95 degrees, dry and severe thunderstorms...

Storms ahead as we near Laramie on Highway 287. 

As I write this afternoon I've had 7 severe weather alerts on my phone.  

They are focused on northeastern and north central parts of Colorado, where the state flattens out and resembles neighbors Kansas and Nebraska.  

Warnings include high winds, large hail and dangerous lightning.

All of which makes me grateful to be living in the foothills and closer to the Rocky Mountains.  Still we also have possible storms today and the mountains are obscured by smoke from a fire burning in the Walden area, near the Wyoming-Colorado border.

Rain storms over Laramie last Friday afternoon.

It's very dry and very hot.

This morning I got up at 6:30 to begin watering my Secret Garden in the front and my flower gardens in the back yard.  

We have a sprinkler system for the lawns, but even after adjusting the sprinkler heads we have areas where the grass is parched and crisp.

We also have a drip system for the gardens--but when it's this hot and dry I don't trust them to deliver enough moisture to keep the flowers and trees alive. 

Water is precious and expensive and I water carefully and sparingly--and, always finish before the mandatory restrictions begin.

Fragrant yellow roses begin blooming early in June.

I often find myself at odds for yearning for a good saturating rainstorm and relieved when the severe storms with damaging hail blow to the east and miss us altogether.

Meanwhile, the days here are averaging in the 90s and the UV index is high and not to be ignored.

...in the shade on our covered back deck.

 It was with joyful anticipation that we left the surly bonds of heat and headed to the mountains for the weekend--just in time for the first wave of wild flowers.

The blooming period is so brief and yet so intense.  We arrived at my folk's cabin just in time to enjoy the last blooms of the wild iris (some of the earliest to bloom) and the first fragrant blooms of the wild roses.

Beautiful purple wild iris bloom in the grassy wetlands near beaver ponds.

The sweet perfume of wild roses takes me back to childhood when I would visit my grandparents and smell
the wild roses blooming around their house in northern Wyoming.

It was also hot and dry in the mountains, but less hot ("just" in the 80s) and less dry as my folks enjoyed TWO afternoon rainstorms before we arrived.

My Dad feeds a zillion hummingbirds and assorted critters such as chipmunks and Golden Mantles.

Usually there are a few foxes and sometimes a bear or two--but not this year, at least not yet.

I did hear the coyotes singing a number of times each night--not like the coyotes in Windsor who seem to be communicating with each other by howling at the moon--but rather like an actual chorus singing to the sky. It was beautiful and quite melodious.


It is June days like these that remind me to slow down, stop to smell those fabulous wild roses and linger over another cup of tea.

"Live in the 
sunshine.
Swim in the sea.
Drink the wild air."

--Ralph Waldo
    Emerson