Zapata Falls

We hiked to Zapata Falls near Alamosa, CO on this frozen creek. You could hear the water gurgling under the ice.

Frozen Zapata Falls - gorgeous! The falls are in a slot canyon - almost like a cave. It's probably easier to reach when frozen, like today, than during the summer when you have to hike up in the creek.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Here we are on top of High Dune, we climbed it under the impression that it was the highest dune in N. America. Upon reaching the top we learned it was the 3rd highest. Bummer. Having climbed the world's highest dune in Namibia, Jeff is now working on climbing the Seven Sand Summits. It's far less grueling than climbing the Seven Summits. The biggest risk is that you might get a little sand in your eye. Everest climbers on the other hand loose limbs to frostbite and lives to falls. Falling off a sand dune usually results in laughing.

Jeff communing with the sand. 

This photo should clear up questions about the last...

Monte Vista Nat' Wildlife Refuge - we saw thousands of noisy, dancing Sandhills cranes.

Chile Colorado

Mexican food in the snow in Colorado - yum.

Finding Time on the Morn of Daylight Savings Time

Upon waking this morning, we realized we were missing an hour. Thinking quickly, we grabbed our pillows, hopped in the Element and headed west. Many miles later, we found our missing hour under this sign on the Texas state line. What a relief, since we have no idea how to change the clock in the Element!

Illustration Friday: BRAVE / SUBTERRANEAN

I actually did this illustration for last week's theme, "Brave." Unfortunately, the week got away from me and it was Friday again before I knew it. You can imagine my surprise when this week's theme, "Subterranean," fit it perfectly. So, if you'll excuse the double dipping, please enjoy this illustration of me caving. Yes, I do go caving. I love the thrill of searching for new passages and rooms that I might be the first to step foot in. My favorite cave is Spring Cave in the heart of the Colorado Rockies.

PERSPECTIVE

Please suggest a title for this one in the comments.

Every day on my way to and from work I see this gorgeous hawk atop a lamp post high above the interstate. From my perspective, his life looks pretty good. I envy his days spent wheeling across the sky, free to fly away to any place he desires - as I sit in traffic, on my way to another stressful workday. He answers to no one. He belongs to no one. Sometimes I wonder why he stays there when he can go anywhere. Maybe his reasons are somewhat like mine; "It might not be scenic, but the mice are plentiful and easy to catch. I'll just stay a little longer..."

I created this piece with water soluble oil pastels, using the scraffito (scratch through) technique.

Propagate

Here's my Illustration Friday submission for this week:

This is a Kalanchoe "Mother of Thousands" plant. I have a few and I think it's a really 'fun' plant. The leaves create plantlets that drop off and grow into new plants as they mature. It is an easy plant to share with friends.
I used a Sharpie marker,
Prismacolor Art Stix and Prismacolor watercolor pencils to create this piece.

ADRIFT

I'm joining Illustration Friday - an online community of illustrators that create one illustration a week on a common theme. This week's theme is ADRIFT. So here is my little man adrift in his tiny leaf boat upon tossing waves. Enjoy!
P.S. : This took me about 15 minutes while one of my extra-quiet 3rd grade classes was working on their own art.

Photos Blizzard of 2010

See previous post for the video and story that go with these photos.

Blizzard of 2010

The power finally came back on Sunday night. It started snowing Thursday morning and it didn't stop until the wee hours of Friday. On my way home Thursday afternoon, I started to get excited about the prospect of doing some snowboarding under the I-20/408 interchange. As it turned out, we didn't get to go snowboarding. A fireman stopped me as I was turning into our neighborhood and told me that the road was closed ahead, that a tree had fallen across the road and paramedics were trying to get someone with a broken let to the hospital, but then he let me continue when I told him that I just had to make it to our street, Moneta Lane. I went on and made my way around an ambulance and as I turned on Moneta, I saw another ambulence and another firetruck and a huge tree blocking the road. Driving down our street, the full impact of the storm hit me as I passed house after house with broken limbs and downed trees some of which had fallen on cars. Our yard was a disaster area, with my two favorite trees in shambles. Three limbs from the live oak behind the house had fallen on to the power line to the house. Many more limbs littered the yard and dangled dangerously from the tree tops. The double cedar out front exploded several times as I watched. When Jeff got home we ran around trying to save the trees and shrubs by knocking and shaking the snow from them. Every now and then we had to dodge branches that fell. We threw a rope over the power line and I pulled it out from under the branches as Jeff propped them up. Night fell and we saw brilliant flashes of red in the sky as transformers exploded all over our neighborhood. A tree in the goat pasture behind the house touched the power line and caught fire. We called the firefighters who appeared looking very tired and told us that it would probably just burn itself out and that there was nothing they could do. Eventually we went inside, only to be lured outside when we noticed red and blue lights flashing at the end of our driveway. It was a cop who explained that he was stranded in the snow and that the tow truck that had come for him was now stranded as well and had already called for a larger tow truck. Jeff brought out his snow shovel and dug them both out. We were outside until 11 pm.
School was canceled on Friday. We bought a new chain for the chainsaw and went to play in the snow with Makaela. We built her a big snow fort, pulled her around on the snow shovel and had a snowball fight.
A few people have remarked to me, "You're from a place where it snows. You should be used to this!" I am used to snow but not in a place that isn't used to snow. Back Park City when it snows, the trees and buildings don't collapse, people still know how to drive, we still have electricity, snowplows come out and push snow off the road and all hell does NOT break loose. This snowstorm has been totally different.
On Sunday we decided to get serious about cleaning up from the storm. Aaron and Jennifer came over to help. Jeff put the new chain on the chainsaw and we worked all day cutting limbs and dragging them out to the street. We made so many trips that we trampled the snow in the side yard to mush and the turf began to ripple as we walked back and forth on it. By the time we finished, the pile of branches was the width of our yard and about six feet tall. THANK YOU JENNIFER AND AARON! Without them it would have taken us days to clean up!