22 Jan 2012, 5:07 AM MST: A shooting star over Lyons, CO, appears in a single frame of a time-lapse photo sequence.

A close-up is shown below.

There are at least half a dozen shooting stars in the clip below, a time-lapse sequence shot between 3:15 and 7:30 AM.  The one above, the brightest, occurs 44 seconds into the clip.  Smaller ones occur at 00:19 near the center of the frame and at 00:23 in the lower middle part of the frame [these may be hard to see at the resolution displayed here].  In addition, various aircraft and satellites can be observed especially between 00:58 and about 01:12.

Cool.  Calm.  Quiet.

Sunset over Lyons, Colorado.

Beautiful wave clouds over the front range of the Rockies.

City lights come up and the stars come out as sunset fades over Lyons.

Mount Meeker, Long's Peak, and Mount Lady Washington.

Cloud bank behind Mount Meeker.

One of my friends [Hi, Christine!] always laughed at me becuase I always talked about the weather when she asked what was going on with me.  She seemed to think it odd that the weather mattered.  But then, she was living in New York City, and not being affected by it much.  I was living in Tucson, and always planning my outdoors activities to avoid the 100+ degree heat in the summer.

Even while I was living in Tokyo I watched the weather, though - in those those narrow slits of sky between the tall buildings!

Now that I am in Colorado, I get big doses of sky - over the plains to the east as I drive down to Boulder on the Foothills highway, or over the mountains here at home.

And I watch the weather more than ever, because in addition to my regular hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park and surrounding areas, I now have crops to tend - my tiny herb and tomato garden.

Temps dropped fast yesterday, and the weather report was calling for frost overnight, so I went out after work and brought in all the tomatoes and a clipped a lot of herbs.  I wish the tomatoes could have had another week or so, but I think most of them will ripen on the window sill:

Hopefully, mature enough to ripen on the window sill.

Like this.

We had another spectacular sunset, after which the temperatures continued to drop, and when I climbed into bed, I could here snowflakes hitting the skylights like tiny footfalls.

We woke up to about half an inch of snow:

A dusting of snow over the town of Lyons, CO.