A stormy May day is the perfect kind of day for the garden center. 

Here wearing her new dress from Le Carrousel.

 

 Last weekend, we set off on a (rare) vacation. Q took the week off school and Mike took vacation days from work. I put my commissions on hold, and we all packed the car and set off for a far corner of Northwestern Colorado, a part of the state where life still closely resembles the heritage of our state. Farming, ranching, living by the seasons and off the land.

 We headed out there by way of Vail, or former home. Not exactly a farming community, but certainly a part of the state where winter hangs on a bit longer.

 Since we stopped in Vail for the night, and since it dumped snow for the last couple of weeks of the "season", I had a rare opportunity to go for a hike up the mountain at 6:30 pm in the deep snow, wearing not much else but a camisole and snow boots. That fleece around my waist turned out to be serious overkill for the 68 degree temps. Heaven!

The next day, we stopped for a therapeutic soak at the Glenwood hotsprings (where Doc Holiday famously convalesced...though it didn't save him) and then headed gradually North and West until we found ourselves pretty much at the end of the civilized world.

 Well, sort of. 

Yes, these are real cowboys. 

But also, we were attending (as guests of my mother, who is a photographer and wildlife artist) the week-long photographer's workshop that precedes the famed Sombrero Ranch spring horse drive. 

A rare opportunity to get an inside look at the riders and horses behind the Sombrero Ranch operation.

 The saddle barn. Pretty sweet.

 Q and I, pretty stoked for the kickoff of our vacation.

Preparing to mount a skittish horse.

Alex hangs tight.

 

Alex knows how to sit a horse. Could you do this? 

Stay tuned for more of our stay at Sombrero Ranch. 

It's gonna be a wild ride.