July 30- August 3, 2026 Fort Collins, Colorado

 Highs near 100 and sunny, with some smoke. Miserable.

Sunset from the bike path and by the feed plant.

We finally caught the squirrel that has been eating our deck. I hope. John moved him far away. John has been weeding and putting mulch down in the gardens. Looks good!

This Jack Storms cube is from a class at the glass expo, Jack actually glued all the dichro together, but I cut the cube from a big block and beveled and polished it. It changes colors with different light and angles. Pretty cool. More dyed needles, yellow on the left- came out kind of amber and orange on the right-came out more red.

Cows from the bike path.  Party at the water park tonight. 

Smoke in the air, the sun was orange through the smoke or clouds. I finished this basket that I started on the way home. It is made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and the center is a dichroic glass frog I cast. It is  12 x 2 1/4 inches. 

For some reason the bees really like my dyed pine needles when they are drying in the backyard. I have to chase them off to take them in. Hopefully I won't get stung. There is a lot of smoke in the air. The colors are just weird.

Smoky sunset over town. Smoky sunset over the water park.

Smoky sunset over the bike path. The colors  in the photo just don't do it justice.

Smoky sunset. End of smoky sunset  over the lake. 

July 22- 29, 2026 Fort Collins, Colorado

 90, sunny and rainy.

Berkely Lake in Denver on my walk around it. I used to live right next to this lake.

I drove back to Denver for some Dr appointments.

Woo hoo my 30 day heart  monitor is done! Have to wait for the results now. Rain and rainbow in our backyard.

Sunset. It has been 100 + degrees the last couple days. Miserable. Here at sunset families are still swimming in the water park. 

Sunset. I participated in an Artisan Market on Sat. I got this great banner for the back of my booth. It was so hot , 100 + , the attendance was very low, I didn't make much profit after my entry expenses. I got way over heated and I had a little a fib.

Volume 37 of my blog book came today. They are a record of our travels in the bus for the last 16 years living in the RV. This one is last year. I started this stepping stone mosaic while teaching a class for some friends. I couldn't wait till they come back for follow up class to finish it, so I finished it. Came out fun. It is going in the vegetable garden. The patterns for the veges is loosely based on some from a book, but I put them all together. There are some murrine bees and a lady bug in there too. 

Sunset from the bike path. My Dr decreased the heart meds and all the sudden I am getting my energy back, can ride my bike and breath at the same time now. Woo hoo. still waiting for the results of my tests, but at least I feel normal now. Normal for me. . . Dyed some pine needles red. They came out nice. 

Sunset. John gave me these beautiful roses for my birthday. 

Then took me out to dinner at The Cache, the fancy restaurant at Ginger and Baker. We had never been before. The dining room is a triangle and we got to sit in the point of it. John and I at my birthday dinner. 

The artistic presentation of John's scallops. A school of cello students played on the stage in the square last night. 

Sunset. 

July 5 - 21, 2026 Fort Collins, Colorado

 97 and sunny, stinking hot.

Bees, before and after firing. Dichroic frog and lizard. 

Pendants and barrettes. Will do some more work on them before they are done. Some of the lilies I planted years ago are blooming. 

I hate putting earrings together, so many tiny little parts. These are two trays of 4 that I made so far. Restocking. Bees!

Sunset. Barrettes in the kiln and finished. 

 I am still sorting the big rolled bale of pine needles I received. Once sorted and straightened they are beautiful needles. These are in a extra large pizza box. So far I have about 7 1/2 pounds done. Stems and leaves vitrographs I pulled. 

Working on some small floral pieces. These tiny bees are so cute, so there are lots in the piece. Making a mess working on the florals.

 These are in the kiln right now cooling. Lots of bee and fish earrings and pendants also. I can almost see the bottom of the box of pine needles, almost done sorting them. 

The bee earrings. The bee pendants. 

The small floral bowls with bees. The floral waves, with bees. 

We went to Canon City to visit Dennis. Usually we raft, but the water is so low it would be more work and fun, so we had a picnic and spent the afternoon floating on water hammocks.  Cool graffiti on a culvert. 

 

Suep, Katie, Dennis and Katy. We had a great visit and as usual great to see Dennis. Clouds on the way back. 

Sunset on the way back.