April 24-29, 2015 Fort Collins, Colorado

 

 

Fixed the Hawk piece, slumped out the bubble by standing over the kiln and adding another 20 minutes to the usual 10 minute slump time. Not sure if I am finished with this peacock yet, not happy with it yet.

 

I made these two soap dishes to fill up the kiln while making the birds. They were the easiest, they only fired the usual 4 times, the others went 6 to fix their mistakes.  I am now looking at a Subaru Forester to replace my totaled Subaru (from the accident). A brand new one with manual transmission is cheaper than a used Honda CRV with an auto transmission.  You can’t tow an auto tranny Subaru. This photo is from the brochure I picked up when I drove it.

I am getting around to hanging the stained glass from my house in Denver. The piece in the kitchen is an antique piece that broke in someone else's house. I restored it. The tulip, daffodil, hyacinth piece was in the window of my studio in Denver. I left the other 10 or so pieces in the house. They fit there. I learned  stained glass for that 100 year old house in the 90’s. The recliner is from the doomed bus.

 

   Making fruit cakes for the Fruit Cake festival this fall. 3 cubes of butter, 3 cups of sugar, 8 eggs and 9 cups of nuts and candied fruit. Very rich. My next masterpiece is my old house in Denver.

When it comes together it comes together. My new 2015 Subaru Forester!! My totaled subaru in the garage, the insurance will come pick it up. The new bus John is in process of buying in Florida. Almost exactly like our old one.

 

The inside of the bus. It has walnut interior instead of the maple we had in the Penguin. Rosie, Suep, Deb and Katy at the Arapahoe Basin ski area.

Rosie, Deb and Katy getting ready to head to the East Wall. Looking up the East wall.

Deb and Rosie coming down the East Wall. Suep, Deb, Katy and Rosie at the Basin. The weather was beautiful, sunny warm, nice soft snow.

 

Rosie at the bottom of the chute waiting to take my photo. Paliviccni run at Arapahoe Basin ski area.

 

Katy flying down Pali. There is nothing like a sunny spring day at the beach at the basin. A very relaxing lunch.

  

Beautiful spring snow at the Basin. It is still fully open.

April 17-21, 2015 Fort Collins, Colorado

 

After the snow storms it rained. I went out walking and the sky had these cool mammatus clouds- hanging heavy with rain.  Monday we drove to Wyoming to look at a coach. It is still winter in Wyoming.

Historic downtown Laramie. We were to meet a man at his coach in Laramie, he came over from east of town and the highway was closed by a 59 car pileup. He drove the long way around and we had lunch at the Altitude Brewery in downtown Laramie while we waited for him. The food was yummy and the beer was good too.

Here is the coach. It is the same year and type as the one we had. The slides are in, so in real life it is a couple feet wider than this. It is a 40 foot coach, we had a 36. I loved it. It was a really good price and in pristine condition. John does not want a 40 footer, he wants to keep looking for a 36. He will be driving it after all. He failed to tell me that before we looked and I was disappointed. We would take out one of the couches and put in a recliner and maybe a desk. The cook top is on the other side of the sink, but you can’t get to it unless the slide is out. Inconvenient for cooking lunch on the side of the road when traveling and sometimes we stay places we can’t put the slide out.  So we are still looking.  He is going to fly out and look at some out of state probably this weekend.  He knows what I want and  really the decision is based more on the condition of things like the engine and such that I have no idea how to judge. On the way back we saw fields of antelope.

Back  in Colorado we are much closer to spring. Today we looked at cars. My car, our tow car was also totaled in the accident. The insurance company is giving us a very fair price for it. It was a 2000 Subaru and we want a little newer car. We liked these Honda CRV’s.  It will be my car, so it has to be something I like driving. We also tried out a Jeep Wrangler- nice rig, but kind of cramped and uncomfortable to sit in very long. I even drove a pickup truck-on the highway no less. I though it would be too big and hard to handle, but it was ok.  A pickup would be a great tow car, put a topper on it and we can cram all kinds of gear in the back. So still shopping for a car too.

My latest masterpiece came out very nice, except for the huge bubble on the left side. Maybe I can fix it, maybe not.  We took a nice walk along the river after all that exhausting car searching. The evening light was lovely.

Sunset on the river and  my sweetie pie husband in the sunset.

April 10-16, 2015 Fort Collins, Colorado

 

John has been working on taxes and dealing with insurance companies. I have been working on masterpieces. These are sandblasted luster pieces. Still need to add dichroic glass and gold paint and fire again, and then slump.  Been getting some nice bike rides in. It is fun to watch spring coming. Here is today on the bike path.

We got a generous settlement from the insurance company. So now we are shopping for a new motor home. We looked at the 2005  40 foot  Country Coach Inspire today.  A little newer and longer, had an extra slide in the front but  a cheaper model than the Intrigue we had, so not built quite as nice and not as many extras.  But a nice start to shopping.

 

John at dinner at Illegal Pete’s eating foil . .  . Has a nice deck on top, we watched sunset while we ate. Then dessert at the Chocolate Cafe. Oh my, yum yum!

 

Dinosaurs never ate pizza and now they’re extinct. Coincidence?? Seen at a local pizza place.  turtles on MacMurray pond, and blooming flowers. 78 degrees today.

Sunset during dinner on our deck. Actually our deck is just the landing at the top of the stairs, but two chairs can be crowded onto it and it is lovely for dinner.  We looked at a 32 foot Dynaquest on Weds. Nice coach, but too small, no storage. Still looking.

The peacock piece is in the kiln for it’s third firing.  Noooooooo, what is this white stuff??? It snowed, then rained all day today. It is freezing.

Will have to put the flip flops away for awhile. Booo. My hula hoops with snow, and the kayaks like fish out of water. . .

Snow on the flowering bulbs and lilacs.

To top it off I put too much green on the peacocks feathers. I will have to see if I can revive it and fire it again. . . The leaf pieces came out well tho. They still need to be slumped.