Returning to our Littleton, Colorado, farm, I found that the plant life is exceptionally luxuriant. While June is often the greenest month along the Front Range, I do not recall such a verdant landscape during the thirty years that we have owned the property.
Of course, the cool, wet spring, followed by warm, sunny weather over the past week or so, explain the transformation during my absence. While the explosive growth comes with a shabbiness that some may deplore, I and our resident wildlife find that the jungle-like conditions (I exaggerate) are rather inviting. Indeed, that such a change could occur without a drop of artificial irrigation is especially rewarding.
Though most of the Western U.S. remains in the grip of a severe drought, the Front Range urban corridor has received a steady supply of snow and rain throughout the spring. On the other hand, hot, dry weather is forecast for the coming week and a change in the prevailing weather pattern may hasten our return to reality: the perils of living in an over-crowded, semi-arid landscape where water shortages may soon unleash an ecologic and social disaster.
