The Desert is in Bloom

Our weekend trip to Arches NP was very colorful indeed. The weather was not the best for bikes so we kept to the canyon bottoms and had a very enjoyable time exploring some of the less-known corners of a very popular national park.

A RUINed Weekend

The weather turned nice and we took the truck and bikes down to the SW corner of Colorado and the SE corner of Utah to see how the desert was looking. The abundant moisture of the winter is being felt now as the desert was in bloom. It was difficult to keep our eyes on the trail as we hiked a bit and biked across a few of the canyons looking at ancient Anasazi ruins and a plethora of wild flowers.

Navigating our way.

Canyon of the Ancients with Sleeping Ute Mountain in the background.

Cliff Rose. Is here any flower more fragrant in the spring time?

An ancient two level town house.

The trail through the cliffs.

Finished

The last nail

The last drop of paint

Pictures up on the wall

The shower curtain hung with care

A spring weekend

After a succession of less-than-optimal-weather weekends, we were presented with a Saturday and Sunday that was warm and dry. To take advantage of the weather, before it decided to get windy cloud up and rain on our parade hike, we decided that Saturday wold be used to get the garden ready and Sunday would our play day. We hiked up to the rattlesnake canyon Arches. The second largest concentration of natural arches in the world. We would visit a geologic wonderland while traversing the spring desert alive with flowers!

The tools of the trade on Saturday., gloves, seeds and irrigation equipment. We were able to turn every square millimeter of garden space as well as add some homegrown compost. This year we are adding some new garden space, about four square meters worth of dirt.

More dirt tools. The ever present wheel barrow filled here with compost being added to the main raised beds. last year we nailed the irrigation on these big beds so this year I am just copying the old system. Unfortunately, not every garden space had optimum irrigation, so we are trying some new configurations in other spots.

Working on the sun flower and Hollyhock area.

On the steep climb above Polluck canyon a collared lizard stopped to let us do some wild life photography.
Two of the many arches to be seen in Rattlesnake Canyon.
The flowers are incredibly colorful this time of year.

A change of routine

Last week I had the chance to travel to DC and take in some National Geographic training and was able to visit Katie.

We visited the embassy open houses.

No visit to DC is complete without some time at the National Cathedral
Looking down the mall at the SOP, Seat of Power (more commonly known as the US Capitol)
Another DC landmark.