One thing I absolutely adore about my new house, and my new neighborhood is that I can live far enough outside of town that it’s a personal sanctuary, but I’m close enough to a city that has all of my personal favorite stores. The farthest one away is a 45 minute drive on the freeway (to just past Lone Tree).
Just up the road from our home is a field shared by cows and the pronghorn. The males have horns like deer, and the females don’t. They are quite shy, and when I pulled over they took off. I had to switch lenses to my 800 mm.
The top two pictures show how close the pronghorns to the city.
On sunny days and nights this is what I see. This picture was taken before a stretch of foggy weather, then we had beautiful weather, and again we had snowy weather.
The foggy weather still yields beautiful scenery. Though the mountain is not visible, the pictures, I still think the pictures are beautiful.
A few weeks ago, the fog broke, and this is what we saw on Pike’s Peak. Snow came back like the first time we visited, and picked out our new home.
Yesterday, we had a snow storm. It was fantastic. I slowed down the shutter speed, so that I could capture the snowflakes in without them looking too blurry. The after effect made for the most perfect winter wonderland. Sadly, the only remnants of snow are in the shadows of our home, and where the trees cast a shadow.
Besides the pronghorns that live the fields near our home, we also have two red tailed hawks. They have a nest in our front yard, and we can hear them call in the late-afternoon, when they come out to hunt. We also frequently will hear their young cry for food. There are plenty of insects, field mice, and snakes to feed their babies.
This year we had a record number of painted ladies. The painted lady butterfly flew through Colorado instead of taking their typical route through Florida. It is hypothesized that it was because of the hurricanes that hit during the season. Before the freeze we experienced, there were still many wild flowers to attract the butterflies.
And of course there are song birds galore. I imagine they will be migrating soon, so I won’t hear many of them during the winter, but I can still enjoy them. The hummingbirds have gone already.
Jodi's Going 180 