mistressofmuses

We've been lucky enough this year to have a quite pleasant long fall. Last week we wanted to enjoy the nice day, and so we went over to Hudson Gardens. It's an easy walk, and always pretty.


Some very nice fall colors!

In Colorado, most of our fall color is shades of gold (which I do love!) but it's a little novel to have things more in the orange and red tones.


I was delighted that there were still a lot of roses blooming. And I'm always happy with bees.


More of the gold colors. Lovely!


There were some neat crayfish. The one that's on the right was HUGE. Freshwater lobster. (And I was pleased with the reflection of the leaves.)

Thirteen more pictures (flowers, frogs...):

Frog! :D (I was hoping there would still be a few frogs out, and was happy that there were.)

Surprisingly, the roses were still extremely happy! We've had a couple frosts by now, so I'd expected the roses would be gone. They were actually looking better now than they were earlier in the summer. They weathered the season change better than the Japanese beetles, ha.


Always love the candy-stripe flowers.


Bee!


Very perfect red rose.


Bee on the approach.


A blanket flower.


Moth! :D


More fall color!


I do really like the orange.

We stopped at the cafe for a snack. I got a smoothie instead of coffee, and it was so good. Pear, peach, apricot. Delicious.


This is once again "Magic of the Jack o' Lanterns" season, where they have a bunch of displays of carved (foam) pumpkins. They're neat, but they are identical to last year. (Plus there was a windstorm the day before, and a bunch had fallen and hadn't yet been picked back up...)


Squirrel!

While we saw quite a few crayfish, there were relatively few (not none, but few) frogs throughout most of the gardens, so we went back to the first pond to visit the first batch of frogs again, haha.


:D


Three frogs! (One in the upper right, one in the lower left, and one above that.)

Another lovely day that I'm glad we got to enjoy.

On Tuesday there wasn't much we had time to do while out on the plains, since it was a very long drive back. Our target for a quick wander (which conveniently took us past the derailed train we'd wanted a better look at) was the France-Harker Cemetery, listed on the Kiowa County Library site as one of Kiowa county's "lost cemeteries" that they were trying to preserve.

Their directions were... not great.

They were mostly correct, and did take us down the correct zigzag of unpaved county roads, but faltered at the last step. The directions say 3/4 of a mile... it was actually closer to two miles? Two miles isn't that far, but it's significantly farther than 3/4 of a mile, and we u-turned a couple times thinking we must have missed it, trying to track exactly how far we were going. Finally we just shrugged and decided to keep going, and yup. Just a lot farther than advertised.


It's not a large cemetery.

The informative blurb on the library site says it has 21 grave sites, with 10 preserved headstones. The earliest known grave is for Frank Chilson, who died in 1895, and the latest known is Charlie V. France, who died in 1942.


One of the prettiest headstones. "Mattie V., wife of James D. Gordon."

Twelve more pictures:

Blanket flowers, on the way in.


Another pretty headstone, matching the one above, though they have different flowers carved at the top. "James W. Gordon, son of Mattie V and Jas D Gordon."

Paints a sad picture together. Mattie, the woman whose headstone I have above the cut, died just a couple weeks after her son James was born. He lived to just shy of six months.


Another child's grave. "Emma Elizabeth, daughter of D.W. and Mary C. France."

And her parents:


"D.W. France."


"Mary C. France."


"Charlie V. France." This is the last known burial in the cemetery. Though it appears that Lydia (presumably his wife) was intended to be buried here, but wasn't. That always makes me wonder what happened.


There are several of these metal crosses, I assume marking the 11 grave sites that there are not surviving headstones for.


Look at those prickly pear spikes!


Some very impressive spiderwebs in a prickly pear. Quite a protected spot to be!


"Suda, wife of E.J. Henery."


"Chester J., son of E.J. and Suda Henery." (This is the same stone as Suda's, just a different side of the marker.) (Sorry I didn't get my shadow out of the shot.)


"Joseph Kesler."


The oldest known burial in the cemetery. "Frank B. Chilson."

On both our way in and the way back out... COWS.

So many cows on the road! Bella was not sure about this, though she calmed down pretty quick from "deeply concerned" to "simply interested."

Three more pictures of cows:

I like the one with grass hanging out of her mouth, ha.


Several calves, a few cows that looked very pregnant.


Cute white face.

It was nice that we had a chance to at least do something else before heading home, since it's certainly not an area we travel through very often. It was a good weekend in general. We don't often have the chance to go do overnight trips anywhere, but this definitely needed to be; way too far to head out and back in the same day. I'm glad we finally got to go to Sand Creek, tragedy though it is.

A couple weeks ago, we wanted to get out and do something, but also got a late start on the day. We headed to the local greenbelt, since it's reasonably close and we haven't been there in a while.


A very cute bumblebee.


My other favorite insect from the day: a really big moth hanging out on a tree. :)

Eleven more pictures, including more insects and spiders:

One of the road bridges over the greenbelt path has some pretty mosaics.


Another of the mosaics.

(There are two more mosaics on the other side of the bridge, but someone was sitting there, haha.)


Crossing the creek.


There were many big, impressive spider webs along the path! With big, impressive spiders in them! I didn't realize until after looking at the picture that this one had a snack. :)


Not a spider, but a daddy longlegs! This one was almost orangey in color, which was neat.


These beetles were just face-first, going to town in the flowers. It was very funny. I believe these are "bumble flower beetles."


Some huge carpenter ants!


Some lovely little sweet peas in the overgrown/abandoned garden area behind some of the apartments.


Hollyhocks have definitely been having A Year! I saw them all over Santa Fe, and in a ton of gardens this year, and even a bunch of landscaping. This one is also in the abandoned garden.


A very charming little duck swam over just as it started raining.


I'm really not a fan of the influx of Japanese beetles that we've started having each year. They're terribly destructive. However, this one was very interesting - almost pink on the front segment instead of the usual green color!

It was also a two snake day, which was delightful! I didn't get good pictures of either of them, but Alex spotted one pretty large garter snake, which I got to see as it headed into the underbrush. Then I was leaning down to look at a little spider that scuttled across the sidewalk... and wound up pointing directly at a tiny baby garter snake that had been just at the edge of the path. Very tiny and cute!

It was a lovely day out. We got caught in a tiny drizzle, but not bad. It was pretty humid (especially for here!) so we were all a bit sticky by the end.

We stopped by a neighborhood park after work one day to let Bella take a short walk.

There were bugs!


Ambush bugs!


A lovely little green praying mantis.

This one was fairly small. Very cute!


And another mantis!

I don't recall ever seeing one quite this color before. I've seen brown ones, and years ago I remember seeing little greyish mantis nymphs down in New Mexico. The ones I've seen in the park here have all been the bright green.

Just three more pictures of the same insects:

More ambush bugs, camping out on a daisy. (And a couple more making more.)


Another picture of the green mantis. I like how you can see how sharp the claws are!


And one more of the neat grey mantis (which my camera did not like focusing on.)

I am always happy to see a fun variety of insects in the neighborhood. :)

Last Tuesday we decided to go to Roxborough again, to do one of the other trails. We typically take the trail that goes down toward the old house, but there's another trail that goes the other direction that we've only taken once or twice.

After the more-tiring-than-intended hike on Monday, we also wanted a fairly mellow hike, which this one is. It's also a no-dogs park, which was fine, because Bella had a very tiring day on Monday too, haha.

We got a slightly later start than usual, because we had some errands to run. I discovered on the Monday hike (after I fell) that my shoes were way more worn than I had realized. They never had great tread, but the soles right at the balls of my feet were so thin they were in danger of wearing through pretty imminently. Like... could see light through them. So I needed new shoes, and we wanted to get a backpack for Alex, since the over-the-shoulder bag was what was pressing on his neck and causing problems. But success! I got better shoes, he got a backpack, and we were off!


Nice view looking back at the rocks and the valley.


A lizard on the pathway up to the visitor center. It looks like he lost his tail at one point, and has a new one growing back.


A honeybee on asters!

Ten more pictures:

I love little insect houses. <3 A mud dauber wasp nest.


Lizard on the rock!

The visitor center has a log book where you can record any wildlife sightings you have in the park. We always like to stop and check for anything interesting. This entry was in there the last time we came to the park and it made me smile, so this time I took a picture:


Wildlife: boreal toad; Location: on trail; Field notes: Cute!

(Typically "location" is asking for where in the park. A+ field note, too.)

So then we headed down the Willow Creek trail.

Of course, the start of the Willow Creek trail basically provides two things. Hemlock, and...


Just... so much poison ivy. So much.

(I have never gotten poison ivy, though I've tried hard to avoid it. Years ago in Maryland I made the foolish decision to try and climb up the side of a mountain to check out a weird building foundation we could see from a trail. It was... not really worth the trip, and I'm pretty sure that everything I grabbed on the way down to avoid plummeting down the steep hill was actually poison ivy. If so, I've simply been lucky enough not to have reached my lifetime limit on poison ivy... but who knows how long that luck will last, haha.)


So much forbidden candy! Lots of oak galls.


Some nice rock formations.


A dramatic spiderweb.


More rocks!


The asters were blooming really nicely here, too. With a cute beetle!


Yucca and rocks!

This was a relatively short hike, but it was nice. I still generally prefer the other trail, but I'm glad we did this one again. Alex had a slightly better time on this one than the previous day, and the backpack definitely seemed to help. Still had to stop a few times to rest, but an improvement for sure, and the more frequent rest breaks are probably a good idea anyway.

Tuesday was my last day off from work. We decided to go to Hudson Gardens. We went there a bit earlier in the year, but knew there'd be different stuff blooming, and we hoped for frogs, haha. Success on both counts!

As always, too many pictures, so splitting it into two posts. This one will be for flowers (and insects), and the other one will be for various critters.


Adorable bee-fly!


Bumblebee, quite coordinated with its flower.


Ladybug!

Twenty more pictures of flowers and bugs:

Lovely water lilies.


More!

We were there a little after the peak for the roses, but some were still blooming:


Nice bright yellow.


The candy-stripe ones are always one of my favorites.


They're all so unique, even on the same bush.


More, with a bee butt!


I love this orange one.


The white ones look so soft.


A very flashy candy-stripe one.

Unfortunately a lot of the remaining roses looked like...


...this. The Japanese beetles unfortunately went to town on everything.


More bees!


Obligatory picture through the kaleidoscope.


Another picture of the bee-fly. They're so fluffy looking.


Honeybee!


The beehives.


More really vibrant water lilies.


A bee-mimic fly (not to be confused with the bee-fly, lol.)


More waterlilies.


A different ladybug, and a little mystery bug.


This waterlily was so perfect it looked fake.

It was a really nice day. We did our usual stop at the café for coffee and a snack, and otherwise just had a really nice day walking around.

Second post will be the various critters, which is always the part I'm excited for, haha.

On Monday we decided to head up toward the Pawnee National Grasslands. Back when I was in college we lived much closer, and went out there pretty often. There's a birding "trail" (it's a driving route with a handful of stops around where certain birds are frequently seen), some good scenery, and sometimes other wildlife. We were hoping to see a rattlesnake, since we often did when we were up there before, but alas.

We didn't have a terribly specific plan, beyond maybe some of the birding areas, or just anywhere that seemed interesting to pull over and check out. Part of the road for the birding route is closed, and while it seemed like you could still go through, it also headed into a fee camping area, which I do not remember from before... but it has been 15+ years since we were exploring up there, so things may simply have changed! (The website also has one stop on the birding trail crossed out, just saying "this stop has been removed" and I want to know why!)

We pulled over at one informative sign, and went on a brief walk into the grasslands. Mostly there were a ton of wildflowers! It was lovely.

Unfortunately I also got bit by a fuckoff big mosquito and some of her friends. I swatted her while she was biting me and there was a pretty gross explosion of blood. Uuuuugh.


A beeplant! Actually mostly being visited by ants. With a photobomb from a little tiny wasp or some sort coming in from the lower right.


I took more cactus flower pictures than anything else, ha.

Ten more pictures:

Globemallow again!


A mystery fungal pod. (Probably some sort of small puffball?)


A lone prickly pear.


Asters.


I just really love prickly pear flowers! The petals are so delicate looking for something so stabby.


More prickly pear flowers. With bonus bug friends.


Not sure what these are, but they looked neat.


Seems like we'd just missed whatever these were blooming.


One more cactus flower picture!

We did drive one stretch of the birding route, and we did see quite a few birds! Lark buntings, horned larks, a few I couldn't quite identify... of course they mostly flew off as soon as the car was close, haha.

But...


One lark bunting, I swear! (On the top fence wire.) Lark buntings are the state bird of Colorado, but I only ever see them up on the plains here.

A pretty long drive both there and home, but it was still nice to see some areas we haven't been in quite a long while.

Last Tuesday was the day after we lost Cy. We didn't really... feel like doing anything, but also felt like we *should* do something, rather than just stay home and be sad.

Bella had spent almost all of Monday stuck in her kennel, so we wanted to let her go do things, too.

We decided to go to Matthews/Winters, a county park. It was a good choice: it kept us from dwelling quite so much, and it was a nice day to be outside. It was a park Cy always really liked, because of the creek at the front, and I kept getting teary at random, but it was still good.


View from the parking lot.


There were tons of wildflowers. The lupine is very happy this year!

Twelve more pictures, mostly wildflowers:

Mushrooms!

Matthews/Winters is the site of the Mount Vernon Cemetery. There are only two remaining headstones, though the cemetery likely includes additional burials. As far as I know, there's nothing else remaining of the town.

The helpful informative sign provides a little bit about the two known graves:


James H. Judy, died 1867, aged 21 years, 8 months, 15 days.


Rev. Isaiah Rogers Dean, died in 1860. [Apparently he moved to Colorado to try and treat his consumption (tuberculosis).]


Globemallow.


I love all the new growth on this prickly pear!


Just a nice view.


More of the lovely lupines.


Yucca flower.


Red-tailed hawk, high overhead.


Blanketflower.


Bluebells.


Silly, but I was trying to get a picture of the fritillary butterfly, but here it looks like it was pursuing Alex and Bella down the pathway, haha.

It was a very warm day, and it did wipe Bella out a bit, but she got to wade in the creek at the end, which she was more enthusiastic about than usual. As usual, she napped for a bit and was ready to go again, ha.

(Trying to keep going with the things I planned to.)

Part three of the pictures from the Botanic Gardens last Tuesday. Last Tuesday was better than this week's.


Tiny ducklings are so damn cute.


These were very striking, with the contrast between the upper and lower petals, plus the bright orange pollen!


I remembered these irises from last year. They're so vibrant!

Fourteen more pictures:

We took a break and headed to the Garden's restaurant, "The Hive." Their food is quite good, so it's always nice to get to go there. Mildly spendy, but well worth it for what you get. Their sweet potato fries are the best.


On the path up to the restaurant: mother duck in the middle of her little island, ducklings scattered around the edges. (Though she was not a fan of other ducklings; there was a second cohort of ducklings that were unattended by their parent, and she was pretty vicious about chasing them away.)


A towhee hanging out at one of the tables.


The ducklings came through on a scavenging sweep. They had no qualms about running under our feet.

It started raining a bit, but while it looked like it might last a while, it actually broke up quite quickly.

After lunch, it was on to the iris garden:


Happy Pride from these Persian jewels. :)


Ruffly! These ones smelled very sweet, if I remember.


This was one of my favorites. I love the stripes!


Another that was just a very different color from the rest.

Over by the cuttings garden:


A very striking two-toned lupine!


Ma'am! Attend to your children!! (I'm fairly sure this was the deadbeat neglecting her duckling children, who were frantically swimming around and peeping. Alex was distressed that they were distressed, but she seemed to be heading back in their direction.)

And in the Victorian garden:


I liked the caged succulents!


I love ferns, plus bonus columbines.

Then over to the Shofu-En Japanese garden.


(The informative sign reads: "A Lantern For Peace: This 250-year-old stone lantern was donated in 1964 by Denver's sister city, Takayama, Japan. The Sister Cities program and "friendship gardens" across the United States are symbols of cooperation and cultural exchange.")


And of course, my much-loved koi.


More koi!

Just one more gardens picture post to go.

On Tuesday, in part for late Mother's day and in part for early birthday, we wanted to take my mom to the Denver Botanic Gardens. We planned ahead for a day when she would be back from her New Mexico trip, and that she and Taylor could both take the day off from work.

Unfortunately, this wound up being the *one* day that was forecast to be chilly and rainy all day. (We've had rain basically every day for a bit now, but most days it's only for a little while. Tuesday was going to be overcast and drizzly basically the whole time!)

Mom still wanted to go for it, and was glad for the cooler temperatures, rather than walking around on a hot day. (And I was glad for that, especially for Taylor; last year we went and they wound up overheated and miserable, and had to head back to the car early.) Even so, I was a little apprehensive, because I loathe being cold, and I was afraid the cold rain would make it hard to appreciate anything about the day.

I was pleasantly surprised! It wound up being lovely. It did get uncomfortably cold a couple of times, but for the most part it was nice enough with a jacket. The initial drizzle let up within maybe half an hour, and minus another quick rain shower, it was just cloudy. While I prefer sun, the clouds did mean I didn't get sunburn. It was also nice for pictures - easier to get fairly accurate colors without direct sunlight.

And I took way too many pictures, lol. Even when I was trying to narrow it down very significantly, I think I kept... 70? So this will be split into several posts! Sometimes I try to split the posts into "themes" or something, but this time I think I'll just go for chronological through the gardens.

Hope you like pictures of ~water droplets on flowers~ lol.


One of the most dramatic in terms of water droplets!


Kind of an odd one, but I loved the way the water had collected on the seedpod inside this poppy.


This rose is so perfectly classic it looks fake. :)

Fourteen more pictures:

We waited at the entrance for a bit while we figured out our plan for the day.


There are some wonderfully tall yucca. There was also a very loud sparrow! I'm guessing they have nests within the yucca, which is probably the safest imaginable place.


Water droplets on poppy leaves.

In some of the gardens at the front:


I do like the way the water droplets look like little glass beads.



Then the "perennial walk" and a plaza:


Delightfully goth irises.


A ladybug pupa on a rose.


So ruffly!


Very classic rose!


A hummingbird, perched up high.

On the other side of the plaza is The Ellipse, the gardens around the Chihuly sculpture and in front of one of their admin buildings.


The columbines were having an absolute banner year this year! I don't know that I've ever seen quite so many doing so well.


Nice irises.


I like the burnt orange color.


And some lovely lupines!


And some two-toned ones! Plus the admin building (a beautiful converted house) in the background.

(Today was mom's actual birthday! I did stop by to see her briefly after work. I gifted her Overgrowth and the last six months of short stories from Seanan McGuire's patreon. I'm planning on getting some garden plants for her once I have a chance!)