Snow Flowers

[drdan]

Took these today in my front yard.

 

[drlynn]

Snow in April? Don't tell my son, he'll want to move!

Very nice shots, Doc.

 

[mrsid99]

Don't envy you the snow but the pics are great!
Can't really make up my mind which I prefer, I think it's the second one but that third one keeps making me take another look.

 

[Lungfarmer]

Great pics! I love those water droplets on the the leaf in that first one!

 

[ajmall]

they're great. nice touch.

i remember when we got snow in the UK in April a few years back, was very strange. it's pretty warm now though- not much rain either! so for all you "foreigners" that complain of english weather, now's not a bad time to visit!

 

[photobug]

Ohhhhhhh man, somebody gonna get the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Flowers after you!

Great shots, especially the Atlas-like second shot. Amazing that stalk can hold all that weight.

Hey, I bet they don't blow around much in the wind weighted down like that, do they?

 

[drdan]

The marigolds didn't blow around but surprisingly the pink snapdragons were still blowing around quite a bit. It took on the average about 6-7 pictures at each exposure to catch one in focus.

I grew up in South Carolina and it took me about three years of living here before I started appreciating every bit of moisture. It also took me a while before I realized that snow, especially March, April and even May snow, was actually more important than rain. Snow stays in place and soaks in. A wet heavy spring snow like this, with the ground unfrozen, recharges the ground water like nothing else. Most precipitation here other than snow is brief, hard thunderstorms. That helps the rivers and downstream reservoirs with all the run off but often does not help us that much. We have been in drought situation for six years and city council just voted on even more severe water restriction this year than last as the reservoirs are starting off lower than they should be at the end of summer and snow pack in the mountains is below normal. Two years ago we were in the worst drought in history and had horrendous fires. The biggest wildfire in our history before two years ago was 25,000 acres. The Hayman fire just a few miles west of here burned 140,000 acres and almost caused the evacuation of Denver. The Missionary ridge fire near Durango burned 75,000 acres. There were hundreds of other fires in the mountains. There was a 500,000 acre fire in northern Arizona. We had a big fire near Ft Collins already this spring and people were not only still traumatized from the fires a couple of years ago but very worried were starting another bad fire year. A snow like this gives us a short reprieve from the impending disaster.

All this is give some background on why this snow was celebrated and not cursed. There were flowers and trees blooming everywhere and still every single person I saw was grinning about all this wonderful moisture. The night before I took these pictures we were expecting up to 18 inches of accumulation in town and 3-4 feet in the mountains and the weatherman could barely contain his glee and could not stop smiling during his report. As the snow was melting yesterday afternoon the grass that emerged was even greener than before it disappeared under the white. It's wonderful!