September 17-22, 2021 Fort Collins, Colorado

 Low 70's and sunny today.

We had brunch with Mandy and John. Mandy cooked us breakfast including home croissants. It was yummy and good to see them. We spent a lazy morning in the sun. Inside their greenhouse is huge basil and tomato  plants.

Our herb garden has 4 basils and a small oregano that I just harvested. The basil in the posts will come with us on the road. the ones in the ground traveled with us last year. I sandblasted the masterpiece today. Here it is with the stencil still on it and with out the stencil.

Beefy belongs to the renters in the front house. He is often out in the yard when we come out, always ready to play. He is a sweetheart. Every time I ride by this graffiti I ponder what it means. 

Evening light on the  Poudre River. It is pretty low right now. The waxing gibbus moon caught in a sculpture at the water park. 

Sunset over Martinez park. I spent long hours last night adding dichroic and colored glass to the masterpiece. It is currently in the kiln cooling off. I had glass spread all over getting just the right pieces. 

What the masterpiece looked like going  into the kiln last night. This is what it looked like the this  afternoon when I took it out of the kiln.  I painted a bunch of gold on it and it is now in the kiln again slumping into a mold. 

Sunset started like this tonight, then dropped below the clouds and stopped. The   master piece is  now done. It is 12 inches in diameter, with copper mica luster and dichroic and colored glass. It is a gorgeous. 

The last batch of finished glass basket centers set in resin and drilled.  A few beveled, polished pendants I finished.

The full harvest moon rising. I was lucky to catch it between the horizon and the clouds. I started another masterpiece. 

Beautiful light in the trees on the bike path this evening. 

September 14-16, 2021 Fort Collins, colorado

 In the 80's and sunny.

No real clouds at sunset, just this small bunch on the horizon. More glass basket centers set in resin today. Will grind the edges and then drill holes around the edges. 

I sorted and bundled up half of the new ponderosa pine needles. Half still to go. These are for the basket classes I teach in the winter. My friend Katie took me to lunch today when she was up here with her brother Dwight. It was nice to meet Dwight and see Katie. 

I spent the last couple days working on the stencil for this masterpiece. I fired copper mica luster on to black. What ever is not covered by the stencil will have the luster sandblasted off, leaving black. Most of the time was spent picking tiny pieces out of the stencil. Right after I first started dating John he said he wanted some alley plants that could deal with the heat and lack of water in the alley. I planted this silver lace vine, that was 14 years ago, it is doing great. 

Cool cloud over the bike path this evening. Nice clouds reflections and a small bit of fall color on the right. 

My battered mountain bike in the middle of the trail by yellow rabbit bush blooms and  big trees. I thought this fall res color was poison ivy, but it is oregon grape. 

Spectacular crepuscular  rays around the setting sun. Same sunset in trees farther down the trail.

Sunset over the Waterpark. Sunset under the moon. 

This sculpture/sun and wind break is named White Water, it is in the water park. The moon caught in a dead tree.

The moon cradled in a dead tree. 

September 7-13, 2021 Fort Collins, Colorado

 90's, sunny and smoky.

Fresh out of the kiln. I made this bowl using the puddles I made. It came out very colorful. there is clear glass over the puddles so they are 3D looking. It is 12 x 2 1/4 inches. 

The puddle bowl and the dot bowl together. I watched this duck in Spring Creek while I was waiting for my massage today.

Sunset was kind of smoke and jet trails tonight. I received 10 lbs. of Florida long leaf pine needles today!!

A few pendants I beveled and polished. 4 of them have ravens in them. We met our friend Jeff and his friends for drinks at Broken Stave brewery. They have the best stout called Latte that kicked me pretty well. It was fun to see people.

We all went out for dinner after our beer. Good food and fun people.  Sat we went to the farmers market to get some ripe tomatoes. We came home with these. They taste soooo good.  

These cool acorns are about an inch across. I swear that these are the last batch of puddles I will make this year. I had a broken masterpiece that had three layers of color, so I sandwiched a couple brighter pieces of it and voila- puddles. I love these, they are all different.

I am dying pine needles for my winter basket making. How could I not dye some chocolate? I set some more pieces of glass in resin for basket centers. Still need to grind down the edges and drill holes around them. 

The view from the deck at dinner tonight. When I stopped at my favorite pine tree to collect a few needles, I was surprised with a motherlode of needles. There was a big wind storm this am and it blew all the dead needles out for me. I filled the back seat of my car with bags of needles. These are long ponderosa needles I collect for the classes I teach. Now I just have to bundle them. 

It was cloudy and muggy when I went biking today. Later we got a few good thunderstorms and lots of rain. White asters on the bike trail.

Horse poop in the middle of the bike path. John is protesting  this with the park service. They don't see it as a problem. I sure find it a problem when I come flying around the corner on my bike and hope not to hit this. It is much more of a problem where the trail is much narrower. Ranger Rick told John that his bike trail rangers are monitoring this. . . Perhaps they could monitor it with a shovel. Some fall colors over the Poudre river. 

John saved the day. The power went out in my studio. John found a bad GFI and replaced it and I now have power and lights again. Thanks John.