Standing Into Danger: Aurora CO

Showing posts with label Aurora CO. Show all posts

Friday, July 5, 2024

Summer Along Piney Creek

Summer in Colorado is glorious, but then every season is.
My favorite season here is typically the one I'm in,

and right now summer is in full bloom, so favorite it is!

"My" Upper Pond Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado USA

June 29, 2024

Things have eased enough that on Saturday I took a walk along Piney Creek.

I can't remember the last time I did that, probably just before we cruised the South Pacific.

What a difference eight months can make!

The last time I strolled along my beloved creek,

I was having trouble walking and seeing.

Now I'm back to my old self.

Well, I still have to build up my muscles again in the gym,

but I'm working on it.

Saturday was lovely with puffy clouds in a vibrant blue sky,

the deep blue sky that occurs at 6,000 feet in our arid climate.

June 29, 2024

My only concern was that some of the cottonwood trees are getting really huge,

and they're lurking over the path, hulking with danger.

Some have fallen in recent years, and one fell over the path into the park last year.

Its jutting limbs have been trimmed back,

but its massive trunk lies half hidden in the grass as a warning.

June 29, 2024

This cottonwood tree is one of my favorites, and it worries me the most.

Its enormous trunk leans toward the path,

and its weighty limbs hang above me as I scamper to safety.

It is easily as wide as it is tall.

I still can't resist a quick look inside the cavity marking the spot of a lost limb.

In the past it has housed birds or squirrels, but it is empty this year.

June 29, 2024

The trees following Piney Creek are plains cottonwoods (Populus deltoides monilifera),

a subspecies of the Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides).

They are native to Colorado in elevations between 3,500 and 6,500 feet.

I missed cottonwood sex in the park this year.

The trees are dioecious, bearing male and female catkins on separate trees.

The reddish-purple male catkins release pollen into the wind

which carries it to the light green flowers of the female catkins.

This occurs before the cottonwood leaves open so the pollen can spread unhindered.

Showy Male Catkins

Along Piney Creek

April 30, 2022

Opening Female Catkins

Along Piney Creek

April 30, 2022

After pollination the female catkins develop small green capsules

that burst open and release cottony seeds far and wide.

A single female tree can disperse tens of millions of seeds,

a seed event that can look like snow flurries in the wind

and cause cottony drifts scattered on the ground.

Bursting Capsules

Along Piney Creek

June 29, 2024

Cottonwood Seeds Waiting to Fly

Along Piney Creek

June 29, 2024

Cottonwood Seeds Floating in the Air

Along Piney Creek

June 25, 2018

Drifting Cottonwood Seeds

Along Piney Creek

June 25, 2018

Over the years I have been watching the milkweed plants expand their territory.

This is a good thing, because milkweed a vital resource

for migrating monarch butterflies and many other insects.

Blossoming Milkweed

June 29, 2024

I reached my turnaround point, the upper pond in our stretch of Piney Creek.

I've walked to this spot hundreds of times over the years, and I never tire of seeing it.

Serene Beauty

June 29, 2024

As summer progresses all the lush greenery will age and brown.

The scenery is ever-changing, but remains captivating.

Flourishing Grasses

June 29, 2024

Lush and Vibrant

June 29, 2024

I'm so grateful that I can walk much better and see clearly again.

I will make the most of this new lease on life.

Almost Home, a Half Mile to Go

June 29, 2024

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, Tom's Aloha Friday, Gillena's Lunch Break. and Nicole's Friday Face Off.

For Rain: Herbs ~

Roll'd, a Vietnamese restaurant in St. Leonards Forum Plaza,

serves great food like this soup.

Roll'd was a lifesaver when Terry and I had white pneumonia.

It's located in St. Leonards, a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, Australia.

Food for the Soul

Roll'd, the Forum Plaza

November 6, 2023

For Tom: Aloha ~ I just want you to know, Tom,

that your Aloha theme has me very homesick for Waikiki!

Beautiful Kūhiō Beach Park

Waikīkī, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA

February 24, 2024

For Gillena: Family ~ I don't have a beautiful granddaughter like you,

but I have many wonderful nieces and nephews.

This is my niece Natalie who has overcome more obstacles than anyone I know.

Here she is getting her doctorate! A veterinarian!

She proves that grit and determination can overcome anything!

Have a great weekend!

OOPS! If you read this and saw baby pictures from last week's post,

then you know I forgot to do my final edit,

and you know I write new posts by using the previous post as a template.

And I forgot a face for Nicole. I'm just going to let it go.

It was a lovely July 4th for Terry and me. What can I say?

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be

Friday, July, 12th 🤞

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Friday, August 18, 2023

Happy Smiling Faces!

Thousands of happy smiling faces lined the road greeting us

as we drove home from the airport after visiting Nova Scotia recently.

Home again on Colorado's Beautiful High Plains

E-470, Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 3, 2023

Colorado has enjoyed a cool summer with lots of rain and sunshine,

and millions of wild sunflowers have exploded along roads and highways

and in odd corners of disturbed ground.

A Sunflower Explosion

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 14, 2023

Wild sunflowers are sustained by run-off moisture from the roads,

heat from the asphalt, and little competition from other vegetation.

They can outgrow noxious weeds like sweet clover and thistles.

Vail Daily

The Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 14, 2023

As I drove around on errands and to appointments last week, I became

more and more curious about this happy, cheerful plant dominating the landscape.

So on Tuesday I grabbed my camera and went on a sunflower hunt along Piney Creek.

Upper Pond Along "My" Section of Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 14, 2023

I knew the sunflowers would not grow near the creek bed

because they don't like water-logged soil,

so I headed for a dry bank above the creek where I thought they might be.

Sunflowers Clinging to a Bank

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 14, 2023

The gangly sunflowers clung to the bank, but not displaying the beauty I hoped to find.

So I headed up a gully and found hundreds and hundreds.

Voilà!

I followed another gully back to the trail that led to the power line right-of-way,

because I was getting worried about snakes and ticks.

After taking a brief break from the strong afternoon sun

in the shade of a cottonwood stand, I headed uphill for the power line.

Cottonwood Stand

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 14, 2023

The last time I had walked this way on May 2nd,

a large grading and restoration project blocked my way.

Land Restoration

Aurora, Colorado, USA

May 2, 2023

Today I found a new cement trail had been constructed

beginning at the Douglas County line and running south.

It followed the power line down into marshland,

straddled a stream running into Piney Creek, and wound up the other bank

to link up with the trails in the Inspiration development.

The New Concrete Trail

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 14, 2023

Sun Flowers Galore!

I followed the new cement trail down the hill, across the stream, and up the other bank: Sunflowers galore!

The New Stream Crossing

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 14, 2023

And Up the Other Side

Wild sunflowers are beneficial to the environment in many ways,

one of which is land restoration.

Sunflowers are used as a forb component in reclaiming drastically disturbed lands,

renovating ranges for domesticated animals, and other conservation practices

such as pollinator habitat for bees and other pollinators,

establishing permanent vegetation in areas of high erosion,

and the restoration and management of declining and rare habitats.

Sunflowers provide food to insects, birds, deer, and other wildlife.

Bees Love Wild Sunflowers!

Restoring an Eroding Slope

Stabilizing Slopes

The wild sunflower is native to North America,

and Native Americans first domesticated the plant as early as 3,000 BC.

They boiled and ate flower buds and raw seeds

and ground the seeds into flour for cakes and bread.

They drank an infusion of the plant that eased

rheumatism and chest pain and stimulated appetites.

Different parts of the sunflower plant were boiled to make yellow, purple, and black dyes.

Dried sunflower stalks were used as building materials.

nrcs.usda sunflowernsa

Spanish explorers took the wild sunflower to Europe around 1500.

By 1716 an English patent was granted for squeezing oil from the plant's seeds.

Peter the Great is credited with popularizing the sunflower

as an ornamental plant in the 18th century.

The Russian Orthodox Church added to its popularity

by forbidding the consumption of most oil foods during Lent

and leaving the sunflower off the prohibited list.

By 1830, sunflower oil was produced on a commercial scale in Russia.

Eastern Europeans and Russians who had emigrated to America

imported the commercial sunflower because it was a protein-rich food for animals.

By the 1920s the US was growing commercial crops of sunflowers,

followed by Canada in 1930.

nrcs.usda. sunflowernsa nuseed

Some of my happiest hours are spent roaming along the trails in my area,

and hunting for sunflowers on a gorgeous August afternoon is hard to beat.

Smiling Happy Faces!

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date and Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Thank goodness I have an understanding husband who takes me out for dinner

when I arrive home hot, happy, and too tired to cook.

A Club Sandwich and Sauteed Vegetables to Share

Parkway Bar and Grill

Aurora, Colorado, USA

A Muley Walking Past Our Car

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 3, 2023

I was slammed this week with appointments and commitments,

so I'm still catching up with last week's comments. So sorry!

Have a great weekend!

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be soon! 🤞

Books Read in 2026

"18 Days in Heaven" by Gale Poirot
"A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Hope, Love, and Overcoming" by Kerrie Rawson
"Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life" by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD.
"Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics Deepest Truths" by Eugenia Cheng
"Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir
"Tell Me Everything" by Elizabeth Strout
"The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese
"The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" by David Graeber and David Wengrow
"The Life Impossible" by Matthew Haig
"The Lord go the Rings" by JRR Tolkien
"The Match" by Harlan Corben
"The Night the Path Disappeared" by Terri Bergen
"The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper" by Roland Allen
"Theo of Golden" by Allen Levi
"Think Twice" by Harlan Corben
"Why Christianity Must Change Or Die" by John Shelby Spong

Standing Into Danger

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Friday, July 5, 2024

Summer Along Piney Creek

Friday, August 18, 2023

Happy Smiling Faces!

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