Summer!

 My absence from the blog is a result of summer!  We here in windy Wyo (and it has been so windy!!), have to take advantage of our very short summer and we have been building a fence to keep the critters in and out.  The ground squirrels have been raising havoc with all of my flowers as they emerge from the long winter and I have been fighting them with everything I have, but the traps have been eliminated as the magpies are drawn to the peanut butter used as bait.  The critters also carry lice, fleas, and ticks so I have been busy!!  Roger is oblivious to it all and truly knows how to spend summer.

 In addition, when I am not at war with the wind and the squirrels and the feeble attempt to garden, I have been cutting and grinding glass.  This year, our craft retreat will be here rather than Elk Mt. and I am getting projects for that.  One of our projects is a series of stepping stones with glass images embedded. So far  have twenty pieces almost ready.  So after using a few patterns I had, I decided that I could do a better job. (ha ha...I lack no self confidence).  Maybe I am just too ignorant to think otherwise.  This is a series of the steps I have taken with my version of an Iris.

This has yet to be ground in order to get the edges smooth, but although it is time consuming, I have 2 lighthouses, 2 butterflies, 2 dragonflies, 3 pansies, 1 pear, 1 tulip, 2 lillys, 2 lady bugs, 1 daisy, 2 iris, and a couple of other flowers....20 in all I think.  So as this project progresses, I will update when the actual time comes the first full week of August. We will have at least 4 different crafts and intend to spend 4 days with these projects.  Don't give up on me, I just get a little busy in summer.

Yep, it's me!

 I really think this is the first picture of me that I have ever posted.  I don't like to post pictures of people, mostly to protect their privacy.  The Mr. and I took a trip to Vegas last week so that he could play in an international pool tournament.  He played for 4 days with his teammates and although they did not get in "the money", they had fun!  On the way back we went to the Grand Canyon and totally loved it and want to go back to spend more time sightseeing.  There is so much history there and this watchtower is something that shouldn't be missed!!  I have much to do now that I am home again so this will be short and sweet?  Maybe not sweet.  Maybe not short.

 This summer, my buddies and I will again have our retreat, but it will not take place as it has in the past years, at Elk Mountain.  We will be here.  One of the projects will be this stepping stone project above.  It will not be the moose, but another set of patterns which the girls have chosen to do.  But just to note;  the date on this is 2001, so they are very durable as long as they are out of the winter elements.

NOW....this crazy cat woke me up one morning and it took me a while to realize what I was hearing.  She had crawled into this framed sewing bag and even though I had only a few things in the bottom, she was scratching at a book cover trying to make a nest.  While we were gone, we had kenneled the pets (we have a terrific kennel) and she was in a room with several other cats.  They had toys, scratching posts, little cubby's and windows everywhere.  A couple of cats were in their own spaces as they didn't get along with the others, but when we went to get her, she was curled in a cubby, another cat on the shelf above her and she was reluctant to even get out.  In addition, she was angry with us and totally avoided me for the most part of the day.  She got over that though and is helping me this morning as I blog.  I am off to try to garden and eradicate the little critters that are eating all of my plants...sorry, but they carry fleas, ticks and dig holes everywhere in my yard and I don't need another broken ankle.
Also, on a bright note, we are now seeing the doe antelope drop their babies, a coyote pair here travels back an forth to the river for water and hunt for their young...I saw a doe actually chase a coyote  away from where her baby probably was hiding, and we have hummers at the feeders and both tanagers and bullocks at the oranges we put out. 

"Nature has been for me, for as long as I can remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure and delight, a home, a teacher, a companion."  ~ Lorraine Anderson