The Sky as a Glory —- Thursday, July 20, 2017

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Yesterday afternoon a slight cooling rain arrived

The air, the moisture…the whole experience was just lovely.  I sat outside  and watched the shower dampen the earth.

It was bliss.

Later that evening (Wednesday)  around 9:30 an electrical storm arrived on the western rim of our world…Lightning flickered and slashed across the Uncompahgre (Un-come-pah-gray…accent on the pah) Plateau.  Tiny booms of thunder rolled across the forest and into the canyons.

As time wore on, I thought possibly the hammer of this amazing electric storm would continue across the Plateau missing us.

By 11:30 the Crack of thunder had reached the Roubioux Canyon, which lays right below our mesa.

Sheet lightning split the clouds, while cloud to ground jagged lightning splintered the heaping massive clouds.

Thunder and lightening overwhelmed our part of the earth, causing our great trees to tremble in fear. (Boomer and both cats were so close to me I couldn’t walk.  When I went outside to try to take photos they looked at me like I was crazy and stayed inside. 🙂  )

Try as I might I could NOT get a good photo of lightning!  The great sheets of shimmering sheet lightning did not turn out very well either.  The sky to ground lightning (although very bright and overwhelming) turned into a blur on the photo.

Gradually the thunder, the lightening, and what rain there might have been, moved on…heading toward the east.

Leaving all of us a little breathless.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

SWEET CORN —-Wednesday, July 19, 2017

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(ALL PHOTOS ARE FROM LAST YEAR–BUT THEY REPRESENT JUST WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE THIS YEAR!)

Our neighbors have started harvesting the sweet corn!  Mountain Fresh is grown close to us on our side of California Mesa.

Olathe Sweet Sweet Corn is grown on the other side of California Mesa in the Olathe area.

Either way…our area’s delicious sweet corn is heading to a Kroger/Wal-Mart/or Safeway near you, even as I write!

And NO  neither one of these sweet corns (nor any sweet corn) is genetically modified!

They are hybrids!  Glyphosate will kill the sweet corn plants.

Hope you enjoy some and when you do…know the ears were harvested some place here on a farm in western Colorado!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

The Heart of the Night—-Tuesday, July 18, 2017

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Last night was beautiful after a day full of heat and humidity

We sat water late.  Very late, as the sun sank orange and blue in the west.

It was way past last light when we got back into the yard

Later, in the darkest hour when the shadow travelers tread the earth —  Boomer and I went for a wee walk-about…Mindy didn’t know we were walking, she was on the hunt

We came upon a beautiful little kit fox hunting by itself, an owl hooting in the willow tree.

The night world trembling with small noises, which seem loud.

The wind picked up a couple of last years old corn leaves; flung them into the air…  a tiny devil twister making the night air swirl…

A wee night walk… shadowed grass, starlit skies, night creatures, plus Boomer and I.

From my heart to your world,

Linda

 

 

 

On a Sun-Bright Summer Day—-Monday, July 17, 2017

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When the wind was gentle

The sun blazed the western clouds, as it rose to warm the air

The screaming for FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!

Seemed to lessen

 

A stillness emerged from the little mud nest right over the back porch light

A group three of the little Barn Swallows raised themselves up; with two lifting their wings and ‘flew away’.  The parents singing notes of encouragement and excitement.

All day they practiced.  By evening they were gone.

Then there were only two screaming mouths…just two.  But two is manageable for a spell.

I’m sure one day the parents will say, in a very gentle way: “Go now, little one…make your way in the world”.

We will wait expectantly for the next batch of little birds to go from egg to fledgling before the summer is gone.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

 

 

 

High Summer—-Sunday, July 16, 2017

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It is high summer the sky is a clear blue, the heat is elevated, afternoon thunder storms roll in cooling us down;  the humidity causing us pant in desperation

Yet the summer has been good…all the hay is sold; first and second cuttings.

Blade helped…nice for him and for us!

The corn is starting to tassel out!

The pinto beans are growing right along…

The last cultivation of all crops is over for the rest of the year! 🙂

High Summer…the best part of the year.

Come winter I will be assailed by memories

Of these innocent heat filled days.

Come winter…

….I won’t think of that bleak time ahead. Instead I will enjoy this spot in time.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

 

The Adventures of Boomer on Friday—-Finally Truly on the Mend

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I’m truly on the mend! My pneumonia is going away.  I haven’t coughed in two days so Mom says YAY!  With her fingers crossed!

Most of the time Mom makes me stay on the back of the four-wheeler while she and Dad do the moving of the water.

She makes me sit!  “You Stay, Boomer”, she says.  “Stay.”

So I do.  Even if it’s hot.

She says I have to stay, because I am really not all the way well yet, and there are critters out there who could be sick, which might make me sick again.  She says my immune system is low.

So I sit.

But if I get hot she lets me get down and get a drink, but stay right by her.

Last night it was cool and fresh and lovely.  So lovely Mom and Dad took a ride in the pick-up truck!

I got to go with them!

A ride in the back of the pick-up truck.  I haven’t been in the back forever.

A ride feeling really good—-

Priceless!

Boomer

Moving into the Heart of the Light—Thursday, July 13, 2017

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A large portion of my day is spent on a ditch bank….somewhere, someplace, here on the farm

Morning, noon, evening…the earth, the sky, the water—moisture in the air..rain landing softly on the fields rich with good earth and lush plants

The sun captures so brilliantly the clift on the Uncompahgre Plateau where the Plateau starts to change and slope toward Grand Junction.  It’s close to this cleft where a person can descend into Gateway, Colorado

Lately the air has been restless; shifting, rising, flowing–heavy with moisture

Sometimes the sun is suspended in the western sky…blazing the horizon into a dazzling display of red, orange and yellow

I have no true favorite time of the sky…I love the luminous eastern sky’s violet when the final stars are gone.  The early sun turning from violet to pink then gold and

finally a robin’s egg blue

And the night-time full of the moon or the stars so brilliant it’s like being surrounded by diamonds

I (sometimes) think our lives have seasons…times when nothing seems to be happening…but, if we look close…there are many changes going on… we just forget to see them.

From my heart to your world,

Linda

Dazzled by the Storms—Wednesday, July 12, 2017

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We set the last set of water under the treat of an approaching rain storm

The wind whipped a series of fast moving showers all around us throughout the Uncompahgre (Un-come-pah-gray—accent on the pah) Plateau; along the canyons between us and Grand Junction–the Roubidoux, Esclante, Dominguez Canyons, then soaking the desert separating Delta from Grand Junction.

Stunningly beautiful fast moving rain!

At one point the late sun broke through just long enough to illuminate some of the rain drops south of us to look like a faint rainbow!

 I’m not picky.  I’ll take anything that looks like a rainbow, even for a few moments in time.

Then as nighttime arrived lightning whipped the Plateau, wind beat our area, and thunder hammered the heavens way over there on the Uncompaghre.

Boomer and both cats came in, to lay as close to me as possible.

Lightening slithered along the canyons and gullies on the Plateau, with distant drumbeats of thunder sounding loud [here].  It must have sounded like the roll call of the end of the world up there on the Uncompahgre.

Although rain seethed around us the skies only sprinkled on us—not even turning the ground to mud…just damp.

This morning we woke to rinsed skies, cooler temperatures, with thick gray clouds hanging in bunches, waiting to mush together at some future point in time.

They say by Friday this flurry of small intense storms will be gone from our area; the heat and sun will return.

These little reprieves from fierce sun and heat are good for the soul. (Just like warm/spring-like days in the middle of winter).

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

Clouds Skimming the World—Tuesday, July 11, 2017

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We received a reprieve late yesterday, from all the scorching sun and melting heat.

The night stayed thick with clouds…the stars hidden, the full moon unable to shine through the darkness.

Off and on through the night little patters of rain came…not lots, just enough to clear the air…leaving pockmarks on the very dry soil.

A Pheasant moved THROUGH the farm yard after the early morning sprinkle)

The dawn light came slowly through the sliver of grayness left behind; the wind started scattering the clouds.

Slowly, ever so slowly, in that time just before dawn, when light is neither bright or dark, when there are no shadows on the ground…when the trees turn black—-then the sky starts to pale

And the sun breaks forth, the clouds bunched into fluffy balls of sun-kissed color.

The birds, the plants, the farm, and my heart, all sang!  Refreshed!  We all feel refreshed!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

 

The Rim of Our House—-Monday, July 10, 2017

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Under the eve, on the back porch light we have a little family of Barn Swallows.

Although it’s fun to watch the goings on up there in the little nest of mud…it does make for coming and going and sitting an resting a tad dangerous.  The swooping, screeching and other cries of alarm, not to mention the whir of the wings as they zip by your head….

And, of course, it is always worse when….ONE OF THE CATS sit in wait!

Yesterday afternoon, in the heat of the day…Sammy, Boomer, and myself sat under the awning in the unmoving cool of the shade.

I became interested when there was No attacking birds to bother us.

Looking around I saw one parent

Sitting on the arch watching us, unmoving but very aware of what we were doing.

Then I looked into the nest…sitting there motionless, shoulders humped, exhaustion evident on this parent’s face I saw the same look every new parent gets, whether human or otherwise: “Boy, am I ever tired”! This look seems to say.

“These kids are about to kill me.”

“I sure will be glad when they can take care of themselves.”

“If I could JUST get some sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!”

The other parents seemed to be saying—“You rest, Honey! I’ll keep watch zzzzzzzzzzzzz.”

July’s Full Moon shimmered through the rippling leaves of the tree last night. The light cast was so beautiful the earth and everything on it looked like it was covered in hammered sheets of silver!

 

From my heart to your world,

Linda