Sunday, September 15, 2024

Oh Deer!


 I haven't had the chance to write much about what's been happening in our local area this summer, and now it's almost fall! I didn't plant my usual vegetable and flower garden this summer because we traveled to New York and went on an East Coast Cruise in June. In a way, I'm glad we didn't plant anything because this trio of animals has been hanging out in my backyard almost every day, eating everything. The doe looks thin in this photo because she was still nursing her twin fawns. She's now back to normal weight as the fawns are older, and almost exclusively eat plants.


It has been nice looking out my windows to watch the fawns grow up!


This week I noticed that the fawns lost their spots and were growing their winter fur! It has been getting cooler at night although our daytime temperatures have been above normal for this time of year.



This is another deer trio that has been visiting lately--three young bucks!


They have also been eating all my shrubs!

I know I can spray a deer repellent on the shrubs to deter them,  but I don't like to apply chemicals that can affect the birds, insects and bees, rabbits, squirrels, etc, that also visit my backyard, so I've learned to tolerate them munching on everything.




Speaking of wild rabbits...we have many that also eat everything! They had a hard time with the high temperatures this summer and I often saw them sprawling out on a patch of dirt under a tree to cool off. Their poses made me laugh!




To successfully grow any plant that grows, I have found that I need to protect it by surrounding it with chicken wire fences. As a result, a handful of perennials have been able to bloom this summer, along with some vibrant sunflowers. It was nice to see a bit of color!



Fall in Colorado is beautiful, and I look forward to sharing some photos soon.

Be sure to check back!

You can also find me on:

Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, September 8, 2024

A Geology Field Trip In My Colorado Front Range Neighborhood!


 

I live in an area along the Colorado Front Range rich in geological features and natural beauty!




We can hike in many areas and see geological formations called the Permian era Lyons Formation (whitish compressed sandstone area), the Pennsylvanian era Fountain Formation (red rocks), and the Cretaceous era Dakota Formation  (sandstone, clays, and shale) which were formed many hundreds of millions of years ago.  

A nearby national landmark Dinosaur Rridge, which was once the home of many stegosaurus dinosaurs is also a Dakota Formation. You can see a prior blog post on this link where we visited Dinosaur Ridge for another geologic tour by a geologist that we attended.




Our community's historical society hosted a "Geology Field Trip" one day this summer with our members and three residents with scientific backgrounds in geology and paleontology. They volunteered to take us on an educational three-hour tour of our area to learn more about its geologic history. They made a wonderful multi-page handout for each member with scientific definitions, geologic timelines, and definitions which was very interesting and helpful during our tour.




An example of Precambrian Metamorphic Rock

They first discussed the geology of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado

The Rocky Mountains took shape during an intense period of plate tectonic activity that resulted in much of the rugged landscape of Western North America

In the southern Rocky Mountains, near present-day Colorado and New Mexico, the Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks were disturbed by mountain-building shifts which produced the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. The uplift formed two large mountainous islands, located roughly in the current locations of the Front Range and the San Juan Mountains. They consisted largely of Precambrian metamorphic rock, forced upward through layers of limestone and laid down in the shallow sea. The mountains eroded throughout the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras leaving extensive deposits of sedimentary rock.



We moved to another area where we examined whitish rock formations among red rock.




Stromatolite formations

We learned that the white-colored rock was a product of the late Permian era of about 250 million years ago, in which a great extinction took place of many land and sea-bound life. In this post-extinction scene along what was then a slimy slimy mounds known as stromatolites formed. The stromatolites were located in shallow and salty pools and were an unlikely partnership of bacteria and algae. The ones in our area are Permian/Triassic era Lykins Stromolites.



 
A hogback formation

Across from the stromolites, we could see a familiar sight in our area a hogback formation.  Hogbacks are a typical regional topographic expression of outcrops of steeply dipping strata, commonly sedimentary strata, that consist of alternating beds of hard, well-lithified strata, i.e. sandstone and limestone, and either weak or loosely cemented strata, i.e. shale, mudstone, and marl.






We now moved to another area and saw a Late Jurassic Morrison Formation where dinosaur quarries are often found, such as those in the aforementioned Dinosaur Ridge. The geologists went over the different combinations of geologic formations in this area which were formed 150 million years ago and the paleontologist held up a dinosaur Apatosaurus bone that he had unearthed on a scientific expedition in Wyoming.  We were all able to hold the bone and feel its weight and size.




Finally, visited a creek bed where young residents found a prehistoric Mammoth jaw and tusk in 2009. The original specimens were donated to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, but we were able to hold a model. Look at those giant molars! The Colorado Front Range area has been the location of extinct Ice Age animals and artifacts from later human occupation from 11,000 years ago. We visited an area called Lamb Spring Archeological Preserve a few years ago--you can read that blog post on this link. There, in 1960, the land's owner and rancher, Charles Lamb, was digging a stock pond at the site of a natural spring. He found several large bones that were identified by geologists with the US Geological Survey, as the remains of mammoth, horse, camel, and bison

Our tour guides could have explained more, but our three-hour time limit was up. They promised to organize similar tours in other areas in the future, and we all eagerly expressed our appreciation for all we learned this time and our enthusiasm for taking a future tour.



It seems appropriate that a premier engineering and applied science Colorado School of Mines is located in Golden Colorado. The university has a spectacular geologic museum with samples from Colorado, as well as samples from around the world. We often visit, and if you enjoy geology you can see a two-part blog post I wrote about one visit to their museum on this Part One link and this Part Two link.


You can also find me on:


Posted by at 20 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, September 2, 2024

A Joyful Drive Around Manhattan, NYC!

A view of lower Manhattan from Brooklyn, New York


Usually, the word "joyful" doesn't usually match well with the phrase "driving around Manhattan in New York City," due to heavy traffic, lack of free parking, and expensive parking garages. However, my husband and I enjoyed a wonderful sightseeing car tour of a part of Manhattan when we returned to Brooklyn, New York after our East Coast Princess Cruise in June. We had spent a few days visiting family and friends in Brooklyn and Long Island, and on this particular day, my dear friend Rosemary wanted to spend the day with us and offered to drive around to show us all the old and new sights we had not seen in quite a while. If you have been a long-time reader of my blog, you will remember I lived in Brooklyn, NY all my life until we moved to Colorado eleven years ago to be closer to our children and grandchildren. The first five years of this blog mainly focused on my life in New York City.




This brand new luxury condominium building called Olympia in Brooklyn faces the East River with sights of lower Manhattan.





We drove over the East River on the famous Brooklyn Bridge.






We're now in Lower Manhattan.

Rosemary and I were happily chatting about many things as we drove along, and all the while, I snapped photos with my cell phone.





Rosemary drove on the West Side Highway where we passed many new high-rise buildings and a new elevated park along the Hudson River at Pier 55 called Little Island (photo in the upper right of the collage above)




We continued driving north on the West Side Highway, passing numerous tall penthouse-type buildings and an exclusive-looking senior living facility. (All photos will enlarge in size for easier viewing of details if clicked on)  We drove a bit further north and then traffic became heavy and slow so Rosemary drove east crosstown.






We passed  one of the entrances to Central Park





Some of the buildings surrounding Central Park and one of the many horse and carriage rides that can be hired for a tour inside the park.





As we continued driving south on 5th Avenue, we passed many familiar buildings: St. Patrick's Cathedral on the upper left, the Apple Store on the right, Tiffany & Company on the lower left, and Cartier on the lower right.





Saks Fifth Ave on one side of 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center on the other side





In the distance, I could see the Empire State Building. What was that figure ganging onto the antenna on top? Could it be King Kong??  No, it turned out to be a large dragon that was promoting a HBO TV show called " House of the Dragon."




We next passed the large New York Public Library main branch on 5th Ane with its iconic lion statues, Patience, and Fortitude, in front.






The triangle-shaped Flatiron Building in the upper left was covered with netting as it is being extensively renovated to turn it into luxury condos. The New School building is on the lower left of the collage.





Next, we drove through the Greenwich Village neighborhood and passed the Washington Square Arch and New York University.
We stopped to buy some delicious gelato cones to eat and stretch our legs a bit.




We returned to the West Side where we passed more new very tall apartment or condominium buildings in Battery Park and the elite Stuyvesant High School building which requires an entrance exam for admission although it is a public school.



We were very close to the new World Trade Center complex at this location. The largest building in the complex is called the Freedom Tower. It is hard to see it all when one is close up!




We drove east towards the Brooklyn Bridge and I could see the Brooklyn East River waterfront.




We drove across the Brooklyn Bridge again...






Once we were back in Brooklyn, we had a view of Lower Manhattan in the distance, and we passed the large ETSY headquarters.





We treated Rosemary to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Brooklyn. I've missed their wonderful fish salad! She took our photo but wouldn't allow us to take hers because she had tears in her eyes knowing that we were leaving the next day to fly home to Colorado. She promised me that she would visit us in Colorado again soon, and asked us to wait until then to take photos. I am holding her to that promise!

I hope you enjoyed riding along with us in Manhattan in this post! I have a lot to catch up on this blog with what has been happening this summer in Colorado and I hope you'll be back again next week!  
Happy September!

You can also find me on:


Posted by at 24 comments:
Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)