Connie in Ouray

I'm in Colorado Springs, taking a flight to Syracuse, New York tomorrow.  For some reason, flying out of Montrose was prohibitive, $1300 round trip and arrival in Syrace at 11:30 at night.  Something weird going on there. I did want to report that we got 4.5 inches of snow Wednesday morning.  It was a nasty drive to Ridgway at 10 a.m., but the roads, except the turn from Camp Bird Road to Mineral Farms, were clear.  That turn was pretty dicey for me as we took the snow tires off a month ago.  We are now up to a whopping 92 inches!  Mike was asking if this was the latest measurable snow I've recorded since we moved to Ouray five and a half years ago, and not even close.  The latest was in 2022, when we got 2.5 inches of snow on May 21st.   The possible Super El Nino is still on track to happen, and it appears to be getting even stronger.  Time will tell.

Our very special boy Dempsey died last Wednesday.  We had been noticing a rapid decline these past few months, but the end was still such a shock.  He just...died.  He was 13 and a half, 94 in human years, a good old age for a big dog and a wonderful life with us for 10 years.   We are both grieving so hard. Dempsey at the overlook two weeks ago

 Well, isn't this the most interesting spring, hard freeze over the weekend, a couple of inches of snow - a whopping 86 inches of snow for the season.   I've now gone through a lot of fish food, and there are some really big fish in the pond.  It should be a fun fishing summer for the neighborhood.

 It's possible we'll get this lovely weather pattern starting in the fall.  According to what I've read, the Pacific Ocean is expected to have temperatures 2.4-2.6 degrees above normal, which puts it in the range of a Super El Nino.  This would mean higher than average precipitation for the southwest quadrant of the state - US!  Keep your fingers crossed. Mike and I hiked up to the overlook over the weekend, and the pasqueflowers are out, as are the itty-bitty yellow flowers.  The cactus is greening up, too.  It was muddy on the trail, and there were patches of snow, but no signs of bears yet.

 We had the loveliest day of rain on Wednesday, all day, slow, soaking rain, and then we've gotten three inches of snow over the last two nights.  Additionally, we had a hard freeze last night and another is forecast for tonight.  My little flowers aren't happy, but I'm ecstatic for the moisture. spiked squill before the storm the Ampitheater post-storm

 The snow is all but gone, and the pond is fully without ice.  I've started feeding the fish, and I'm fairly certain we are not going to have to buy fish for the upcoming season.  There are so many fish!  It's too warm, and it's too dry, and I'm too sad about all of it.