After the snow season the ground that is revealed is already celebrating the arrival of spring. Grass and moss are coming out in patches around the rocks and being joined by what will soon be wildflowers. Garter snakes come out from under the deck and sun in heaps of snake spaghetti. There is a complete family; father, mother, and two babies wrapped around each other. Their gray patterns blends in with each other and only when I look closely can I count heads and tell how many snakes there are.
Fuzzy ping pong balls, the least chipmunks, hop from rock to rock looking for food. The larger ground squirrels that compete with the chipmunks for birdseed don’t pay much attention to the chipmunks. The ground squirrels move slower and don’t seem nervous. They love to sun on rocks and roll in the light gray earth near their burrow.
Pine cones and tree branches left behind by wind and snow litter the ground. The mule deer pick up twigs, taste them, eat a few, and paw at a few. I see green breaking out of the ground and feel the contrast of soft leaves versus the stiff, sticky pine needles. Our family gets outside and removes the large pieces of dead wood so the pine beetles that have left mountain sides in the area bare don't have a base to attack from. We check the bark of the growing ponderosas looking for the little yellow cones of the bumpy waxy substance that signify beetles have bored into the tree.
Three weeks after the last snow green is the predominate color on the ground. Wildflowers are here--- a pasque flower sits in our neighbor’s meadow with six sepals that look like petals, have a purple exterior and open daily to reveal a white interior.
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