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.