Visitors are common in our town. Situated along the Front Range with plains to the east and mountains rising suddenly to the west, Golden is divided by Clear Creek gushing out of the mountains and sheltered from the Denver metro area by two mesas to the east. On the west side, big Lookout Mountain has […]
Tag Archives: animals
There’s a new hole in the ground that goes under the edge of one of our flower beds near the bird feeder. Our yard is pretty wild and, probably according to the neighbors, unkempt. Our dog has dug up a few spots, and the squirrels routinely create small excavations in the lawn where they either […]
Our dog Rosie goes outside sometimes and, staring off to the adjacent yard, begins to bark. I try to get her to stop, and look around to see what might have caused her to bark. I usually find nothing and can only assume that she heard or smelled something strange that I’m unable to pick […]
Our part of town is over a hundred years old with historic houses built pretty close together and aged lawns, flower beds and tree-lined streets. There are plenty of old trees and swaths of ancient shrubbery coursing through the yards and alleys. Our proximity to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains (just a few blocks […]
The cooler autumn weather allows us to turn off the window AC in our bedroom and keep the windows open, instead. Things chill down overnight, causing us to keep blankets handy and encouraging snuggling beneath them. The dog and cats also appreciate the opportunity to snuggle up. Our second-floor bedroom faces the alley, but we […]
“Having conducted this review, we believe that scent dogs deserve their place as a serious diagnostic methodology that could be particularly useful during pandemics, potentially as part of rapid health screenings in public spaces.” ~ Professor Tommy Dickey, University of California, Santa Barbara I’ve had dogs pretty much my whole life. When I was at […]
It’s warm, so we have the windows open both day and night and have resorted to a bedroom window fan for the still, warm nights. The fireworks that kept our dog and us awake at night over the holiday weekend seem to have, at least for now, subsided, but there are plenty of other noises. […]
“Wild thing (bam, bam bomp!) You make my heart sing (bam, bam bomp!) You make everything … groovy.” ~ The Troggs My sister reports from San Antonio that she has made friends with a neighborhood possum. She occasionally puts food out for it, mostly leftovers of some kind. Possums are omnivores, so they eat […]
Quite a mix of birds has collected around the bird feeders outside our kitchen windows this year. The Chickadees and Juncos vie with the House Finches, Nuthatches and occasional Sparrow for a place at the trough. Lately, the big birds – Robins, Doves, Flickers and Jays – have become more aggressive in getting their share. […]
Little boxes on the hillsideLittle boxes made of ticky-tackyLittle boxes, Little boxesLittle boxes all the sameThere’s a green one and a pink oneAnd a blue one and a yellow oneAnd they’re all made out of ticky-tackyAnd they all look just the same ~ Pete Seeger, Little Boxes Suburbs get a bad rap environmentally — spreading […]
Writes of Nature 