Lower North Fork Fire -- Over and Out
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the Jeffco Sheriff's department announced the fire was 100% contained, and ceased updates on their blog.The snow that was expected Sunday night showed up Monday night and, I...
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Everyday Miracles
Early this morning, as I watch 12-15,000 people try to shoehorn themselves into an amphitheatre built for less than 10,000, I have to wonder about this special sunrise. Isn't every sunrise a miracle...
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Heron Habit
Great Blue Herons have been stalking me for about six years now. That is, it was 2006, the same year I started this blog, when I first noticed herons were making a habit of dropping into my...
View ArticleFussy Chickens
They're always a bit fussy in the morning anyway. Dashing out of the coop and checking out the world first thing has them likely to be chattering away. Hens are cackling over eggs. Roosters are horny,...
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Soaked!
A long-awaited glorious morning, one in which water actually falls from the sky. Among other desired effects, it salvages our spring, rescuing native wildflowers that were already on their way to...
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Record Heat; Welcome Break
When anything under 90 degrees (32 C) feels cool, you know you've been IN it. Two of the last three days set records; the third, yesterday, might as well have. (38C sounds so much cooler than 100F!)...
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Thanksgiving is for the Birds
(Well, except for the turkeys, who are too tasty for their own good.) We try to take care of our local critters year-round, but we do extra on Thanksgiving and that big holiday in December. We go...
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Cordials as a Botanical Adventure
As with so many adventures, it started quite by accident. I was browsing happily, and something caught my eye on someone's website—it might have been the Phytophactor’s—off we go then! The link led me...
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Berry-Go-Round comes back around
That's right! This month's Berry-Go-Round will be hosted here at Foothills Fancies, which itself is experiencing a bit of release from dormancy. (Posts have been scarce here due to a long intense...
View ArticleBerry Good Deadline...
Good morning, all. Today is the deadline for submissions to this month's Berry-Go-Round, our carnival for plant bloggers everywhere! If you haven't heard of it, check the link for past issues and...
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This should help!
A co-worker and I were debating this year's coming drought the other day, especially relative to its effects on grass and therefore large domestic herbivores in Colorado. This came in the wake of dire...
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Mysterious Hackberry and a Hackberry Mystery
Lioness and Guardian stopped by the other day to pick up a large night-blooming Cereus in need of a good home. Somehow the conversation turned to Hackberry; I forget just how that happened. They had...
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Bringing you Berries!
Here we are: February's issue of the Berry-Go-Round plant blogging carnival has reached your mailbox. What is a carnival? Hollis will clarify the concept at In the Company of Plants and Rocks, with a...
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A Body in Motion
While compiling the Berry-Go-Round collection last week, I got to spend some time with an "old friend," which is to say, Laurent, the original guru of BGR, one of the first bloggers I got to know when...
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'Tis the Season
Yesterday...Today..."We heard the lilacs needed pruning!"Introductions? That's Heir Apparent (aka Son-of-Funny-Face) on the left, Funny Face herself on the right, and assorted daughters and...
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Something with leaves
We drove out yesterday to look at pretty snow and rocks, and I had an encounter with a plant that was at least green! (An accomplishment at this time of this particular spring.) Other than our...
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Earth Day Aftermath
At 5:30 last night:And this morning, 7 a.m.Thinking of going somewhere?Coffee on the patio, perhaps?'Nuf said!
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If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Snowing
You'd hardly know it to look out the window, but somewhere in the world plants are blooming, spring is springing... and we are, after a brief hiatus, locked again in white today. (Okay, I know it's...
View ArticleThanksgiving Tribute
(Original title: The Grand Ladies of Blogging) I guess I woke up, too early, in a philosophical frame of mind this morning. Did you wonder where I've been, or whether I'd ever be back? Sometimes our...
View ArticleGoing south...
We found three beautiful inches of snow on the yard and cars and everything else this morning. Lots of moisture in it too--I thought, mistakenly, I could just sweep it off, but it was far too heavy....
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We have a state cactus!
Thanks to the young women of Girl Scout Troop 2518 of Douglas County, and nudged forward by Rep. Carole Murray's rap performance, we have a new state cactus. On March 7th, unbeknownst to my small...
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Prairie Compass
Friend Rick wrote to brag about his compass plant, Silphium terebinthium. "It topped out at about 9.5 feet this year. This is the most flowers it's ever had and it increases dramatically every year."
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Holiday Silliness
Some of you may recall that the last week of the year was a crazy time in the old days, with role reversal and foolishness during the few days inserted to help adjust any discrepancies in the calendar....
View ArticleRelocating after Nine Years Here
Something new in the fancy foothills world—now we have our own domain. (I probably shouldn't say "we," but I keep hoping some of my naturalist friends will contribute, as they are better naturalists...
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First Snow, Seasonal Changes
This past weekend brought the season's first snow to the Foothills Fancies homestead. We were not there to see it. After 36 years, we've moved on to a new location on the sunrise side of the country,...
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