July 9 - 13, 2020 Fort Collins, Colorado

Been in the high 90's. I have been hiding out inside and then going out biking near sunset when it is cooler, and prettier.

This huge lily I planted in front of the house. started blooming today. It is very fragrant.  The sun is making this smoke stack look like a lighthouse. 

Sunset tonight was spectacular. Over a kayaker fishing in North Shields ponds, and through the trees.  

The colors kept changing. There is a fisherman here fishing in the Poudre river. Sunset over McMurry pond.  

Last light on this big ole cloud. My new Ipad with a recipe from the flash drive set up near the kitchen so I can check the recipe while cooking. I had it in the kitchen another day, but I dropped a huge onion on it, so it is on the dining room table.  My old amazon tablet would not let me do this. 

40 pairs of earrings ready for firing. Stacks of three pieces of glass. Each cut exactly the same size so the earring are the same  size, pains takingly  balanced perfectly so they will turn out right. If you have to adjust one, you end up knocking over the surrounding ones and it is a huge mess trying to get it back together without knocking any more over. It is very tedious. It took about 3 hours to get these cut and arranged. They will fire overnight then I get to glue tiny little findings to them. These things are hard because everything is so small. Sunset tonight downtown. 

Sunset tonight is the renovated alley's downtown.  Cute little hanging lights, many business's. 

The big lilies exploded into 8 blooms today. You can smell them from the sidewalk. My glass studio in the garage is very dark, esp at night-top photo- so I installed two more shop lights in the front and viola there is light!

Sunset was spectacular again tonight. I rode my bike farther and much later than  I meant to to get photos over the lake. I got back after dark. 

Last one tonight. Egad, it was 101 degrees Monday.

Evening colors on the bike path. Some flowers seen out biking and a glass pickle I made. 

Sunset at the Exchange, a new area in Fort Collins. Many of the buildings are made of metal shipping containers that go on the back of semi's and Little Man Ice Cream in the center. 

July 3-8 2020 Fort Collins, Colorado

91 and sunny today.

Sunset from the deck tonight. A couple raccoons I saw in the neighbors yard. They were not afraid of me, they just glared at me. 

Some better photos of the current masterpiece. One with some sun on it and back lit.The second it just back lit. It looks better with light. Sunset at the intersection. 

Sunset reflected downtown. A cool door on an alley.

Flowers seen biking. Mexican hat and Gallardia. A rainbow seen from our deck at dinner. 

Saw this part of sunset from the deck at dinner. So headed to the other side of the tree and saw this. 

Behind the house was this cool cloud. It is the one that earlier had the rainbow. 

My garden a month after I started it. The flowers are looking good. So are the glass butterflies and glass fairy. The tomatoes are starting to blossom.  The one in the left back corner looks like it going to croak any minute, so I moved it over there and bought a new one for the back tomato cage. We'll see how they all do. In walmart and this passed me in the isle. The red sign is not part of it. On the tall side lights go on, it drives through the isle and when it sees an empty spot it orders more. Pretty high tech.

Sunset over McMurry pond last night as I was biking by. Flowers-the lilies are in my garden, the sunflower and prairie clover I saw biking. 

I was running low on what I call my patchwork pendants. So I made 80 more! They are fun to make, like doing a jigsaw puzzle. I make them from scraps. I have so many scraps I am also casting them into shapes to use for basket centers. Here are the molds in the kiln. 

This is what they look like after firing. I am going to set them in resin and drill holes around the edges so I can stitch to them and make baskets. 

June 28-July 2, 2020 Fort Collins, Colorado

Was supposed to be 96 today, but not sure it made it out of the low 90's. It clouded up, a little but no rain.

Sunset was lovely tonight on my bike ride. 

More lovely sunset. I am working on making a piece of glass of John kayaking in the cypress trees with a cool wake behind him. Here are the trees and wake, before and after firing. The kayaker goes in next and some squiggly painted lines in the wake. Need to liven up the trees a bit. The smaller ones are basket centers. I am still playing with the suns rays coming through the trees in a mist. I like the darker one. 

I stopped by the test gardens at CSU. They are incredible. 

I added the kayaker and slumped it into a bowl mold. It is officially done. John spent the day smoking a brisket and vegetables.  

We had John and Mandy over for dinner. They brought wine and scalloped potatoes. Dinner was yummy and it was good to see them. The next day I went to Denver to drop off art for the glass show at 40 W gallery, get my eyes examined (I have cataracts) and spent the night to go rafting the next day. Really bad photos of downtown Denver. I took them through the car windows . The skyline, boarded up windows from the riots, a cyclone fence around Civic Center park, and a homeless encampment across the street from the park.  

I stayed with my friend Katy. We had vegetables from her garden for dinner. Her garden is wonderful, Mine is so puny so far. Katy is a bee keeper and after dinner I went with her on a swarm call. The bee club she is a member of collects unwanted bee swarms from peoples yard. This was a bumble bee next. They are trying to renovate their pond and the bumble bees moved into some grass right next to it. Katy in her bee suit with Mark one of the yard owners digging into the hive. The bees went into the white box which has the scent of a queen bee in it.  

The next day Katie, Katy and I went to Canon City for our annual river trip with our friend Dennis who owns Raftmasters.  We had a picnic lunch at the beautiful Abby. The Arkansas river from the raft. 

It was a beautiful day on the Arkansas river. Us going through  Spike Buck rapid. We put on our masks when we went past the photographer. Mainly so we could tell this years photos from all the previous years photos. Plus they looked hilarious in the photos. We had to wear them in the office and the bus on the way to the river, but on the river they were not required. We can tell you that trying to breath through a wet mask is pretty hard. 

Another shot of us in the rapid. Katy and I in the rapid with our masks.  

Dennis, Katie and I. At the end Dennis took his mask off so we could see his smiling face. Katie, me, Dennis and Katy at the end of the trip. We had a blast.  

Katie took us all out to dinner afterwards at Nirvana Indian restaurant. It has wonderful food. It is always good to see Dennis and the Katie/y's. Beautiful historic downtown Canon City, Colorado 

Sunset on the way home.