Retreat

Feeling very revitalized after my fourth annual trip to Elk Mtn. Wyoming with 5 of the best friends, I returned home to very hot weather.  It is scorching and the wildfires in Colorado are vicious.  The smoke drifts our way and is choking us!  I cannot fathom what those poor souls who have lost homes, pets, belongings and businesses are doing.  Many have been homeless for at least 2 weeks and we are told that the fire won't be out until the snow falls.  What was previously gained was lost today with the low humidity, the high temps and the winds.

So, in the temperate weather, by the bubbling brook, we embarked on our projects this summer.  With 6 sixty lb. bags of mortar and sand from the creek bottom, we formed mounds,  and covered them with green plastic trash bags.  We choose foliage with veins and textures and placed them on the plastic, vein side up and proceeded to mix and apply mortar over the leaves.  We then shaped them to mimic a larger leaf with hopes that after they dried and were flipped over we would have bird baths.
Success! I made small ones and are about ten inches from tip to tip.  After they dried, we sprayed the bottom side with spray paint and using craft paints and sealer painted the top sides.  Love them!

 The second project we did down at the barn, witness to deer who were resting in the shade there outside where we work.  The Mr. drilled holes in the center of 32 pieces of glass which we gals collected at various garage sales and flea markets.  He also welded nuts to the re-bar and bent some of it to resemble flower stems.  We girls painted the re-bar and used bolts threaded through the glass pieces and those were threaded into the nuts on the re-bar.  (some would say we were all "nuts").
When the sun shines, our flower garden glistens.

More about the other project and our retreat to follow, as well as my gnome garden, veggie garden and flower garden.

The flower garden

 Just a quick post today.  I had coffee with a dear friend who is now gardening and had some plants and seat of the pants wisdom to share with her.  As I was giving some plants to her, I realized how pretty my garden is!  Above, daisies and purple salvia in the background and dianthus in the foreground are in full bloom.  Below, is a Maltese cross.  This plant was a freebie from an acquaintance in a garden club several years ago.  I brought it with me when I moved and honestly forgot about it.  This year, it sprang up and what a surprise to find it still in the garden.  I had totally forgotten about it. 

 The yellow lily is also a gift from a dear friend and I have another color which is budded and not yet in bloom. 

On another note, the fire just south of us has now reached 50,000 acres, destroyed over 100 structures and one life.  The smoke fills the air here when the wind comes from the south and I cannot imagine the destruction.  As a child, I remember having picnics with family nearly every weekend in that area and now.....it will most likely burn until the fall as a result of all of the beetle kill.

Critter antics

 Our kitten, Coalette loves, plastics, water, fabrics, and papers.  She loves to help me read the morning paper and it has become a real challenge to get it read in one piece.  I have been so busy that the merry-go-round I am on won't stop. (I want off!).  But this weekend we had guests and the male guest informed me that there was a paper nest of sorts beneath the guest bedroom headboard.  I was somewhat puzzled, and embarrassed to say the least.  I could not imagine what he was referring to as he seemed to think  that Coalette was the culprit.  She is not allowed in there normally, but if the door gets left open, she might sneak in.  I went to see the "nest" and this magazine and the shreds above were scattered beneath the headboard.  It took me a good while to clean it up, but we are still laughing at the little lady's mess and since she is visiting the vet this week, perhaps her nesting instincts will stop.

We were out of town last weekend and when we returned last Sunday, I checked on the babies below as they were 2 weeks old.  This snap shows them huddled together, but shortly afterward the one little guy had his claws on the edge of the nest and was standing proudly stretching his wings.  In less than 30 minutes, I witnessed him leave the nest, miss the brick ledge on our home and fall several feet to the ground.  He hopped under the pine tree near and seemed to be fine.

 The one obviously pushed him out as had the nest to himself, settled down for the night and was gone when I checked on Monday morning.  Two weeks from hatching and they were on their own...sort of.  Are the fledglings ever on their own?  I wondered about mine, but eventually, they do grow up.

We have a horrible wildfire burning south of us about 50 miles..more to follow.