September 26-28, 2014 Fort Collins, Colorado

Warm Indian summer days still.

Sunset over the front house. John and Bill dressed alike for dinner Sat night.

Karen and Bill bought us dinner for John’s birthday. Yummy Mexican food at El Monte and margs. I have been working on a tree piece, here it is going into the kiln and at 1500 degrees—way too many bubbles. Boo.

 

Mandy cooked John, John Gross and I crepes for John’s birthday brunch. Here is John with a mimosa.

 

John and I at the Chocolate Cafe having a huge slice of chocolate cake and ice cream for his birthday cake.  I finally finished scanning all 24 of my photo albums into my computer. Now I have this giant pile of digital photos backed up on CD’s to sort and load.

September 25, 2014 Poudre Canyon, Colorado

They are saying this week is peak for the aspens fall colors, so we headed up the canyon to see them.

Aspens on the hillside. John and Mandy having lunch at the Aspen Glen camping area. Mandy drove and we gawked.

 

Aspen Glen is appropriately named.

 

Me in a grove at Aspen Glen. These orange aspens are on the ridge above Aspen Glen.

 

Farther up the road was another whole hillside aspen grove. This next stand is on the Laramie river road.

We laid down on our backs and looked up at the bluebird sky behind the golden aspens. When the wind blows the aspens quake-the leaves tremble and golden leaves rain down on you.

   

John shooting up, Mandy shooting another hillside.

Aspens on the ground and up above.

Aspens over the Laramie River. Hare bells, a moth on a sunflower(in our yard), golden ferns up the river.

Red aspen leaf, asters, strawberry flower-kind of out of season, moose track, we are Amidst the Wilderness here, yellow flowers, and a barbwire moose at the Moose visitors center over Cameron Pass. It is a good place to see moose, but we didn’t see any today.

September 21-24, 2014 Fort Collins, Co

Beautiful Indian summer days still.

 

Diversion dam on the Poudre River on my way walking back to the Sustainable living Fair. Michael Kirkpatrick from the Holler singing by himself today. I love his song “Where ever you roam, may you always be home”. Good theme song for the bus.

 

I took my hula hoop today and got some exercise listening to music. The Sumatra Belly dancers were up next. Very good dancers.

Photos with the belly dancers. Dakota and Amata Jackson watching the belly dancers. Amata is one of the pair of chiropractors we go to. They have a booth here at the fair. Dakota is her daughter.

 

Dakota is great with the hoop. She can even hoop on her knees. A couple of the alpacas at their booth.

 

This was hanging by the river on my way back. Peace like a river in my heart.  The bowl is coming along. I fired all the little colored pieces to it, then topped it with some clear and fired it again.

After that I slumped it onto a mold and viola a bowl. Some jewels I also made in the other kiln while firing the bowl.

This is an old piece. I just got it back from being in a show last year. It is the sunset in the Blue Ridge mountains. I love it.

September 18-20, 2014 Fort Collins, Colorado

Hot weather in the 90’s. Beautiful days.

I planted this silver lace vine and the sunflowers in the alley at John’s house years ago. This is the first time we have been around in the fall to really see how they look. Nice. Lovely sunset too.

This snake was on the bike path yesterday. About 3-4 feet long, and fat. He posed for the photo then turned around and went back into the grass. I spent the afternoon in the studio working on a new piece. The little round one is one I already made, I was using it for reference. I added roots to the new one.  It will end up being an oval bowl.

 

Here it is in the kiln before the first firing. We walked down to old town and listened to the music of Young Ancients. Some of the members are part of the Subdudes.

 

I love seeing my studio a mess, means I am working! A great blue heron on the Poudre river as we walked the  one and a half miles each way to the Sustainable living fair this afternoon.

The main stage at the fair. They had music, booths, food, and beer. This is the Holler a band we like. Michael Macfarland playing the mandolin in the middle won his category in the Telluride Bluegrass festival this fall.

The crowd and booths at the fair. They even had Kelty recycle tents.

Art work on the New Belgium beer garden. New Belgium is all about bicycles. Fat Tire is theirs.  Bike wheels and plastic bottles opened and painted into flowers. On the way back we stopped at Old Town at the Hoptoberfest. There were two stages with music, food and beer booths and lots of people. We listened to some music then headed home. Lot going on today.