Last From Colorado

Guess what? I got my big rig up and running . . . 

Not saying you won’t see any more photos from my Note II, but for the next few posts, I think I’ll stick with Nikon shots. Some photos will be repeats of photos taken with the Samsung. If one is interested, one could compare the two versions by going back to previous Note II-centric posts. 

Also . . . yup; you can click on the photo and have it open larger in a new window or tab. OR you can see them all in their original size in the SmugMug Gallery HERE.

The above shot is of one of our Parrot Tulips at our house in Colorado. These were shot in late May while in the middle of selling everything and while also packing a few belongings for mailing. They are the last flower shots from Colorado.

I know, I know . . . you want to see Hawai’i stuff. Well, there will be plenty of that over the next thirty or fifty years but for now, I want to use the roughly 1,300 photos I shot between the time I packed my PC and the time I unpacked it and set it up.  

Don’t worry, not all 1,300 will be in this post. 

But, back to Colorado and our yard  . . . one of the amazing things about Colorado is that we can still get snow in late May (some don’t exactly think that’s amazing) and then, by the middle of June, flowers are exploding all over the place. 

Not literally exploding, of course, although that would be interesting to see. A few years ago we planted tulips and daffodils because we wanted to see color in the yard during the month of May.

Mind you, they are sparse and clumped. The original plan was to add to them each fall, but the first year was kind of disheartening . . . read HERE and then HERE. That’s right . . . the snow had snapped many of the tulips and flattened the daffodils. I actually propped up the tulips with wires . . . well, crap, I certainly did not want to do that for hundreds of flowers.

Earlier this year, I tried a different approach. Before the last blizzard hit, I covered all of the flowers with buckets, empty pots, and any container large enough to safely cover the flowers. It worked and this year we had a good crop of both tulips and daffodils. Still, planting a lot of them would severely tax my ability to cover them. 

Oh, wait . . . I’m no longer there. Nevermind.

The grass still looks stressed, as it does every spring, but combined with some of the flowering groundcover the tulips do a decent job of presenting a show to people who walk or drive by. 

Funny thing . . . we had hoped that planting a lot of flowers would have a contagious effect on our neighbors. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few people, few of the subdivision’s homeowners cared enough to put the effort . Too bad. 

Back to the tulips . . . I don’t know if it was because they had not been mangled by heavy snow, but this year the tulips and daffodils did really well, lasting a good long time and even surviving a few hail storms.

Around this time — middle to late May — some of the shrubs are also flowering, although one would be hard-pressed to see them from the road. 

As impressive as the tulips are, the phlox is what catches most people’s eyes as they walk or drive in front of the house.

I did try, distracted as I was, to catch a few interesting compositions. 

Neat, huh? Ok, ok . . . it’s just mulch and rocks.

Or, is it!? 

These rocks . . . 

. . . are fake rocks. They are hollow. I would occasionally rearrange them, but I don’t think anyone ever noticed. 

By the way, tomorrow as I write this, Saturday, July 16th, will mark the one month anniversary of us leaving the mainland. It seems a long time ago . . . however, in the scheme of things, it’s but a blink of an eye. 

Now, back to the tulips and daffodils. 

Notice, I shot these near mid-day . . . supposedly a bad time to even look at a camera, let alone take photos with one. It’s all about the light, you see. Noon is about as far away as you can get from the “golden hour“.

Yet another big flag that I’m an amateur — and will remain one until I return to dust — is that I don’t particularly like the golden hour. To me, it seems as if the setting sun over-saturates everything, and the redder/softer light often detracts from the natural colors of whatever I’m photographing. 

To wit, these are what I consider the natural colors of these flowers . . . 

. . . are best seen in the full sun. 

By the way, while the daffodils lasted a long time — they are usually falling apart by the time the tulips are in bloom — they did show the signs of advanced age . . . stateliness, wisdom, and inner beauty born of experience and of a deep understanding of the universe and its workings. 

Seriously, in the previous two years, by late May the daffodils were sorry-looking, but these still manage a dignified look despite their advanced age. 

Anyway, I need to wrap this up and move on to the photos I took during our drive from Monument to San Diego. FYI, there are a few more photos tulips photos in the SmugMug gallery than are shown here, but here’s a few more just to make this an annoyingly long post. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

<><><><><><><><o><><><><><><><><><o><><><><><><><>

Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website.  Could be they also torture small mammals.

<><><><><><><><o><><><><><><><><><o><><><><><><><>

Please, if you are considering bestowing me recognition beyond commenting below, refrain from doing so.  I will decline blogger-to-blogger awards.   I appreciate the intent behind it, but I prefer a comment thanking me for turning you away from a life of crime, religion, or making you a better person in some other way.  That would mean something to me.

If you wish to know more, please read below.

About awards: Blogger Awards
About “likes”:   Of “Likes”, Subscriptions, and Stuff

Note: to those who may click on “like”, or rate the post; if you do not hear from me, know that I am sincerely appreciative, and I thank you for noticing what I do.

. . .  my FP ward  . . . chieken shit.