I Believe?

There is an old song which goes something like:

I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.
I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows.
I believe for everyone who goes astray, someone will come to show the way.
I believe, I believe.

An interesting idea. If this is true (an the theologians, meteorologists, and horticulturalists I consulted in preparation for this screed seem mixed in their opinions of the Raindrop-To-Blossom Equivalency Theorem) then this spring is going to be one heck of a colorful one!

A couple different weather forecasters have mentioned this weekend that the recent rains and snows have brought the state well over the annual averages for the month. Apparently the watersheds are ahead of where they should be for the season.

I can believe it! Saga's park has large portions of it underwater; the lake has overflowed its banks and encroached on the footpath in a couple places. Bear Creek is way above where it normally is!

Okay, so its nowhere as bad as the flooding you have heard of in North Dakota, but it is pretty impressive when this little creek that barely trickles in the summer become a raging torrent.

But that is what the park is there for after all! After Denver was wiped off the map a few times in the early part of the last century the flood abatement plans were put into place. Part of those plans where the intricate way that the greenbelt was designed.

As one walks along the paths in the park one will notice that the park is roughly pan-shaped. The edges along the north, west, and east edges are raised by the embankment of the roads bordering it. The forth side is raised along the natural rise of the south wall of the valley.

The floor of this pan contains a couple ponds and an intricate tracing of raised trails something like a shallow maze. It was designed to divert the flow of the creek above a certain level and trap it thus regulating the creek flow. The goal is to keep the creek flowing below the maximum level that the South Platte river (into which the creek empties) can handle.

That being said, there has still been a lot of rain... and there are a lot of flowers and trees blooming. So, perhaps there is something to this whole raindrop-flower theory. My explorations these days are far more colorful than they have been!

And the trees have just recently started to bud-out. Standing on the southern lip of Bear Valley the brown expanse of the northern sloping valley wall is starting to show a touch of green. And with more storms blowing in over the mountains come the promise of continuing blooming, blossoming, and general springtime sprouting. I love this time of year! (But then, in Colorado, is there really a bad time of year?)

Wherever you are this morning, I hope that you have had a lovely weekend and are beginning you week with a great morning!

Don Bergquist - April 26, 2010 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA