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Monday, May 24, 2010

It's Blowing a Gale

It's not a good day to be in Colorado.  We are having high winds for the third day in a row.  The state is under high wind warnings, tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, hail warnings, fire danger, and freeze warnings for tonight.  Really.  Here, it's just wind with a drop to 33 degrees tonight.  I have the horses closed in the barn to protect their eyes.  I'm sitting in the house, listening to it howl.  I told myself that it's a perfect day to do indoor work, but it isn't happening.  It's too fascinating watching the shingles blow off the shed.

We made a temporary fix until it's safe to get on the roof.

So to cheer myself up, here's a prairie flower from yesterday -
Ground-plum
 Astragalus crassicarpus

To quote from "Wildflowers of Red Rocks Park", "the round, fleshy fruit is around 1 inch in diameter and turns from green to reddish as it matures.  The Lakota and Montana Indians ate the fruit and the Chippewa used a compound decoction of the root as a stimulant."  Let's hope the horses don't eat the roots!

1 comment:

Louise said...

The weather this year is scary, just about everywhere. But, I had to laugh, because my reaction to bad weather is to glue myself to the window and watch in fascination.