Tag: spring

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Growing Like a Weed

  • March 4th
  • March 20th

First Trip to Durango

We had a busy weekend last weekend! We took Juniper for her first trip to Durango to pick up a few things, and decided to have lunch outside at Ska. It’s been since the end of October since we’ve eaten out (occasional, take-out aside) and well over a year since we’ve been able to visit Ska, which is normally one of our regular watering holes. It was fun to share it with the pup who did a great job hanging out in the beer garden.

Chimney Rock National Monument

Saturday, we celebrated Spring with a walk and picnic at Chimney Rock. We did about a two mile walk up and back the main road. The monument is closed this time of year, but accessible via foot traffic or horseback. It was the busiest day we’ve ever visited in the off-season. Everybody had the same idea for such a beautiful morning.

I also tried to squeeze in an impromptu photoshoot at the new visitor center that’s under construction of my completed Chimney Rock Scarf, inspired by the landscape. You’ll notice the little fuzzy-one photobombing me (above).

Getting our steps in! We even walked another three-quarters of a mile on Sunday around the Riverwalk downtown. Hope everyone else is enjoying the return of Spring and staying safe when you go out.

Posted on

Wee Bit O’Green Updated

Aspen Grove and Iris near Buckles Lake

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and Spring—the Spring Equinox this year is Sunday. It was high time for me to change my wintry, gray and white website to something more green, bright and spring-like. The background photo I chose was actually taken in June of 2004 at Buckles Lake which is 20 miles south of Pagosa Springs. We took the VW bus (a 1965 13-window deluxe) and the dogs camping and ended up next to this gorgeous field of flowers and iris blooming amongst the aspens.

  • Wild Iris
  • 1965 13-window deluxe bus amongst the aspens
    1965 13-window deluxe bus amongst the aspens
  • Our Golden Retriever in a field of flowers
    Our Golden Retriever in a field of flowers
  • Aspen Eater: I couldn't help but add this one. It's from the Poage trip. I was taking photos of the little aspen leaves when our pup jumped in the shot.
    Aspen Eater: I couldn’t help but add this one. It’s from the Poage trip. I was taking photos of the little aspen leaves when our pup jumped in the shot.

The aspens in my yard are starting to get fuzzy catkins but have not started leafing out yet. I think we still have a few weeks, and it will probably be May/June before the aspen groves up high are accessible and look this lush.

With the aid of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), it’s very quick and easy for me to change elements of my site. The changes today probably took me about an hour—and most of that time was deciding what photos and colors I wanted to use. I think writing and organizing the content for this post took me at least that long! I use Firebug to tweak the colors and opacity and to preview background image choices before I update the final version that you see. It’s a very handy web tool. I wouldn’t be able to design and test CSS sites without it.

Updated (March 22, 2011): I really like the green changes and have every intention of changing the color theme throughout the season, but I’ve been looking at my site since I added the green and feel like something’s still not quite right. Something’s making it too busy. Maybe too difficult to read?

Today I decided to tweak it a little bit more. I changed the background to another image I have of aspen trees on our way to Poage Lake. You can see other photos from this area in my post about The Name of our company. I also decided to flip the background color to purple and accents (like on my portfolio page) to green. I think this is a little easier on the eyes and isn’t quite as intense. It is only March anyway and things aren’t THAT green yet.

  • Before (on St. Patty's Day)
    Before screenshot (on St. Patty’s Day)
  • After (3/22 update)
    After screenshot (3/22 update)