As quickly as the snow descended on us, most of the 3 feet dropping within 24 hours, the snow is disappearing. That’s what can happen when it’s late May, just a month prior to the summer solstice. The sun in the sky has the strength of an August sun, and it can melt 3 feet of snow rather quickly.
All around us I hear the drip, drip, drip of water running, coming off the tree branches, dripping off the eaves of the house, spewing off the side of the deck. As I drive Boulder Canyon, water flows off the side of the granite walls, forming mini waterfalls.
Boulder Creek roils with brown water, tumbling violently through twists and turns as it cascades down the canyon. As the snow continues to melt into June, the waters will become higher and move more quickly. All signs we are transitioning from one season to the next.
With our late snowstorms this year, it hardly feels as if we will have a spring. There is still snow on the ground, and it looks and feels more like winter. But within a few weeks, the temperatures could well be back up into the 70s, and we will have gone straight to summer, with a mere pit stop and a blink of spring time.
Today, we spent a cool, unseasonable day hiking up Lookout Mountain. The foothills are glorious, with green as far as the eye can see. Friends from out of town comment on the beauty of the foothills framed by the snow capped mountains in the background. Early evening brought continued rain, and even a couple of inches of new snow up at our home in Nederland.
All the snow, the green hillsides, make me feel much more optimistic about this summer. Knowing that June brings a real threat of wildfires, seeing the rain and snow fall makes me feel optimistic about the summer. The wetter it stays now, the less we have to worry later on.
Sometimes, I look out the window here and it feels as if we are in another world. My friends back east write posts saying they are going to the beach amidst blazing heat of 90 degrees. It’s hard to reconcile the scene I see out my window with the world they are describing.
