Hosting and Toasting, 2018

One thing we've learned from being here only a few weeks is that it's a challenge to identify seasons. It's often below freezing at night but rarely snows. Days can be warm and pleasant but the vegetation looks pretty much the same year round.

It's no wonder that the Anasazi built calendars into their structures. Hovenweep Castle has summer and winter solstice windows accurate to within a couple days per year.

There are a few flowering plants to signal spring. The claret cups shown here are just now blossoming. Also emerging are the midget faded rattlesnakes. Biting bugs will signal that summer has arrived and it's time for us to leave.

PS. I went out hours later to check if the "morning" rattlesnake had departed a commonly used trail. He had. But two others now lurked a few feet away. A veritable rattlesnake rookery.Read more