rather than the last days of February.

 

Birds, Mountains, Lake...

Early Sunday morning, I left my car in the parking lot and walked toward the lake. Just a few yards down the trail, I was greeted by a small group of house sparrows wandering about. The tiny birds were perched in the middle of a large bush, chatting to one another. It was such a pleasant encounter, they instantly lifted my mood.