Meadow

August 30, 2015 cthulu 1 Comment

It’s nearly the end of summer and the meadow (in place of the lawn) is looking just fine.

These marigolds escaped from the planter and the yellow things are weeds (undocumented flowers).

This Larkspur might actually have grown from some wildflower seed that I threw out. It’s a first!

The oregano moved into the lawn last year and the bees love it.

Just another undocumented flower, but a pretty one.

Some kind of bluebell, it just appeared.

Hidden in this Russian Sage are a couple of fat bumblebees. All of the bees are enjoying the lovely blossoms before they disappear. Fall will be here before we know it and it could snow anytime in the next month (or not).

Miss Dog

Update from Miss P

August 26, 2015 cthulu 1 Comment

In my last post I said that I have had a pretty good life, and that is still mostly true. But I unfortunately have had a touch of back trouble. Actually, I had to get an Magnetic Resonance Imaging, (when I first wrote this I just used the initials, but a spam robot likes this, so I had to change it) , which involved a big scary machine and taking some funny medicine that made me quite goofy. I had to see a very nice neurologist, and I got a new fancy orthopedic harness with handles to help me up.

I also got some stairs to use, but I’m afraid of them so I just jump up whenever I need to. Now I get acupuncture

every two weeks. She sticks a lot of pins in me, but it doesn’t hurt because I am so busy licking frozen baby food that the time flies by.

And I see a physical therapist. They are both weird, but they give me frozen baby food to lick and this is tastier than ice cream.

Here I am walking on the underwater treadmill. I walked for 7 minutes, until the frozen baby food was all gone.

The dog swimming pool closed 🙁 , so I am no longer a mermaid (or merdog). But I still get to go for walks, sniff, eat sausage rolls and squeak my collection of squeaky toys, so all is good.

Town

Downtown

August 22, 2015 cthulu Leave a comment

I went downtown this week when a photo safari for interested persons was announced. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was game to try. Our fearless leader was a professional photographer and the group of about 10 amateurs was ready to take on whatever challenge was set before us. (The first challenge was finding a place to park). Everyone else had a regular sort of camera and a couple of people were actually using film (how retro!). I had my little point and shoot. Our task was to take only ten pictures in half an hour, using the word “up” as our theme. The sky was hazy from the wildfires in far away Washington, so the skies are washed out. Here’s a few of the shots I got.

The old courthouse has this wonderful tower and is now a museum of local history. The new courthouse is a plain box, quite dull.

This snooty sow sits across the street.

This is my interpretation of the theme.

This flower in a planter was glowing in the sunlight, so I had to capture it.

The blue things are parrots, part of the downtown art project. The building on the right was an old fashioned department store when I first moved here. It had pneumatic tubes that delivered money, elevator operators and beautiful oak tables that displayed merchandise. Of course the store is long gone, now it has a chain restaurant on the ground floor.

In a recent renovation, they uncovered the original sign for this establishment. Long ago it was a businessman’s hotel, then it sat empty for many years before becoming a popular brewpub. And the beer that they brew isn’t too bad either. The tall building behind it was built as the headquarters of a beet sugar company, it’s long gone as well. Downtown endlessly recycles itself.

Grief

Big basket of grief

August 20, 2015 cthulu 4 Comments

It is three years since the terrible day, the terrible day, when I lost my husband and I was lost. Once upon a time, I was a professional quilter. People would bring me the bits and I would quilt them together on a giant industrial machine. But, I found myself unable to work. A friend suggested that I come to a knitting circle with her, so I went. In this time I have knitted two sweaters,

hats and neck warmers,

an image of my favorite monster, Cthulu,

little shawls,

and innumerable scarves.

Some I wear, some I have given away, but most of these sit in the box. People sometimes ask ‘What am I going to do with them? Do I want to donate them to a charity?’ The answer is always “No”. They just exist in the box, that is their purpose.

This is the latest thing I finished. A friend recently died quite unexpectedly. She was working on this baby afghan for another friend’s first grandbaby. This was mostly done, and it was one of her last wishes that this project be finished, so I completed this for her.

There is something soothing in the mechanical action of forming stitch after stitch. The project takes shape, comes together and is complete, a tiny bit of order in the chaos of life.

Ephemera

Local pow-wow

August 17, 2015 cthulu Leave a comment

I do go to local pow-wows besides going to ones that are far away. It’s always interesting to see how different groups do these. I quit going to Denver March pow-wow because there is no place to sit down, although it is fun to see what the various vendors are flogging. Although the weather was fine, this pow-wow was held indoors and was rather noisy.

Here’s a nice shot that shows the contrast between dance costumes and street wear.

The wolf rescue people were there and they walked a wolf around in the crowd. This girl was trying to get a selfie with the wolf, and he was not having it, so he refused to pose.

It’s nice that people are trying to keep the traditions alive, but it’s sad that this is divorced from everyday life.

Wildlife

Antlers About Town

August 12, 2015 cthulu Leave a comment

A beautiful denizen of the mountains is the elk, known as wapiti to the natives. Majestic and delicious (yes, I hate myself for liking it, but it’s awfully tasty) elk are a popular artistic image around town.

They are the symbol of a social organization as well.

They are thick as fleas up north in Rocky Mountain National Park, we have to make do with their statues.

Some are naturalistic, and some are not.

And then there are the ones that are totally fake.

Town

Smallville

August 8, 2015 cthulu 1 Comment

Our tiny town (well it’s tiny compared to New York or London, or even Denver) is having a conference on small houses, so I went over to check it out. I had seen tiny houses on tv, (and we all know that the camera adds 10 pounds). Here was a chance to see them in the flesh as it were. These are portable homes as opposed to mobile homes. And they start with a heavy duty trailer. Then

you either add a steel frame, or

chipboard and foam insulation, and voila

you have a tiny house. I thought about why these are so adorable, then it hit me, they’re like the doll houses we played with as children. Everything is neat and tidy because there is no space to be messy in.

They can be quite utilitarian, but this one does not exactly scream ‘home’.

But the cute ones are really cute.

If you need a portable church they can fix you up with one.

Or a portable stage, reminiscent of a covered wagon (the original tiny home of this area).

All for a tiny price. (Plus land, utility hookups, taxes and transportation, etc.).

Art

Art and anguish

August 5, 2015 cthulu Leave a comment

I can’t remember how many years it’s been since I started entering the fine art competition at the State Fair. But ever since I started I have gotten at least one piece accepted. There is always that tension between making something that might be accepted versus something that follows a personal vision. The piece submitted has to have been made in the past two years, so I usually go with something totally new and I usually work on it in the summer.

I started with a weird idea in this piece. The central design is the bones of a Celtic design, and the lettering was an expression from my commonplace book. It is entirely hand embroidered in muted threads. I liked the idea, but it wasn’t turning out like I wanted. It wasn’t working and I couldn’t make it work. I had to dither about it before deciding to stop and try something else. So I went to an old design that I had always wanted to make.

It’s in a more typical style for me, bold, bright colors, but something about this wasn’t working for me either and time was running out. So I started yet another new one.

I finished this the day before it was due, and amazingly enough it was accepted. I like the lettering better, and the piece has more contrast.

I made this one last year and it was not accepted (but a similar piece was), so I decided to re-submit and it got in this year. It’s based on the word lists that we did in blogging class, and is hand-embroidered in muted colors. I am so happy to get both pieces into this show, which has a huge rejection rate. I’m totally amazed and thankful.

Life

Sunday

August 2, 2015 cthulu 2 Comments

Sunday is a lazy day for us. And during the summer it involves going downtown with Miss P to get a sausage roll at the farmers’ market. The vendor has gotten to know P, and she gets the food ready as soon as she sees my pup (okay, so she’s not exactly a pup, she’s more of a senior dog) and we have a stroll downtown.

It was a nice day to be out and about, with lots of people around, and as usual Miss P got a lot of compliments on her good looks.

Then we headed off home, but it was so hot (29 C) that we needed an ice cream break. She got the doggie special and I got a chocolate dipped cone.

We saw this on the way home, just what one would expect to find on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Ephemera

Fair

July 29, 2015 cthulu 1 Comment

I went out to the eastern part of the county, which is the site of the annual Fair. It follows pretty much the same template, year after year and is a celebration of rural life. There is livestock from large, like the milk cows and bulls to small, like the rabbits and chickens.

Or the large small animals like this giant Belgian rabbit. It was twice as big as my wild rabbits.

Or the miniature large animals like this tiny donkey and horse.

There were vendors selling an array of unusual products, like rhinestone cowboy hats, salvation and really hot hot sauce.

There is overpriced fair food, deep fried novelties or familiar comforts.

Various competitive exhibitors show off their skills, of course I always look for the quilts.

And there are the shows, usually music in the evening, and animal performers during the day. This year we were treated to the birds (previous post) and a sea lion show.

Living in a landlocked area, I think that we appreciate the athleticism and beauty of sea lions. In San Francisco they are seen as lazy nuisances, and they are everywhere (well, everywhere along the coast where they can scrounge fish).

And there was a dragon, they really are everywhere!

flytippings