A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

"A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" by Isabella L. Bird

Surprisingly this is a good book. It was written in the 1870's about a 40+ year old women in Colorado riding around and seeing the country. She tells the struggles and adventures of different people. It is interesting to see how some prosper and others suffer. She describes nature as she rides. She climbs Longs Peak or should I say she was carried to the top of Longs Peak. But she was no tender foot. A lot of the time she traveled alone and endured much hardship and freezing cold.

I would recommend if you want to read a journal type book.

It is easy reading and is one of the Western Frontier Library books. 2 3 4 Not all books are listed but here is a few I found searching.

My wife found the book in a thrift store.

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Riverbank Grape 2

This first photo shows the Riverbank grape vine as it comes out of the ground.

Here is a photo of a leaf. The tendril is growing opposite the leaf.

Here are some grapes.

Riverbank Grape Vine

Riverbank grape



Vitis riparia




Native American grape.

Fruits are edible.

Tree Sap Droppings

Riding my bicycle Saturday morning I noticed a number of times that I rolled over tree sap. The sound of the tires were completely different.

Here is an example of tree sap on the road on the left of the road and the right side of the road is dry.




And this is the culprit Black walnut.






Here is a Red bud tree growing under a Black walnut tree. The red bud tree is saturated with sap, but it seems to be from the Black walnut.

Possum haw

Leaves shape varries narrow to egg shapped. Leaf edges wavy. Leaves don't match my field guides exactly but branch pattern seems obvious.


The twigs are stiff and the buds are pointed.


I found a Possum haw.
Ilex decidua

Also called Deciduous Holly


Here are the photos I had in the winter. I went back and ID'ed the tree with my Tree guide.

It is fun finding trees in the winter, then going back in other seasons and finding them again. It is interesting to see the changes.

Intoxicated birds may be observed after eating the fermented fruit.

The tree or sometimes shrub is also called Deciduous holly.

The tree is easy for me to identify by the branching characteristics.

The tree can withstand some flooding in the formative first few years. It is a good tree for fruit production. Most trees will have some fruit. The fruit will stay on the tree into the winter.

Hollies have only one bundle scar in the leaf scar!

Nature on Youtube

Cyote youtube video

Peregrine Falcon Tribute


Osprey call and video

Turkey Vultures one the Gasconade

Red Tailed Hawk Hunting at Fresh Pond Reservation

Missouri River After High Flood water

Here, some grass is growing where flood waters killed the vegetation earlier in the summer. Cottonwood trees are in the background. They can withstand saturated soil at times.

This photo shows the cracking of the dry soil of the river bed. This area is lower than the first photo.

As always, you can click on the photo for a larger view.

Box Elder Understory

These small stems are box elder maple. The canopy being so dense that no leaves could live below. The large tree in the background is a Cottonwood.