Sniff, sniff, sniff went the pug

Today I just wanted to celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of my favorite time of year here in Colorado -- late spring, early summer. I hesitate to call it a season because seasons here aren't really distinct, other than winter. Most people associate Colorado with snow due to the Rocky Mountains. But after living here five years, I can tell you than the actual number of days we have snow on the ground is very little, as we get abundant sunshine and the snow in the Front Range (east of the Rockies) melts very quickly. For me, winter here is more of a "dead season." Everything is brown and since we have relatively few evergreen trees, unlike my native Oregon, it's pretty dismal looking. My husband loves the sun, but I love the green. But I guess you can't have a lot of green without a lot of rain and otherwise gloomy days.

Despite the sun, it is pretty cold for most of the winter and I have few annual flowers that come back every year. As a result, every year in late May I spend a bundle of money on planting new flowers in my flower pots. I only have one tiny section in the yard to plant flowers, as our soil is basically clay and the previous owners mostly landscaped with rocks (which, not surprisingly, are very popular in Colorado.)  I wish I could start planting sooner, but the golden rule here is to not plant before Mother's Day. Although we dodged the bullet this year, it's not at all unusual to get snow in late April or early May. Bulb flowers such as daffodils hold up well in the snow, but others may not fare so well.

Is that a flower I smell??

But getting back on the topic of pugs -- Spanky does love to sniff flowers. In fact he'll sniff and smell just about anything. It's particularly funny to hear a pug sniff. Because of their short snout, you can really hear them sniffing, more so than most other dogs. It really sounds like they're enjoying it.  Today he was particularly enraptured with my flower pots. And as the first day of summer break for my kids was a cloudy one (once again, reminding me of Oregon, where summer vacation always seemed to start on a rainy day) it made for some great pictures. Enjoy!