Weekend Adventures

We hiked up Mt Herman this Saturday (the back side, less strenuous than the route I’ve taken the last couple of times). I got a few decent pictures of the flowers in the field by the parking lot at the base:
Flower 1

Flower 2

We hung out (literally, I brought a hammock) near the top to eat lunch. This ground squirrel was really interested in what we had to eat but wasn’t willing to come anywhere near us and vanished any time we moved:
Ground Squirrel

Obligatory picture of Pike’s Peak:
Pike's Peak

Second hike of the weekend was up Seven Bridges in North Cheyenne Canyon. The trail follows a stream up the valley, so there were a number of water falls. I don’t know how much farther the trail goes, but we turned back at the seventh bridge.
Waterfalls

Found this one in my yard. Hummingbirds like red flowers, right? It took a week for the level to go down noticeably, but now my hummingbird feeder is empty. I’m wondering if there were strong winds Saturday that dumped it out.
Yard Flowers

I don’t know why, but when I was taking a picture of her Talore looked straight at me and meowed. Picture came out perfect:
Complaining Talore

April Showers

Oh wait, this is Colorado, nevermind…
Snowy Mountains

The incline is just visible next to the tree on the far right of the picture. I wasn’t at all tempted to make this weekend my first hike up the incline for the year.

The lilac plant had unopened flower buds just starting to show up, I suspect it now won’t be blooming this year.

Poor Lilac

Hail

Last weekend the weather decided to be unpleasant. I don’t have a lot to say, but the pictures tell the story quite well. Here are the before pictures when my yard was looking so nice:
Before Yard

Before Fence

Before Roses

Storm in progress:
Hail!

After the hail finally stopped:
After Yard

Birdfeeder

After Fence

After Roses

It hailed on and off for a few hours. When it finally stopped hailing/raining I had 3+ inches of hail gathered against the fence and all the plants in my yard were looking quite battered.