Happy Trails

"Some trails are happy ones,

Others are blue.

It's the way you ride the trail that counts,

Here's a happy one for you..."

~ Dale Evans

You can watch Dale Evans and her husband Roy Rogers sing the entire song on YouTube on this link.

I remember hearing Dale and Roy sing that song during my childhood. It made me imagine riding a horse up into the mountains along a dusty trail.  I'm walking on those trails these days, and glad to have over forty-five miles of them, almost in my backyard!

It has been a wonderful outlet to be able to go out and walk in different directions in the cool mornings and see and hear nature while staying socially distanced from others during this pandemic.

My husband plows ahead at a quick pace and I lag behind stopping to take a photo of this or that--a wildflower, or rock formation, or clouds in the sky...

...their combinations are too beautiful not to admire!

I do take a lot of photos!  They make me happy!

With so many trails to chose from our views are varied. In the photo above we are hiking west up towards the foothills with a view of our community in the foreground and then the hogback formations to the east.

The foothills loom over our valley and look so close, but we have to hike far to reach towards their top.  Most of our neighbors like to mountain bike on these trails. 

Wild Yucca

The Colorado foothills climate is considered high desert, with hot days in summer followed by cool evenings and nights,  We have had a very hot summer this year with temperatures in the 90's F (32 C) and it has been unusually dry so that our entire state in drought.

Even with the drought, we've seen many beautiful wildflowers on our trail walks.

The silvery lupines were prolific in July!

The Prickly Poppies were also plentiful.

More wildflowers along the trails

"Who cares about the clouds when we're together?...

...Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather..."

One morning we were entertained by watching a young girl train her horse ...

...and it is always fun to pass some friendly wildlife on our walks.

"Happy trails to you, until we meet again

Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then."

Thanks for coming along on some of our Colorado trails with me. 

Stay happy, safe, and healthy!

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 I'm linking this post to some of the following blog events:

 Mosaic Monday, All Seasons, Blue Monday, Through My Lens Monday, Little Cottage Link Party, Hearth, and Soul Link Party, You Are the Star Blog Hop, Inspire Me Monday,  Good Random Fun, Nature Notes, Grand Social, Travel Photos, Photo Tunes, Happiness Is Homemade, Over the Moon, Our World Tuesday, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Turn About. Tuesdays With A Twist, Let's Keep In Touch, Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday,  Party in Your PJ's, Wordless Wednesday, Nanahood WW, Oh My Heartsie Girl's Wonderful Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday, Wednesday My Corner of the World, Wonderful Wednesday,  Little Things Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Thursday Encouraging Hearts and Home,  Thursday Thinking Out Loud, Friendship Fridays, Friday Features Linky Party, Skywatch Friday, Pink Saturday

Coronavirus: Staying Home But Keeping Hope

Last week I was so sad and upset by the growing threat of the novel Coronavirus that I decided to take a short break from blogging to regroup my thoughts and to take a break from social media. I honestly could not concentrate on anything for very long.  I'm sure all the dire information I was hearing triggered a bit of PTSD that lingered in my psyche from my time when I lived in New York City post 9-11 when we were so uncertain as to what the future held.  

As of Sunday afternoon, public health officials in Colorado confirmed that there were 591 cases of COVID-19 in 29 counties, and around 5,436 people had been tested. There were 58 people hospitalized and 7 deaths.  Sadly, those numbers are all rising every day. 

This week, however, I feel more in control and more confident that as a state, nation, and world, we will eventually return to a normal life.  It may be for the long term, but I can "stay home," I can do "social isolation," and limit my contact with others.  I can take responsibility for my health and the health of those I love by reducing contact with others to "flatten the curve" of how quickly this virus spreads so that our hospitals are not overwhelmed by those needing care. I am so grateful for the doctors, nurses and first responders, and all other essential workers that must still expose themselves to regular work in order to take care of us and keep us safe.

My heart goes out to those who lost their jobs and are worrying about paying bills and rent or mortgages.  I know many students will most likely be home for the rest of the school year and are missing their friends, teachers and special school events and parents have had to scramble to find childcare or homeschool resources. I know vacation plans have been canceled, as well as holiday plans. It is a new dystopian world right now in most places, but in accepting all of these sacrifices we are saving lives, maybe even our own.

Right now, most public places have closed in Colorado. Most schools, churches, restaurants, bars, gyms, salons, entertainment venues,  ski resorts, and even Rocky Mountain National Park have been closed. Many people are working from home or have reduced their workplace density, and workplaces of essential workers have reduced staff as much as possible. The Colorado State Parks are still open, and we are fortunate that we still have many open space trails available where we can have solo recreation and enjoy the outdoors. In fact, all of the photos in this post I took along a trail in my neighborhood. 

Neighbors are helping neighbors, and we are all trying to keep as busy as possible.  Life goes on as best as possible. 

This was our St. Patrick's Day! Usually, my entire family will gather for our traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner and Irish Soda Bread dinner, but this year it was only my husband and I.  Neighbors had a fun idea to organize a St Patrick's Day parade of decorated cars to go through our neighborhood to share some cheer, and it really did cheer me up to go outside and see them pass by. 

This is a local news story about this event. You can also click on my Mille Fiori Favoriti Facebook link here to see it.

Next week I'll go back to my regular blog posts about Colorado, as I have much to share from prior trips we took, and I hope those posts will be a welcome distraction from the ongoing situation. I look forward to seeing how you all have been spending your time.  Please stay healthy and please keep hope that we will all get through this unusual time together!

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I'm linking this post to the following blog events:

 Mosaic Monday, All Seasons, Blue Monday, Through My Lens Monday, Little Cottage Link Party, 
 Hearth, and Soul Link Party, You Are the Star Blog Hop, Inspire Me Monday,  Good Random Fun, Nature Notes, Grand Social, Travel Photos, Photo Tunes, Happiness Is Homemade, Over the Moon, Our World Tuesday, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Turn About. Tuesdays With A Twist, Let's Keep In Touch, Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday, Say Cheese!,  Party in Your PJ's, Wordless Wednesday, Nanahood WW, Oh My Heartsie Girl's Wonderful Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday, Worldless  Wednesday My Corner of the World, Wonderful Wednesday,  Little Things Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Thursday Encouraging Hearts and Home, Full Plate Thursday, Friendship Fridays, Friday Features Linky Party, Skywatch Friday,   Pink Saturday, Saturday Critters, 

 Grammys Grid-Month Long Linky Party