Wildflowers of Colorado

Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum, Rosacaea)

Silvery lupine (Lupinus argenteus, Fabaceae)

Blue Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea, Ranunculacea)

Crimson Paintbrush (Castillea angustifolia, Scrophulariaceae)

Fendlers Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum fendleri, Boraginaceae)

Crimson Paintbrush (Castillea angustifolia, Scrophulariaceae)

Red Columbine (Aquilegia elegantula, Ranunculaceae)

Dwarf Larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum, Ranunculaceae)

Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia, Rosaceae)

Saffron Senecio (Senecio crocatus, Asteraceae)

Peavine (Lathyrus leucanthus, Fabaceae)

Blue Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea, Ranunculaceae)

Meadow Rye (Thalictrum fendleri, Ranunculaceae)

Rosy Pussytoes (Antennaria rosea, Asteraceae)

Mountain Parsley (Cymopterus lemmonii, Apiaceae)

A different pace

The biggest events and most important experiences here, in Crested Butte, are definitely very different from those in Seattle or those in Chicago..



You wake up and you look at the sky out of your cabins window. You explore the colours of the mountains and notice they are different each single day.


You enjoy the freshness of the aspens with their early leaves so tenderly green and their bark so silky and light.


You experience all these incredible meetings.

Chipmunks playing right outside your window in the grass. Or collecting dandelion flowers and seeds and eating them on some warm stone under the sun just in front of your nose.



Or deers walking between the houses in the evening.



Or an old marmot spending hours at your neighbours porch seeming to watch you while you watch him.



Or a porcupine scratching on your porch at night. So you take your pocket lamp and go out to see him. He has a really lovely face.

And then you go back into the small wooden cabin. Read for some more minutes listening to the fire in the stove, smelling the burning wood and watching the reflections of the flames on the floor.



And before falling asleep you look again at the skies and greet silently all the unknown stars that only live in the mountains.


It's a different day.




To help you with some names:

chipmunk = burunduk, Streifenhörnchen
marmot = surok, Murmeltier, marmotta
deer = olen', Reh, capriolo
porcypine = dikobraz, Stachelschwein, porcospino
aspen = osina, Zitterpappel, Espe, tremulo

Some first impressions from Crested Butte

The cabin in the middle, to the left from the red one, is the one where I am living in now.. Imagine getting there after Chicago! Another way of finding paradise.

Crested Butte, Colorado - zooming into the map

This group of small houses is the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab where I will spent the next 5 weeks... pretending I'm working. ;)

Chicago lights

Chi-ca-go-chi-ca-go- that toddling town

Frank Sinatra's song is on my mind these days. :)
I decided to spend a couple of days in Chicago before flying out to Colorado and this has been a very good choice to make! Chicago is an Experience!!
And it's not about the skyscrapers, even though this time (even after Seattle) they do overwhelm me a little bit.
It's about the parks, the blues, the cafes, the lake which feels like sea, it's about how alive and friendly and multicultural the Windy City is. That toddling crazy town.

Famous skyscrapers viewed from the entrance to the Lincoln Park Conservatory - a sort of small botanical garden at the lake. Here some shots of from its beautiful indoor pavillions.



A street in the Golden Coast, one of the wealthiest areas in the centre of the city.


Millenium Park and it's Cloud Gate Sculpture or The Bubble. :) A fun spot to make greatest pictures of Chicago's skyscraping downtown.

Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a "futuristic" outdoor venue for concerts, one of the wonders of the Millenium Park.
Discussing with one of chicagoans...


Blues in one of the downtown bars. There's no Chicago without it. A beautiful experience.


And of course ART.
Marc Chagalls mosaic in the centre of the city (the Loop). Chase Tower Plaza

Chagall's Chicago

The Art Institute. You can spend hours exploring the impressionst collection, it's one of the best in the world. Rodin, Renoir, Van Gogh, Manet... whatever you wish. And not just this, you'd find wonderful El Greco, and Kranach, and Goya, and Matisse, and Kirchner, and a lot of modern art. It's a journey on it's own.

The big conclusion: CAN'T BELIEVE I'M HERE!