Lady Bug as promised

There will be more of the lady bug as I couldn't get enough of the way she looks in the garden. The antennae don't show up well in this picture, but they are soooo cute!! Also the lilies are such a dark color and Erica.....the bee balm you bought me last year is just really spectacular. My garden is such a delight this summer.
Mother Nature has been good to me and I have many more clips
so stay tuned.


We are packing up again to go camping. Our friends are already down there and this year we are really prepared in the event that we have another bear encounter. We have the dogs, which were absolutely not the least bit help as they didn't even see the bear walking up the road toward us, and we have bear spray. I Guess that is actually pepper spray and we have heavy duty ammunition ...real stuff!!! After watching the evening news and seeing how many incidents have occurred this year in the rocky mountain region it is apparent that they are getting bolder and bolder. Tonight we saw film of an intruder who went into a kitchen and ate shrimp from a freezer and chocolate chips from a closet. At least that bruin had good taste. So many of our campgrounds have been closed because of the beetle kill and it is so sad. It will only continue to get worse until our mature forests are gone. We will camp as long as we are able.

The hummers have been late this summer. My feeders have been devoured by the finches but now that my bee balm is blooming, they are starting to show up. My garden Guru, Bonnie told me that bit of information and darned if she wasn't right! So, Erica, thank you so much for the bee balm.

Lady Bug, Lady Bug, Fly Away Home

As heavy as these bowling balls are this lady bug ain't flyin' nowhere! These are a few of the steps we took to get these hummers done. We took contact paper and masked off the head.

All 5 look a little weird and the one at the back was our experiment as we had no pattern.
We drew circles and cut them out. Try removing the backing from 35-40 little dots of contact paper!
This shows the spraying process and next post will show the finished bugs.
Today I was invited to go into town and meet with some friends at the ice cream shop. One of our ol' buddies who deserted us last year for the warmth and beauty of retirement life in Tuscon came through to visit. What a great visit we had. We miss you Nancy, but know you are having a great life there. (The ice cream was pretty yummy too!) Our realtor called to show the house as I had dirty dishes in the sink, banana bread in the oven and laundry in both the washer and dryer and was putting lunch on the table. The Mr. and I rallied and got most of the house presentable and the banana bread came out of the oven to make the house smell good. Then as I was still in at the ice cream shop, they called and wanted to see it again at 4:30. This time, the Mr. was on his own, but did a great job! We have been so busy that I meet myself coming and going. Will keep you posted but in the interim......

"I try to take one day at a time--but sometimes several days attack me at once."
~ Jennifer Unlimited

More glory from Mom nature

The pasture behind our fence at sunset can sometime be a glorious site if mother nature cooperates.

Today I went in to meet with my buddies and we jumped in with both feet to transform bowling balls into ladybugs for the garden. I have one more snap to take before posting the pictures, but not really knowing what we were doing and with a vague idea of what was to be....it was a success!

More to follow!!!

"Nature, like a kind and smiling mother, lends herself to our dreams and cherishes our fancies."
~ Victor Hgo

Catch-up

I feel as if I have been on that Merry-Go-Round again and I need to get off!!! As a child I loved the carousel horses. Living in rural Colorado, the only chance we ever got to ride was the 4th of July when the carnival came to Greeley. What fun!!! Our Dad was so good about taking us and he loved the Ferris wheel. The best was when it stopped with us on the top and he would rock and rock that chair. My past week was busy and the one coming up is even busier. Time zips by of course, but it all happens at once in a whirlwind. Guess I will survive, but I may be dizzy!

We went camping this past week and took our new camper trailer for its maiden voyage. It was wonderful.

Anyway, I am trying to catch-up on this blog. Below is the quilt that I started and posted pics this past spring. Finally, I finished it. Believe me it was a challenge to stipple this large project and teaching myself with a book I found at a yard sale, was an experience. After making probably every mistake possible, I figured out that certain needles work better, certain threads work better (that was the biggest discovery). Don't anybody look at the back, but by the time I got to the border, I felt as if I had gotten that hang of it. I am ready now to move on to more!!

I also mentioned that I was working on these vintage metal lawn chair projects. This shows the primered seats and frames as well as the color that I chose for the seats. Some of the parts for the glider were in need of replacement and the Mr. will fabricate them for me as he is so very talented. I have only had these for about 7 years and bartered a chest of drawers for the two pieces. Personally, I think I got the best of the deal.


Thar's gold in them thar hills! Well, the Mr. is convinced and our skinny bitch, Hildy always spends the entire time with him in the water. This stream was cold and she shivers the entire time he is panning. Why hypothermia doesn't do her in I will never know. Click on the photo and you will get a better view of the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush in full bloom. The wildflowers were spectacular and I have more to post. That will be more of my CATCH-UP. I am off this week to transform bowling balls into lady bugs so stay tuned.

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment."
~Georgia O'Keefe

Amazing technology

These pictures are of the re-decking job the Mr. did. I guess I didn't get a final photo of the hand rail. The old decking was really in bad shape!!














An update on the bluebirds!! After the first little ones left the nest, mama began adding twigs to the old nest and invited the NEW Mr. to join her. They have been very intently watching the back yard and I have had to capture HOJO the pretty boy cat, nearly every morning. He insists on tormenting them!! One morning, in fact it was the 4th of July, he surprised skinny bitch Hildy with a ground squirrel carefully placed belly up in her water dish. He is totally indiscriminate in his search for prey.

Now as we await the person or persons who will be unable to resist our home as theirs, we have continued to do our own search. After seeing about 10 houses in about 5 hours, we were pretty confused at the end of the day last Wed. We have a few criteria and one is price of course. Also on our list is RV parking and room for the MR's pool table. Being in the older generation, it would be nice to find a one-level ranch. The amazing technology now is that we have Google Earth. This allows us to literally fly at our computer to any home on the market and see if there is RV parking for instance, or if there is alley access or if there is a railroad near. AMAZING!! Several will be on our keep list and hope that we are not moving as the snowflakes fly. Summer is the best time here in WY as the evenings cool way down and the days are not so very hot. The river is still up so the floaters and fishermen are happy and the baby antelope and deer are starting to be seen as we travel along the prairie roads. The bachelor buck deer are in the velvet as their antlers are beginning to grow and they seek shade in many front yards here in town during the heat of the day.

I am re-doing a set of vintage metal lawn furniture from the 50's. Both the chair and glider had many, many, coats of paint on them and not having access to a sand blaster or powder coating establishment, I am doing it the old fashioned way and not too particular at that. Will post the progress!!

"My next house will have no kitchen, just vending machines." - unknown

Flippers, flowers, etc.

At left is a water iris which is blooming in our pond of green pea soup. However ugly it is, the plants and the fish seem to flourish. The fourth of July here was a beautiful and we took ourselves downtown, along with friends, to view the parade and the shoot-out which is always staged at noon on the 4th on the main street of this little western town. It is really a melodrama of sorts with saloon "floosies" smacking the local men during the parade with lipstick kisses and flirting with all. Then there is gunfire and always a villain and a hero who saves the day. Fireworks follow in the evening and we are fortunate to have an anonymous person who is very generous to the residents of this little western town by donating these. We took a trip in the afternoon to the mountains to see how much snow was still there and discovered that we would have no trouble getting to the area where we normally camp. Now to the etc. part of this blog. For those of you who haven't heard directly from us or indirectly from others, we have our home listed for sale. We have been looking at real estate in Cheyenne and depending on our market, we may be moving.

One evening not so long ago, I couldn't resist snapping the sunset. We have such pretty ones here in the west. Happy trails!!