It was very dry all winter, and then in late March something changed and it's been pretty wet for Colorado ever since. Every type of vegetation is lush and green. For most of the day, clouds linger to the west just over the Front Range and move in during the late afternoon. At our house we've had the gamut from heavy rain all the way down the scale to thunder and a handful of drops. We've avoided hail, but we've been lucky. On more than one afternoon in the last few weeks areas all around us have been pounded.

The thunder sends our little cat Lady scurrying to find a hiding place. We think she endured pretty nasty weather, outside, on her own, in her earlier life before she ended up in the shelter where we found her.

I take long walks in the evenings and a few times a week in the morning. A month ago the lilacs were in full bloom, now it's Russian olive trees. The air has been heavy with fragrance for nearly six weeks. Male cottonwoods are shedding their fluffy little puffs, and the accumulated detritus has collected along the edge of sidewalks and fence rows - it seems that a giant citywide pillow fight broke out a few nights ago.

Barn swallows swoop through the air a couple of times a day. In the mornings and up until about noon they seem to favor street intersections. Goodness knows why. Later in the day I see them diving down to sail just near the surface of the water in the many small reservoirs in the area.

Eventually it will be hot and dry again - this is Colorado after all. But for the time being I'm enjoying the weather anomaly Mother Nature dished up for us this year.