S'Wonderful

I drove down to Denver today to have lunch with my sister at the Punchbowl Social in the old air traffic control tower at Stapleton. (Tip- if you are a grown up without any children, eat in the bar on the second level.)  After that we went to Rare Finds Warehouse which has furniture and an eclectic bunch of stuff.  We spend almost a couple of hours wandering around looking at everything. And then I saw this:

So now I am a proud owner of my own piece of Denver history.  This five-loaf pan still has bits of crust attached around the top edges.  The darn thing weighs about 10 pounds.

Drum Roll, Please

I went down to the basement and found Belle's lobster doing a handstand.  Now, is he showing off or is Belle punishing him?

Belle, Queen Of The Serengeti Plain

It's A Hard Knock Life

This is Belle tucked into bed with a small goose down blanket wrapped around her on Monday night.  Right before this she had gone potty, finished eating a little chicken and rice with her meds hidden it, and enjoyed some comfort scratches and words.   She had received her second set of PRP  injections at the vet that day and was still recovering from both the shots and the anesthetic.  The  anesthetic was the reason for the down blanket  since she was still cold.  That blanket worked well and she was  toasty warm an hour later.

If you haven't heard of Platelet Rich Plasma injections, they are used to help with severe osteoarthritis.  The first injections she  had done two month ago helped a bit so I am amazed by how much the second ones have helped her already.  The Doctor said she wouldn't show any real improvement until a week had past.  I was rubbing her belly and it finally dawned on me that she was lying in a position where both legs were wide open just like a puppy sleeping on its back.   She is feeling so much better today it is getting hard to keep her as quiet as the vet  wants her to be until Sunday.  So she is on leash walks only, not allowed to go out into the backyard to go potty without being on a leash, and not allowed to go downstairs.  On Sunday we are all free to get on with our normal lives.

Things Go Better With Coca-Cola, Things Go Better With Coke!

Me (left) and my sister (right) before the Blondie concert at the Hollywood Bowl, July 9, 2017.

Eclipse August 2017

Birdbath viewer- the best for watching. I had to wear my sunglasses over two pair of clip-on sunglasses to cut down the glare. Unfortunately, I was not able to photograph the sun in the birdbath as the moon moved in front of it because the glare was just too bright for the camera.

Three pairs of clilp-ons worked as well but really not good for taking photos. What I saw through the clip-ons was not seen by the camera.

 

 

 

 

Hundreds of tiny crescent moons under the trees.

Tiny suns appeared when I used a colander.

Binoculars, large lenses pointed at the sun, projected the clearest images. I also made a eclipse viewer out of a shoebox but gave that to the little girl who lives across the street. It works but it was a bit of a pain to use.

California Trip (3)

I brought two Polaroids taken in New York City circa 1980 home with me from California. The one on the left is me standing on the ledge on top of my sister's apartment building at the corner of 72nd St. and Columbus Ave. I do not know what I was thinking as we were 7 stories up. Look at my left foot in the photo, it gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about how close I was standing to the edge. At the right, a photo of Steve Ferrone and me around the same time. Seems like yesterday.

California Trip

(Just got back today.)

Before

After

The View From The Passenger's Seat

I've Been Away From Blogging For So Long I Forgot What I Do Around Here 5

And finally,  I had a great birthday which included a trip to the Loveland Museum.

As some of you know, Loveland (The Sweetheart City) is known for its Valentine Re-mailing Program. Every year hundreds of thousands of people send valentines to be stamped with the Loveland postmark and a Loveland cachet:

So when we got to the museum there was one thing we knew we had to do:

Become Miss LOVELAND VALENTINE of 1961.

And it would not have been as much fun without my partner in crime joining in.

I've Been Away From Blogging For So Long I Forgot What I Do Around Here 2

Second, I was feeling run down so I bought a juicer and started juicing.  It has made a big difference in my life and I'm feeling more energized.  Green drinks for everyone!

Trash Day

Light Shadows- 31

I'll take Manhattan on a warm Autumn evening.

Where I Was Yesterday At 2:30 PM

Sitting on the front porch of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO enjoying the view.

Did you know that one of the TV channels at the Stanley Hotel continuously shows Stanley Kubrick's  The Shining, 24/7?

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
-October by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Beautiful evening walk with the dogs yesterday.

I Am Learning To Sew- Project 33

I bought an old curtain which used to hang either in a boy's bedroom or in a man's den at a garage sale last week. I wasn't sure how I would use it but then I noticed these TV pillows in the family room and thought they could use a make over.

Throw pillows before.

Throw pillows after.

I think they turned out great and will not bore you with how frustrating making them turned out to be. I will tell you that zippers can be difficult.

House Project

A while ago my husband and I found this bench in a thrift store and bought it. My belief that it had been made out of an old bed headboard and footboard was confirmed by a neighbor who is also a furniture maker. He believes the back of the bench was made from the headboard and the sides were made from the bed footboard. He also said he thought the bench seat was made from another piece of wood.

We bought the bench to replace the old bench we had in the entryway to our house. That one was functional but only allowed one and a half people sit on it at the same time  and was not really big enough to hold everything we needed it to hold.

So we bought some new hardware and came up with this.

A whole lot nicer and more usable.

Artistic Licence

I entered an art show this weekend. The theme was Frida Kahlo inspired art. Creating my work took more work than I thought and this I found out when I downloaded 53 photos from my camera. I could feel I had it right when I took the fifty-third image.

Frida Kahlo, "Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair"

Colleen Shannon,  "Selfie with Green Hair"

All Flowers Keep The Light

Other wildflowers we saw up in the mountains a few weeks ago

Wild Roses

Blue Lupine

Scarlet Gilia

I don't know what these are called but I see them all the time.

Arnica

Another unknown; planted on the grounds of the Grand Lake Lodge.

Rocky Mountain High

Tis the land where the columbines grow,

Overlooking the plains far below,

While the cool summer breeze in the evergreen trees

Softly sings where the columbines grow
-Where the Columbines Grow by  A.J. Fynn  (First Colorado State Song)


We were up in the mountains last weekend and were delighted to find the state flower, Rocky Mountain Columbine,  in bloom.

A line of columbines

I've always thought Columbines look like starbursts or comets shooting across the sky.

The most beautiful ones were under the Aspen trees.