Lilac Snow

Tuesday (yesterday) morning, 6:30 a.m.

On Sunday it was 80 degrees; I actually considered putting on shorts, got a little sunburn. By Monday night, I was worried whether my lilacs would survive. This is what they looked like Tuesday morning.
A little late for "daffodil snow" this year, we ended up with a real "lilac snow"... and I scraped more than 3 inches off my car yesterday morning.

(Essay on spring snow season...)

Ahhh, Colorado! This a.m., temp is already approaching 44 degrees, and the sky is bright and sunny. Per usual. Mild surprise--the lilacs seem to be coming back to life. The blossoms on the Italian plum and apple will probably be gone; all the flower buds on the green ash trees fell to the ground. The ashes will have to put out a new set of leaves; tender new ones have frozen. Never even saw an apricot blossom this spring; they were killed long ago by one of our cold spells. What about the wild plums? Will their flowers weather the weather better than our introduced fruits? The bears hope so...

Here's this morning, for comparison.

Just a few spots of white stuff left-- It's as if the world has gone from black-and-white to color!

Valley Birds

Yesterday morning we sat in Lila's sunroom in Morrison, just 200-300 vertical feet downhill, and watched the birds at her feeders. A lazuli bunting, blue as today's sky, showed up! Also a red-breasted nuthatch, somebody I hadn't seen before. But she lacked our white-crowned sparrows and goldfinches. What a difference a mile makes! Here on the hill, we still have juncos, our winter pals.