Catching Up

I have missed everyone. We have been busy here at the Garden Spot and I am finding myself in a rush this morning to get my post done in time to make the Mosaic Monday deadline. I may miss it. So I'll be short on words today and long photos.

The main garden event for May is always the Iris. The only one I know in this lineup is Edith Warford. Did I spell it correctly? The yellow with lavender petals I love her. They have faded now. I'll did up the large clumps and have more to plant.

I took a couple of day trips. This series of photos are from a drive I took with the Head Gardener. Each year he takes the grandsons up to a place called King's Canyon on a private ranch for an archery shoot sponsored by the Colorado Bow Hunters Association. This year he volunteered to take the trailer up with the targets. It was a beautiful drive, going through the corner of Wyoming through Laramie, Wyo. 

The wild flowers were so pretty. No mountain columbine. Usually they don't bloom until around the 4th of July in the aspen stands.

The granddaughters are over about once a week to ride. Lily loves to ride POP and he behaves for her. Purple is their favorite color. Can you tell?

Spent the day with Elinore in Cheyenne, Wyo. at a big rabbit show--1800 bunnies showed that day. It was a freezing cold in the indoor horse arena-rained all day. This is one of her red mini rex bunnies. Their coat is like velvet. So soft. The buck was disqualified because he was too fat but I think he won first in her division for quality of coat. It was long cold day, but Ellie learned a lot about rabbits--me, too.

Just a horse picture. Horses are herd animals and we have small herd--two, but they hang with the neighbor's horses. I like watching the horses. 

We had a very good hay cutting experience with a new guy. If you remember the other fellows who cut the hay had huge tractors and had such a difficult time, so this little guy knew how to do it. Instead of windowing the hay, he laid it out flat and it dried in a day as opposed to a week. So it was cut and baled in three days. A real record. We got 96 bales.

My sister-in-law and I took a nice road trip to this old stage coach station, again near the Wyoming border. It is the Overland Trail Stage Coach station that served this part of the wild west in the 1860s. It has been restored and this was their dedication ceremony. It is truly out of the pages of Colorado history of wagon trains and settlers traveling to the west coast. It is located on private property so the only time visitors can go in is on these special occasions when the community club invites visitors.

Can you imagine traveling across this land in a wagon? Somewhere over there by the rock formations  the Overland Trail wound it way to the stage coach stop where travels were fed and stayed the night at the inn next door, which was really just two rooms. Jack Black and wife Virginia Dale were a colorful couple, out laws, really. Jack Black was eventually hanged in Montana for steeling cattle. 

I could go on and on, but I don't want to miss the Monday Mosaic Deadline, so more next time.

Thanks for stopping by. Join me at Mosaic Monday.