Winter day in Cripple Creek

There are a lot of small nice towns in the mountains. And most of them look alike... but they are still not the same. They all have quiet curvy streets, small houses, trees... But each has something that makes them unique. Probably this is why we really enjoy spending time exploring small towns.

Cripple Creek is a tiny cozy mining town...It has a rich history, but let's not talk about it now and just walk along the streets and have a first impression of this place. If you enter the town from the West, you drive up and down jumping from one hill to another. And you see a small house or two sitting on the top of each hill... And trees... If you choose the right weather, the trees are covered with snow and everything looks like a fairy tale...

 

Cripple Creek, Ice Sculpture Festival, 2020

Cripple Creek is a great place if you want to escape from a busy city life. It's also an amazing spot to spend a few relaxing hours enjoying the atmosphere of the old mine town. It is sleepy and empty during most of the year, but twice a year this town becomes center of life. It's full of people and feels busy and even a bit crazy. And it always happens in February, when the town hosts the Ice Sculpture Festival. The second time it attracts a lot of people happens during Donkey Derby in June...

 

What color do you like more?

Can I ask you a question? Do you mind? No... so... what color do YOU like more?

I know that the answers vary... We all have different preferences... But what if I make this question more complex... Flowers of what color you like more? I guess now we have even more answers and they would be not as simple as before... What about red flowers? Specifically red roses? Do you like them?

 

Morning walk...

Saturday morning wasn't toasty... but it still was hot. The morning dew still was watering Morning Glory flowers and everything promised another exhausting Summer day...

 

Winter is here!

The snow started late yesterday. And continued all night without a stop. And in the morning everything looked just like Winter finally stopped by ;)

 

White, light and cool

Do you have a time machine? No? What's a pity... I have one, by the way. Don't believe me? Look at the pictures below...

 

Flowers non stop

I know, I know... it is February and not many blooming flowers can be found outside... But the Summer pictures could change it and bring the memories about nice and warm weather, about the flowers that were all around the lawns, streets and fields nearby. So let's turn on our time machine and jump back to July...

 

Once upon a time... quiet Saturday in Golden...

I think everyone at least once in their life feels dejavu... You know, the feeling like this already happened to you before and you relive it again. In fact, I feel it quite often when I visit nice small towns... The weather is the same, the views are the same, even the people look the same. I was looking at the pictures I've taken a year ago (in February 2020) and thought that I could go to Golden and take exactly the same pictures today. The weather would be the same, everything would be just the same... the colors, the feeling, the streets...

 

Snow Sunday

Colorado weather... It is nice, but can be rough... It is pleasant, but might be changing rapidly... It is Colorado weather ;)

It was nice and warm just the day before yesterday (check here Dry goods...). 45 degrees and sun made this day really warm and nice. Even a gray sky afternoon didn't make us think about weather change. So when the snow started to powder the ground lately we didn't flinch. But the morning brought us a surprise - everything was white and a thick layer of snow covered all things around - the houses, the lawns, the trees...

 

Dry goods...

It's February and everything looks dried and lifeless. It is not exactly true, but the impression is quite strong. But it is also interesting to look at these dried things and make them alive again, probably only in your mind, but still...

Looking from this angle all I can think about is a shooting star. That flew all the way from the skies and found a peace decorating this amazing (but quite prickly) flower ;)

 

Christmas Lights in Botanic Garden

Winter night is an interesting time... Especially at the end of December. And particularly if you have a chance to walk in the Denver Botanic Garden ;)

 

Quiet winter Saturday

That was a nice winter Saturday. Really quiet and peaceful. The overnight snow covered the ground and trees and made everything look just amazing...

 

Red, yellow and purple...

Why red, yellow and purple you can ask... No good reason, I guess. These are the most common colors for the flowers and I decided to restrict this story to only those. And let's start from the red. It is bright... it is attractive and grabs your attention immediately. But in combination with yellow and black it becomes even better, aren't you agree?

 

Winter macro

It was a gloomy winter day... You know, one of the days when everything is gray and looks just the same and nothing really catches your attention. You can call this day boring... until you change your point of view.

 

Table Mountain, light hike one Saturday in May

We all know the weather here in Colorado is unpredictable. And also sometimes it brings surprises like snowfall in May, for example. Right, that happened a few years ago and there was a few inches of snow in Denver overnight. Next day the hot sun quickly melted the snow blanket and everything looked nice and green again.

 

Winter. Colorless details.

The art of photography is relatively young. Just under two hundred years old. Not surprisingly, it wasn't the same during all these years. And most of the time the pictures were colorless. Even 40-50 years ago we still mostly lived in the world of black-and-white pictures and no one felt bad about that. Now we cannot even imagine to see the picture with the color stripped off but... Sometimes the black and white is an interesting option to explore.

 

Winter. Small details.

Right. It is a Winter and not much interesting can be found on the streets. I mean... no flowers, no green grass and leaves. But... Let's see if we can find something to capture... Some small details, for example...

What about brown leaves on the deep blue background? This is something you cannot find during Summer walks...

 

Brek at night

We like Breckenridge. Nice place to come in Summer, or Winter, or Spring, or Fall ;) It is nice to come here in the morning or afternoon. And it is definitely a good place to walk around at night in the Winter...

 

Breckenridge Snow Sculptures Festival 2020.

This event happens every January, just not sure about 2021 ;( but it was a good time in January 2020 to go to Breckenridge and see snow sculptures. Instead of going during the day, we decided to try evening. And... looks like that was a good decision as we didn't have any traffic at all on our way there. And we arrived just in time - figures looked even more mysterious in dusk light.

 

The last farewell. Hawaii, part 20

To read previous part Goodbye, Hawaii! Part 19

Right... we already said goodbye and left the island. But I want to bring one more topic to complete our story - the place where we stayed. We had this trip in April, the time just between the seasons. We found an affordable hotel and booked it for 11 nights we planned to stay there.

 

Goodbye, Hawaii! Part 19

To read previous part Smith's Garden Luau. Hawaii, part 18

This was the last day of our very short trip to Kauai. We had a few hours before the plane so we spent this time saying goodbye to all the places we fell in love there. 

 

Smith's Garden Luau. Hawaii, part 18

To read previous part Morning and evening. Hawaii, part 17

That was a really nice day but now is the time to take a step back and spend some time in a garden. I know what are you thinking now - another garden? Really? Didn't they have better things to do there? And the answer is - yes, another garden and it is a good place to spend time when you are in Hawaii.