The patio is open for business! Please note the utter lack of blown debris on the concrete. This took what, at times, felt like a Herculean effort, as the area is a literal wind magnet, bringing in leaves, seeds, garbage from way off yonder, and, of course dirt, dust, and gravel. A real treat.

Not pictured, but delightful, is our babbling brook of a fountain, as well. We live large…

The light!!!

Juniper continues her modeling career, to great effect!

neighborhood poppy

I used to think I knew what this was, but I really don’t.

penstemon

Grandma’s rose! It is going bananas, even suckering to produce multiple bushes, about which I have no complaints.

wild garlic

mallow?

many flowered puccoon – such a dreadful name for a lively flower!

Vetch, methinks, based on those teeny leaves.

yucca

How about the local color, the majority of which are wildflowers. Thank you, Mother Nature. Thank you, very much!

The light made tree stumps of my legs, but whatever, my body is leagues away from perfect!

This reminds me, a few weeks ago, I went for a hair trim at Great Clips because my other delightful lady moved, and I didn’t want to bother with the hullaballoo of seeking out a new “salon” person. I’ve been going a couple years and never had a problem.

Anyhoo, at the end, she asked if I would like some layering at the bottom. Turns out, I’d been thinking texture and said yes, believing she’d pull out those funny scissors that do just that. Before I even had a moment to discuss it, she raised a hunk of hair and lopped off ten inches. I shuddered, but thought she knew what she was doing. I was VERY incorrect. After it was over, it looked as though I had two hair cuts: one a-line bob starting at the back of my head, down to mid neck in the front, and another very long layer below, only I couldn’t actually see it until I got home because she brushed it just right.

When your not terribly detail oriented husband says your hair looks “weird,” you know you have problems. I returned early the next morning, to a new batch of clippers and shocked them with the horror of my cut. It was repaired as best it could be (for free, thankfully), including the loss of about five inches off the bottom to make the two hairdo situation a little less so. I am hoping to have righted the ship by Christmas!

Let’s end on a literal high note (14,107 feet!), shall we? The beauty of Pikes Peak – cause it can’t, it won’t, and it don’t stop, to nearly quote the Beastie Boys.

My head is such a marvelous jumble of song lyrics…