July 5 -19, 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. 

Sunset. 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. 

June 29-July 4, 2026 Fort Collins, Colorado

 High of 85, mostly sunny and smoky.

Smoke from the fires west of here is in the air. Making the sky orange. The full strawberry moon behind smoke. 

Katie and Katy came over and we did a mosaic workshop. We need to schedule another since we did not finish. Katy is working on a bowling ball , Katie a Celtic design and I am doing vegetables for the garden. 

Even more smoke today. The sun was red through the smoke and a blurry shot of the red moon with clouds. 

Sunset. My new business card.

We moved the bed away from the wall. The space is pretty narrow so John can open the closet door on the other side. I found this bedside table at the thrift shop. It was only $10 with the 1/2 price senior day discount. I spent $15 buying new wooden knobs and stain. It fits perfectly. Smoky sunset.

The renters usually use this garden, but they got a new job and did not have time this year, so I put one in. Some murrine I made. Stellar jays and purple flowers with white centers. 

Sunset. First Friday at Trimble court. They have the nicest glass and the only food there. 

A couple pieces of art at the art museum and an electric cello player on first Friday. Bee murrine I made, unfired. 

We went to a fun 4th party at Sylvia and Brian's house. They live right off the city park where the fireworks will be tonight. Fun to see them. 

The fireworks were set off over Lake Sheldon at City Park. Waiting for the it to get dark to view fireworks. 

Woo hoo. Great show again.

June 17-26, 2026 Fort Collins, Colorado

 90 and sunny.

Our friend Bev is visiting us for a few days. She and John have know each other since he lived in Eagle right out of college. We had a yummy dinner at Blue Agave. 

Bev's new rig. She is traveling visiting her friends in Colorado. Including us.  Sunset. 

The crescent moon and Venus in sunset. John cooked Bev and I  a gourmet dinner of smoked ribs, corn on the cob and salad. Yum, yum.

I am finally getting used to the altitude and my new heart meds and went biking tonight. What fun. A deer along the bike path.

Got my heart  tests started. The top part is the sleep test, that was just one night, the bottom part is a holter monitor I have to wear for 30 days  to monitor my heart. I also had an echo cardiogram this afternoon. Hopefully find out what is actually going on with my heart. Sunset.

I put a couple of these in the  kiln. They are made with leaves and flower murrine I made. Will see what they look after being fired. I got this 30 lb roll of long leaf pine needles from amazon, Properly bundled and cleaned needles are starting to cost a fortune. $30-40 a pound including shipping. These are $1.80 a pound with free shipping. Of course I have to sort and clean them. Not all of them are useable, but a fellow basket maker says she gets a good portion of usable needles from these. A lot more work, but will see what I get. 

Sunset. After all my diagnostic tests today in the Denver area I had dinner with Katie and Katy. Bill, Katie's husband cooked this gourmet dinner for us. Yummy food and great to see them. 

There are fires in Utah, so we have smoke now, made a nice orange sunset. Bad air quality tho. And the same orange sky the next night.

Spent a day and half getting my art work ready to take to the Artisan Market on Sat. John made a crispy spicy cauliflower for dinner!

The aspens came out nice. Sunset. 

This is the Artisan Fair I will be in on Sat. I got us a new mattress for the bed at home. We had to take the bed apart to move it over a little, then the two delivery guys wrestled the mattress up the stairs and into the bedroom. Looks nice and feels wonderful.