The Many Seasons in Colorado
Colorado has the four main seasons just like most of the country. Winter is the longest season spanning practically six months of the year. The rest of the seasons may be short, but they are still noticeable. Spring and Fall go by very quickly. You can miss them if you’re not paying attention. Summers can last approximately three months and lately they have been extremely hot and dry. Up here in the mountains, we have a few more seasons that the rest of you may not experience. For example, we have Tourist season. We get folks from every corner of the globe. Unfortunately, quite a few of them come from Texas. It used to be two very distinct seasons; Summer Tourism for the campers and hikers and Winter Tourism for the skiers and riders. For the past few years, however, Tourist season has started to feel like it lasts all year round. During the Fall and early Winter we also have Hunting season. This is when a bunch of guys from the Midwest and east coast come up to the mountains to drink Budweiser and try not to kill each other. Some of them can actually distinguish between a deer and an elk. There is one more season that we have to suffer through up here in the mountains. It’s one that all of us would rather not have to experience and it is beginning right now. We call it Earwig season.
These lovely critters start showing up around the middle of July and will stick around through August. They don’t do much harm, but they are incredibly creepy. They have these awful looking pincers on their butt and they will use them. The worst part of these little bugs is that they can fit through the smallest openings and get into places that seem impossible. They crawl around under the baseboards, up the walls, and across the ceiling. Earwigs like dark, damp places, so you usually have some company in the shower. You can try washing them down the drain, but they come back. Just mention earwigs to the folks who live here and all of them will tell you how much they hate them.
Just When You Thought…
… that Spring was here and summer was just around the corner you wake up and there is a white blanket of snow on the ground. That is exactly what has been happening almost every morning this week. It was just last weekend that I had the rake out and was cleaning up the front yard. Now the deck needs shoveling. We were all saying how the thaw seemed to be a bit early this year and I suppose that was true enough. Well, now it’s winter again. Ski season doesn’t end for another couple of weeks, so more snow isn’t actually a bad thing. However, when Mother Nature starts to tease you with green grass and brightly colored Crocus, Spring fever has a way of setting in. After spending five months looking at a white landscape and staying inside huddled around a fire all you want to do is sit outside in the sun and watch the grass grow. Well, that’s going to have to wait just a bit longer.
Springtime in the Rockies
Don’t blink.
You might miss it.
After almost six months of winter, spring literally springs upon you without warning. One day it’s snowing with temperatures at or below freezing and the next is sunny with temps in the fifties. The changes are very subtle. First comes the warmer temperatures. Then the amazing melt off. You can have three to four feet of snow in your yard and it can be gone in a matter of days. As the snow recedes, spring flowers such as Crocus and Daffodils begin to pop out of the ground. The Crocus will actually start to bloom while still covered under a thin layer of snow.
I know that spring is here by the arrival of the Red-Winged Blackbirds. They begin flocking in early March and are soon followed by the Robins. Well, the Robins are here and today I noticed the first tips of Daffodils poking up through the mud. Within the next couple of weeks the hillsides will start to turn a beautiful spring green as the Aspen trees bud.
We will probably have a few more days of snowfall, however, it won’t stick for long. As soon as you blink, it will be summer.
2010 F1 Schedule
Date Location Mar. 14 
Sakhir - Bahrain Mar. 28 
Melbourne - Australia Apr. 04 
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Apr. 18 
Shanghai - China May 09 
Barcelona - Spain May 16 
Monaco May 30 
Istanbul - Turkey Jun. 13 
Montreal - Canada Jun. 27 Valencia - Spain Jul. 11 
Silverstone - Great Britain Jul. 25 
Hockenheim - Germany Aug. 01 
Budapest - Hungary Aug. 29 
Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium Sep. 12 
Monza - Italy Sep. 26 
Singapore Oct. 10 
Suzuka - Japan Oct. 24 
South Korea Nov. 07 
Sao Paulo - Brazil Nov. 14 
Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates -
