in the dark

This picture has a cool story to it. I'd recommend to expand the pic to see the little guy in it better. Well, one evening I drove by this house which is in the next street where I live. I wanted to take a pic of that red lighted tree, cause it just looks fantastic in the night. Anyway, I was sitting in the car, ready to take my picture as my 20 month old son announces "Doggie!" from the backseat. And sure thing, all of the sudden there was a "dog" in my camera display. I put the camera aside and looked to the tree and couldn't believe my eyes. It was a fox! He seemed glued on the spot, but after a few seconds I saw what had gotten his attention. A tiny bunny...and sure thing the fox took off and chased that poor little bunny through the street! It was amazing to see, cause now I live aboout a 20 minute drive from the mountains, in a newer development. Behind my neighboorhood there is nothing but plains, and we are mostly surrounded by a wall. So I really was stunned seeing a fox at 7pm chasing a bunny in the street. But what a great pic it made, huh? :o)

2 beauties in 1 picture

Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak in the back. We have a winter storm forecast for this night. winds of up to 40 miles and 3-6 inches of snow. Wohoo

Icy Lake

Prospect Lake at Memorial Park, with a snow toped Pikes Peak in the background. Hard to believe now that just 5 months ago I was taking a swim there. Brrr

Merry Xmas, the 2nd!

Now for all of you who celebrate christmas this morning. I hope Santa brought lots of great presents for you!

Since it was Christmas Eve last night, I drove to a church just up the street to take a special picture. They have this nativity scene out there...build in front of this tower with the star on top. It looks so beautiful at night. But last night it was special of course, and the full moon gave it even more magic. Merry Christmas!

Merry Xmas!

Since I am originally from Germany and we celebrate on christmas eve, this will be my christmas posting. I hope you all have wonderful, wonderful holidays with all your loved ones around you! Blessed be :o)

Sorry, it's been so long

But life gets hectic at times, we all know that. Especially when it involves looking for and actually buying a house...and then the move and so on. I'll try to post more often now again. Winter is here...and we had some share of snow. No blizzard yet though! But enough snow to enjoy all the winter fun things to do!

Welcome to bear country!

A sign at one of the hiking paths of the Garden of the Gods

Scare Crows

in downtown, one can find everywhere Scare Crows, as we celebrate the Scare Crow Days there

Finally!

Finally I had my camera with me, when I came across deers on a front lawn again!!! I was so excited! There were all in all 6 deers. 3 babies, 3 adults. right next to a kind of busy street. I was able to get very close to take the picture, they didn't even care :o) I LOVE living in Colorado Springs :o) Lucky me gets to see deers about 3 times a month, even foxes now and then.

Tea time

With the now slowly getting cooler weather, it certainly is time to dedust those old mugs and pour ourselves a cup of good, hot tea....

October 1st

It's october finally!! The time of falling leaves, cooler days, more rain...comfort foods and so much more. Halloween is just around the corner, and then next month we will be digging into turkey, stuffing, green beans and pies and watch the first snow falling. 4 weeks later it's time to open presents and soon to celebrate the new year and then my birthday. Wow, exciting months are laying ahead, right?

Illluminated

This is a playground I've found in the neighborhood, I had mentioned in my last post. My son (sitting on the swing) loved it. I loved the way the sun broke through the tree and the way the clouds looked.

My dream neighborhood

This area, which is the neigborhood up Cheyenne Mountain, is my ultimate dream to live! One is so close to nature. I've seen many times deers and their youngs standing in front yards of these houses. Unfortnuately I never have my camera with me when that happens :o( It's gorgeous up there. When it's a rainy, cloudy day...one will be stuck in the low hanging clouds, the views from up there over the city and the plaids is....aaaah, don't even get me started! :o)

Overlook

Overlooking beautiful Colorado Springs from up at the Mountain Zoo

Art

Now here you can see 2 pieces of art. One create by human hand and above, one by mother nature. I don't know about you, but I give my points to mother nature. Love the mountains!

Heaven

This little store, which we have about 3 of them, is my personal heaven. I love love love all their little goodies! Favorite: Raspberry jelly stick dipped in Milk chocolate - to die for!

Old Colorado City screams Halloween

In our Old City there are the Scare Crow Days comming up. A nice little festival, with cook outs and arts. Every store in Old Colorado city puts up scare crows outside. Now I liked this one especially. The famous painting "The Scream" blended in with a scare crow, that looks like the face in the painting. Very creative! Over the next dasy I will show you some more of the Scare Crows

Happy Pumpkins

at our farmer's market this morning

View of Cheyenne Mountain

on a beautiful beautiful morning

Colorado's weather

They have a saying here in Colorado "If you don't like the weather, just wait a little bit." This is cause the weather here can change at anytime. Best example today we are back to 83 degress...after having close to 50 degress only 2 days ago. Well, at least it doesn't get boring ;o) This picture was taken on that cool day at our beloved Quail Lake/

Messenger?

The canadian geese have returned. Are they the messengers of fall? Within 2 days temperatures dropped from 80 degrees to chilly 54 degrees today. But my family loves it! Cool weather, grey sky....gorgeaus!

Purple Path

fish anyone?

With Prospect Lake, located in Memorial Park, being the home to fingerling crappie, channel catfish, saugeyes, wipers and rainbow and Snake River cutthroat trout, this tree little young men should be getting lucky to take a fish home for dinner.

raining cats and dogs

After all the last hot summer months, there's finally some cooling going on. I LOVE rain and this late afternoon rain seemed to just scream "Hey, fall is just around the corner!" No more heat soon! Now, I like that!

See you soon

I will be on vacation in Oregon, near Newport, with my family. See you back at the 30th! :o)

Love for crackers

One of the coolest things at the local zoo is, that there is a podest, from where one can feed the giraffes with special crackers. This is a hit with the kids everytime!

Indian Dancers

Today our city celebrateted our community with the "Everybody welcome Festival"
A Celebration of Culture and Diversity in downtown Colorado Springs . The free event celebrates the many contributions different cultures bring to our community. Everybody Welcome attendees can enjoy: -more than 20 different live entertainment acts,- three different performance venues - City Auditorium, - a variety of informational and craft booths,- cooking demonstrations by Paragon Culinary School and children’s activities. The family-friendly event is a way to bring the entire community together to celebrate the many cultures that make Colorado Springs unique. The Colorado Springs Diversity Forum is made up of more than fifty organizations representing the public, private, educational and non-profit sector. A group of local leaders came together in 2005 to explore the contribution diversity makes to our community. The vision of the group is to build on the positive work and contribution of the diverse cultures that contribute to the social and business structure of our city. Everybody Welcome represents a visible commitment to helping our community achieve its full potential.

in downtown

Patting desired!

A baby wallaby at the zoo. My son loved it! It was so tiny :o)

@ the zoo

Wanna take a swim???

thunderstorm rolling in

stunning!

A playground with view

I took this picture at one of the playgrounds I go to with my son. It's about a mile from where we live and there goes not one day by, where I am not stunned over and over again about the beauty of this place

Wild cactus in bloom

flowery view

Can one get ever tired of the thousands of different and stunning views you have in the Garden of the Gods? Nope! Here is another one, with Pikes Peak in the backdrop

Double Rainbow

Here's the promised picture of the double rainbow. There actualy were full archs, I just didn't get a good shot of it from were I was at. My friend told me she actually once saw a triple rainbow here in town. Now, that is crazy!

The golden touch

I am back home and feeling much better already. Last night on the way back from the doc's office, there was once again a double rainbow....and they were full ones! It was such an amazing sight. I took some pics, I will show you tomorrow. Today I show you how it looked like after the thunderstorm had past...isn't that so beauftiful? Everything seemed to be drowned in gold

out of order

You guys, I won't be able to post for a few days. I broke my toe yesterday and am staying at a friend's place until I am gonna be able to walk again.
Be back soon :o)

Good night

Have a great weekend everyone!

Rocks in the Garden of the Gods

This is an older shot, but I love the colors and the sky in this picture!

Midnight Falls

and another one of our waterfalls

Flower Power

love that blue-greyish color combined with the red!

Ready, set...go!

@ Olympic Visitor Center

Bath time

Today was bath day for this elephant lady at the Mountain Zoo. She surely enjoyed being scrubbed, and showered and pampered by 4 people. Lucky her!

Praxis

Love this quote, written on the wall of the hall of fame in the Olympic Vistor center.

Where's the pott with gold?

We get rainbows here pretty frequently. It was also here, that I got to see a doppel rainbow for the first time in my life. Will post that picture soon. Aren't rainbows just one of those things that will never lose their magic and always put a smile on one's face?!

Summer time

Let's meet up for a cool drink on this warm summer night. You get the money from the ATM, I'll drink the mageritha ;o)

furry tree lover

I took my son today for a stroll around the Prospect Lake at Memorial Park. One thing we both love there, is the squirrles. They are such playful little creatures that it makes me smile, and my son squeaks in delight, each and every time we see them. They are so tame, that some of them actually pick the seeds out of my hand. We can stand there forever, so it seems, watch them playing and chasing each other in the grass, up the trees. I caught a snap of one of this little fellows

Giant Flowers

Flowery art work in downtown. Now if they would only smell, that would be neat ;o)

Hot town - Summer in the city

With temperatures suppose to hit the 100s tomorrow, it's good to have a little shaddy sanctuary, like this one in downtown

Colorado's Wild life

This mountain lion was killed in Colorado Springs, when a truck accidentaly hit it. It now can be seen at the Visitor Center of the Garden of the Gods.

Much of Colorado, including the Front Range, is prime mountain lion country. The mountain lion, commonly known as cougar, panther or puma, exists only in the Western hemisphere and is one of North America’s biggest cats. The Division of Wildlife estimates there are between 3,000 and 7,000 lions in Colorado, with the number most likely in the 4,500 to 5,000 range.
A lion’s natural life span is probably about 12 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity. Lions are very powerful and usually kill large animals, such as deer and elk. Natural enemies include other large predators such as bears, lions, and wolves. They also fall victim to accidents, disease, road hazards and people.

Mountain lions vary in size and weight, with males being larger than females. Adult males may be more than 8 feet in length and weight an average of 150 pounds. Adult females may be up to 7 feet long and weight an average of 90 pounds.

People rarely get more than a brief glimpse of a mountain lion in the wild. Lion attacks on people are rare, with fewer than a dozen fatalities in North America in more than 100 years. Most of the attacks were by young lions, perhaps forced out to hunt on their own and not yet living in established areas. Young lions may key in on easy prey, like pets and small children.