The color of snow...

It has been snowing pretty much all day today. I think it was to punish shopping procrastinators like me, as it made getting in and out of the mall absolutely treacherous! I gave up and came home early and have been working on finishing up gift projects instead, hoping it will be better tomorrow. Ha! The forecast promises more snow. And I wonder what color the snow will be tomorrow?

I have been fascinated lately with the color of snow. I awoke in the night one night last week and looked out the sitting room window. The sky was orange and the snow was yellow (and my dog was inside, so it wasn't his fault.)


Late this afternoon, I looked out the kitchen window and was amazed to see a pretty pale pink cast to the snow. I took a few photos, but didn't go outside far enough to look for a 'view,' so just took a shot of the back garden.

About a half hour later, as the sun was going down, the pink color intensified. It was amazing! My husband was arriving home from work just as I went out to take another photo. We were both impressed. We thought maybe the sunset above the storm was a bright one, but I have never seen such pink snow. However, several more hours have passed, and several more inches of snow have accumulated and we just went outside, to find the snow still pinkish, in a night-time shade! So it wasn't the sunset. Maybe it's a holiday glow, cast from all the lights around the valley, though our lights and most of our neighbors' are all white.


Well, whatever is causing it, it is pretty. I have a watercolor painting friend who says you can paint snow any color, and it will read as snow. I guess I believe her now.

Here is someone else's photo of pink snow from Loveland, CO. (I'm not even going to Google 'yellow snow', as I am no dummy!) There is evidently a phenomenon here in Colorado when an algae causes the snow to actually be pink, but what we're seeing here tonight I believe is a light effect, not actual coloration in the snow. Here is a scientific quote from a site regarding pink, or 'watermelon' snow:
Another theory, from an eminently reputable source; "The Cat in The Hat Comes Back" by Dr. Seuss, describes pink snow resulting from a desperate attempt to remove cake frosting from the bathtub, then mother's dress, then the wall, father's shoes, the rug, the bed, and finally leaving the snow all around the house pink. To turn pink snow white again, you need VOOM, carried in the hat of Little Cat Z.

I believe this may be the explanation of what we have here tonight.

(By the way, my skeptical son, the color was NOT caused by Photoshop! Just ask your dad.)

Pink!

We went up to our cabin for the past two days. We haven't been there since before Christmas, because we are getting to be 'wuss-ier' as we age. (Is that a word? If not, it will be when you reach my age!) When we first got the cabin, we were 30 years old. In the winter, we have to climb a very steep hill on cross country skis (then) or snowshoes (now.) We also have to carry everything we need; water, food, clothing, books, dog food, etc. My husband pulls most of that on a sled, but I try to haul up my own 'stuff.'

When you're 30 years old, that hill (which is about the length of a city block) doesn't seem so long or steep, even if you are hauling for a family of four instead of just two, and if you are also hauling a couple of toddlers. But now, 30 years later, that hill can be quite a challenge, which is why we have switched from skis to snowshoes.

 

Also, when you are 30, 3 1/2 feet of snow and cold weather is nothing, except a lovely playground for you and your kids and dog. It still is a lovely playground, but....  When it was below zero every day for the month of January, we would consider going to the cabin, then we would think of sitting huddled before the fire, trying to get warm, and we would (I shame-facedly admit) choose to stay home. 

The cabin is a large one-room A-frame with two open lofts, all heated by a woodburning stove. When it is below zero, it never gets really warm inside. In fact, even this weekend, it took a long time before it was as warm inside as it was outside in the sun. I spend a bit of time in the sun-warmed truck, sketching, waiting for the stove to get hot. We do know how to layer up and dress warmly here in Colorado, though! That, and the huge need for sunscreen, is the first thing you learn when you live here.

 This is the pile of wood we cut last fall, supposedly 'drying out' to be used next winter.

Click on image to enlarge

One of my favorite pastimes in the winter at the cabin is watching the birds we feed. You know this about me already, if you have seen all the birds in my tapestries. Many of them have come from photos I have taken at the cabin. Booker loves to keep an eye on the birds, as well.

We have the 'regulars,' being the chickadees, nuthatches, and jays (as seen in the Winter tapestry.) And we have the 'occasionals,' such as the gold and red winged blackbirds, the woodpecker (who likes to come with small flocks), and the grosbeaks. But yesterday I looked out the window and saw a flock of PINK birds! Pink birds in Colorado! We had never seen such a thing! They came and went, seeming to be a bit skittish when the bigger jays were anywhere near. I checked our ever informative bird books, and couldn't find them. They have a beak that looked like a grosbeak, so, when I got home I looked for 'pink grosbeak' online, and didn't find anything that looked right. I finally discovered that they are "Black Rosy Finches," or Leucosticte. They are related to crossbills and grosbeaks. If you do a Google search for them, and look at the images, you will see how varied and lovely they really are!

A few years ago, I shared with you the phenomenon of pink snow that Colorado has, and now I have discovered that we also have lovely pink birds! Maybe that is one of the reasons our state nickname is "Colorful Colorado." We have colors for everyone - even for those who love Pink!

Pink Moon...

Even though they are several states away, the California fires are visible here in very red sunsets and, tonight, in causing us to have a very pink full moon! Last winter I saw pink snow for the first time, and now a pink moon! I wonder what that says about our changing atmosphere?

Anyway, now Nick Drake's song, "Pink Moon" is going through my head, so I thought I'd share it with you in this YouTube video.

In my much neglected garden...

My garden has been neglected even more than usual this year, as we have plans to renovate it a bit, and make it more desert-friendly (or, not as expensive to water!) It doesn't seem to matter. It continues to bloom, in spite of the neglect. My lilacs gave in to a late freeze, so I did miss their wonderful scent this year, but the lilies of the valley have made up for their loss, filling the air with their sweetness.

They are such a subtle plant, people will stand on my porch and look around to see what smells so good, and are amazed when I tell them it is these tiny plants.

My peonies are blooming now, as well. I have several colors, and I have decided to keep them, even though they are not a desert plant. Some things are just worth what they demand.

On the side of our house we have two old-fashioned rose bushes. They are the kind that are called 'wild roses' here. Several weeks ago, they were in a riot of bloom, totally covered with roses. It just takes one big wind, though, and the blooms fly away. The strange thing about these  bushes though, is that, although one of them is a yellow rose and the other is a bright red-orange bush, a week or two after those roses are gone, the past few years the red bush has put on a few dozen pink blooms. The pink ones are on the same branches that have previously held red blooms, so I am not quite sure where these pink ones come from! And, though the rose bushes were here long before we moved into the house, it has just been the past few years (3, maybe) that the bush has bloomed in pink, as well as red.

My clematis  is doing well this year, too. It has bloomed several times before now, and it is climbing up the old iron bed headboard I have put in the garden for it.

In addition to blooms, the garden is filled with winged visitors, as well. The hummingbirds arrived just after our big April snow storm, which gave me hope that the winter was truly over at last.

And there is something in our garden or yard that yellow swallowtails just love. I do have a butterfly bush, but it is just beginning to bloom. I think they might like the peonies. We have a lot of them flitting through the yard and garden, at any rate.

 

We also have a lot of bees. The bees love the flowering crabtree when it is in bloom. It absolutely buzzes with their presence. That tree bloomed about a month ago, though, so they have also moved on to the peonies, or whatever else they can find to fill up on.

I don't know what this little moth is, but she was flitting around in the strawberry bed, just begging me to take her photo when I was out there with the camera a little while ago! I am hoping she will be content with strawberry leaves. We do not seem to have yarn-eating moths here, and I would like it to stay that way!

I will be having a weaving marathon for the next four-five days. My husband will be otherwise occupied, so I intend to get the October tapestry finished and off the loom. (More garden neglect time.) I'll let you know when that happens!

January was a sleeping cat...

... and a new pink capo for the newly replaced neck of my guitar. How could I resist a pink capo? (Plus, it benefits breast cancer research.)

January was winter sunsets from my studio window. But no snow to speak of, pink, or otherwise.

 

January was a month of surprises; like going to church and having someone say, " I saw your photo in the newspaper yesterday." I thought they were mistaken, so asked, "Really? What was I doing in the paper?"  "Weaving," was the reply, so I knew it had to be me. And it was. Nothing said about me, just the photo and the caption, "Kathy Spoering at the loom" above an article about art seminars. Wouldn't you think I would have known if my photo was to be in the paper? Well.... anyway.

January was, and soon February will be. What will it bring?

Alpenglow....

 

I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The scenery here is varied, and we have four beautiful seasons. There is a phenomenon here called 'alpenglow' (not actually 'Aspenglow,' as in John Denver's song lyrics on the photo above.) Wikipedia describes it this way:

Alpenglow (from German: Alpenglühen) is an optical phenomenon in which a horizontal red glowing band is observed on the horizon opposite to the sun. This effect occurs when the Sun is just below the horizon. Alpenglow is easiest to observe when mountains are illuminated but can also be observed when the sky is illuminated through backscattering.

I love the effect of alpenglow. We live in a valley, with mountains surrounding us. In the early morning, you can see alpenglow on the towers of the Colorado National Monument to the west. We see it most often on our way to church, which is when I took the iPhone shot above.

In the evening, we see it on the Bookcliffs, the Grand Mesa, and Mt. Garfield (as above, and in the beautiful photo below, which a local photographer posted on Twitter.)

photo Dann Cianca

Alpenglow is not easy to capture. It lasts just for a moment, just before the sun sets or immediately as it comes up over the opposite horizon. We were at our mountain cabin this week, and watched alpenglow appear on the far horizen, just to disappear before I could capture it. There was still a hint of color in the sky, but the color was fast fading on the snow (top photo - to which I confess I added the snowfall.)

Almost every evening I see the top of the mountains to the east glow a pink-gold. Alpenglow; what a lovely word for an amazing and beautiful sight. Some day I will capture it in a photo or a painting or a tapestry. Until then, I will continue to treasure it each time it appears.

Tomorrow: holidays over, company leaves (sad grandma face here,) back to the studio to work (happy artist face here.)

Up, and Down....

I've not much more progress to report on the tapestry. Maybe I'll take the Mirrix down to the TV room tomorrow and try to weave a bit during the Super Bowl. It will keep me from biting my already short nails as I cheer the Broncos on. 

Go Broncos!

This has been a 'down' week: a 2-day migraine, brought on by a big oncoming storm. Then the snow came and gave me relief for a day, but then I did something to my back, making doing almost anything somewhere between miserable and impossible.

I've pretty much added this week to my 'cut my losses' column. This morning I decided to take Danny Gregory's advise, and just draw what was in front of me. So the sketchbook got a quick sketch of my guitar/computer glasses, my tuner, and my pink capo, on one of the many pieces of music spread around me (always.)

I am doing the Sketchbook Skool Expressing online class, and this week's assignment is to do a watercolor sketch of my lunch. Too late, today. Maybe tomorrow.