June 19-25, 2019 Fort Collins, Colorado

Been very rainy and chilly. Highs in the 60's. Summer forgot it was coming.

The bathroom signs at Fort Collins nursery. Some interesting utility box art. I love that Fort Collins is having artist paint them.  

Sunset. My paw print earrings are so popular I am making more. I cut stencils and applied them to dichroic glass. I had to go down and buy a lighted magnifying glass on a stand so I could see them and remove all the little pieces with a dental tool. The bottom are the sandblasted paws. Stay tuned for the jewelry. 

The good news is I got my garden in. I finished planting all the plants this morning. The bad news is that this after noon there was huge hail storm, some the size of quarters. The garden survived, the plants are small, so they escaped. The basil that we have been carrying around in the bus that I just put out got bruised and dropped lots of leaves. But John used them in dinner. The Gasoline Lollipops played in the square in Old Town. There is free music every Thursday night. We though the bad weather in the afternoon would shrink the crowd. Nope, lots of people came out for them. They were very good. 

One of the alley's in Old Town on our evening stroll with late light. Got another shower, but also a rainbow. The rainbow is landing on the homeless shelter tonight.

 I am standing at the Wine Bar, on the second floor above the new commercial area in town. Most of the business's are in container, the big kind that semi's haul. To the right is Broken Stave Brewery, in the middle in the building that looks like an ice cream maker is an ice cream shop. To the left out of the photo is the Copper kettle distillery. In the containers there is a mexican restaurant, a donut shop and the wine bar. There are also a few shops. There was not much of a sunset, but these clouds above the containers are cool. 

Poured rain yesterday and was raining this am. I went our for a bike ride anyway and the sun came out again! Very beautiful. Horses along the bike path. 

My brother Jerry and his friend Cecil came over for dinner. John prepared a yummy red sauce, meatballs, pasta and zucchini meal. I made Jerry's favorite childhood dessert. Rice Krispie Scotcheroos. We ate the whole pan, I gave him a second one to take home. It was fun to see them.

Nice sunset tonight on the bike path. It started to rain on me but there was also a faint rainbow in the sunset.  

These sunset clouds look caught in the wires.  Cool looking mammatus clouds at the end of sunset. 

The weather has improved. High 80's and sunny. I rode my bike on the dirt path by the river. It is sooooo green. This is the diversion dam on the Poudre by the  bike path.  

 

When I got back from bike riding John had dinner made, we ate on the deck and watched the sunset. I made this mosaic brick for my garden. Grow Damn it! I am sure it will encourage the plants to grow faster.

June 16-18, 2019 Fort Collins, Colorado

76, partly sunny and very nice today.

Since we had to unpack many of our possessions when we got back ( the place was flooded by a broken water line and all our things were packed up while they replaced the carpet, vinyl and some drywall) we have been going through things and throwing/donating lots of things we don't use. Here is John sorting through kitchen stuff. Dinner on our 'deck' tonight. The deck is really the landing at the top of the stairs, two TV trays and two chairs fill the whole thing up. But is was nice outside.  

I planted our pet basil plants and a few other plants to putz with while we are home. Probably won't be here when the tomato plants have tomatoes but just in case we are, we will have fresh tomatoes. The last renters used the garden and enlarged it and put up the fence to keep the rabbits out. I put in some stones between the plants so I don't get muddy. I also planted marigolds to keep the pests out.  I am sure it will look better with some mulch and when the plants get bigger. Sunset tonight strolling around old town.  

When I was sorting through my studio to try get rid of some things and make more room I found these 5 large tiles that I made in the past. They are now set in resin, I can clean them up and drill holes around them and put them in baskets. Also some misc old pendants and some a couple things I bought. Water lilies on McMurry pond on my bike ride today.

Flowers from my bike ride-corydalis, wild rose, yellow sunflower, campion. More flowers not sure what the tall on is and a close up of the white water lilies and a new chicken place in town, Comet chicken.

Busy cranking out jewels. Making earrings from patterned dichroic glass is a pain. You have to selectively cut matching pieces out, then pieces of clear to go on top. Each one is a different size and shape. It takes one to two hours to load one kiln shelf this size. This is before going into the kiln, then in the kiln fusing, after fusing. Then I have to match them up and glue on microscopic findings. They are so small they are hard to hold. 

But when they are done they look great. Some of the matching pendants, a couple sets of honeycomb. John made this pink heart  for me in shop in 7th or 8th grade but didn't give it to me until a few years ago. His mother wore it in between. I finished the basket centers. I sanded the sides and drilled holes to stitch through. I made all the glass except the medium squares and the oval beside it. I purchased these and set them in resin. 

What you can't see in the photo of me is that I am covered with white dust from sanding and drilling the resin centers. It rained and was cool and nasty most of the morning. I decided to go out for a bike ride anyway, and the sun came out. Very lush and green along the bike path. 

I love my mountain bike but leaning forward and down over the handle bars hurts my neck, shoulders and back.  I took it to REI to order a new handle bars that would allow me to sit up straighter. The nice man in bike repair installed these ergonomic grips with climbing bars instead. I can sit up, still hold the new grips, am comfortable. I still have to work the gears and brake on the main handlebars, but it is much more comfortable, and cheaper than new handlebars. The bike in front of red cheat grass and yellow spurge. Both are invasive species, but very pretty colors. It started to rain again just as I got inside. Then there was a rainbow.  

 

John grilled steaks for dinner on his brand new anniversary BBQ. Dinner was delicious.  Sunset from our deck. 

Sunset on Riverside Ave near the house. 

June 8-15, 2019 Fort Collins, Colorado

Still going to and from the bus for things. It is now in storage. But on Tuesday it goes to Denver for oil changes and things.  Here are the finished paw print jewels. I made some other kinds from more of my new glass, but they are still cooling off in the kiln. 

I drove down to Denver today for the Glass Artists of Colorado summer picnic. We had a yummy taco bar, numerous salads and desserts. It was great to see everyone.  I didn't get all the names but the first photo is Laurie, Joan and Sandy, the second one is Roxanne, Karen, Annalis, and Mia.  

Vilma, Jill, Deb, and Leslie. Beautiful day along the bike path today.

I took the dirt route back on my bike ride. The greenery is amazing.  We met Steve, Ginny and Jeff for dinner tonight. We were right between the Crooked Stave Brewery, the Wine bar and Mexican food.  Fun to see everyone.  

Pre sunset, missed the actual thing. On the way home we ran into Valerie, a friend of John's from when he lived in Eagle. She and her son Gunner are in town checking out the college.

Pretty bike ride today. I rode my mountain bike so I rode on more dirt than bike path, North Shields Lake. The trail along the Poudre River  

A side stream coming to the Poudre. I love the roots on this tree. 

More roots. This is the bike path, I usually walk over these. Sunset tonight. 

This wacky cloud looked kind of threatening at sunset tonight. I made tamales and spanish rice for dinner. The tamale recipe said it made 20 tamales. It made over 50. I started at 430 pm. I got some of the tamales ready to eat at 730. My lame tamales, I need a rubber band on them to get them to stay rolled. They were really good. Good thing, there are about 40+ in the freezer now.