Late August in the Rockies

I promised yesterday to post some of the photos I took while I was at the cabin in Eldora last weekend.  It's starting to look a little like fall...

I know this is Oregon Grape.  The leaves look like holly...

I've spent an  inordinate amount of time on line trying to determine what this plant, the leaves of which are turning such a bright yellow, is and haven't been able to find anything about it.  In the process, however, I've come to the conclusion that there are way too many sites that purport to provide information on Rocky Mountain plants, weeds, flowers that are totally useless since they don't provide photos!...

 

Even the creek has that autumn look....

This is the seed head produced by the plant that's turning bright yellow...

Not sure what this is either.  I need a Rocky Mountain "what is it" plant book...

Love this melange of colors and textures...

This huge clump of moss changes with the seasons...

 

More Oregon Grape...

More of the mystery plant...

 

This little ground cover always interests me.  It is so stalwart.  And I think about it hunkering down under feet of snow each winter...

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Did you ever see the movie Raintree County with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift?  When I came upon this I was reminded of that...

Is that aspen in the center below turning already?...

I also promised an update on the foxes.  I'm not sure what is going on, but none of them came to eat during the day until the last morning.  I had two the first night and I think one of them might have been Vixen, but they didn't come until nightfall and it was so dark, even with the porch light on, I couldn't be sure.  Although when I went out to put more kibble out, one of them kind of danced up onto the deck and toward the cabin door and that sounds like Vixen and I thought when the light got behind her that I could see that split in her ear. If it was her, her coat had improved greatly so that was good news, but they were both very nervous and I never saw her again.  

The next three nights only one fox came and I think it was Valentino.  He was super vigilant that last night, kept looking out south toward the road in between bites of food.  Then the last morning, I was having my coffee at the picnic table and when I got up and came around the corner to come back into the cabin, there was Valentino sitting in the meadow looking just ghastly.  He had been badly injured...

You can see the wound on his left shoulder and neck and his eyes and eyebrows look like he is in so much pain...

He did eat, but I think his jaw on the left even looks swollen and he was limping.  I left a bowl of kibble hoping it would provide at least one more meal, but, of course, I couldn't be sure the magpies or another animal wouldn't get to it first and I won't be back for some time, so I hope he's able to hunt.  

Here's a close-up of that wound on his neck...

...it looks as if whatever attacked him almost cut his jugular.  I hope he survives.

Not to end on such a somber note, here is a shot of my mountain neighbor's gorgeous poppies...

More later, Teddee

Introducing Victor/Victoria

 Here's cutie pie....

This is Vixen's baby.  Isn't he a cuddler?  At least I think it's a male, but since I'm not sure, I've dubbed him Victor/Victoria for the time being.  And he really does have his Daddy's eyes!  He came and ate kibble and egg with his mom this morning and also got his own chicken because she was growling at him when he tried to dodge in and get some kibble.  I took a lot of photos and this is the only one that really turned out.  He is as jumpy as a wind-up toy and the sun was so bright he was over-exposing and even with computer magic I couldn't fix the rest.  Now I'm really glad I came back up to the cabin.

Have you seen, read or heard about the periodical Where Women Create?  It's a wonderful magazine that features the studios and work spaces of artists and other creative women.  Well, this is where this woman was creating today...


It started out on the picnic table...sewing machine, travel steam iron, makeshift ironing board with towel on picnic bench...

If you must sew, there couldn't be a prettier place...

I discovered, after a very long time, during which I measured, measured, cut, remeasured, remeasured again, pressed up edges, remeasured, etc., that my sewing machine wouldn't run off of an extension cord.  I guess Sears was afraid I'd fry myself.  So then I had to tote the sewing machine inside and set it up on the table, which necessitated moving the computer keyboard and monitor, something I had hoped to avoid...

Then it clouded up and started to rain and I had to bring in everything else, using the top of the cooler, which I'm keeping inside for now, and the area around it as craft central.  Water is for hydrating DIYer and steam iron...

I did any further cutting and measuring here in this little floor space in front of the door...

Do you think I might merit a page in Where Women Create?  Here's the finished product...

...two panels for one window and this took six hours!  As usual when I'm sewing, if I could figure anything wrong I did.  I intended to make the curtain for the big south window first and did all my calculations...depth of rod pocket, amount of turnover, depth of hem, amount of turnover...and, of course, did them incorrectly forgetting that I had to turn over raw edges twice, not once.  So the first panel was too short for the south window and too long for this window and I had to cut a chunk off.  Then I tried and tried and tried to get the patterns to match up on the top and bottom of the first and second panel and finally just gave up I was getting so frustrated and angry.  These look OK if you don't inspect them carefully.  If you do make the mistake of looking at the back of the first panel and the hem of the second you might think a small child from a country with no child labor laws had sat on the ground with her little sewing machine and turned these out for pennies.  If anyone asks, I'm going to say I bought them in...pick a third world country.


Hopefully the next two panels will go more smoothly although I don't ever seem to learn from sewing experience.  Each time is a new adventure and every time I measure anything when I'm sewing I get a different number.


I also want to make a skirt--yes, I know I said I was sick and tired of everyone skirting their cupboards, but the doors on this one were so warped they wouldn't stay shut--for the cupboard right under this curtain.  I took the doors off a few months back and the contents--cleaning and laundry products--have been on full display ever since.


Yesterday evening while I was waiting for various spray painting projects to dry I recovered the top for this little bench...

...I didn't want to miter the corners--I wanted a softer look--and tried to gather the corners, but I'm not sure I'm pleased with this, so may have to pull out a few staples on the corners and try again before I screw it back onto the bench.  Although I hate to sew, I love fabric and had hundreds of pounds of fabric in my storage (take my word on the weight!) so had numerous choices.  I think this pattern looks nice with the ornate wrought iron.  This will probably stay in the cabin to use as a side table by the bunk now that the steamer trunk is gone.  You can see why my motto is "Not Your Mama's Mountain Decor"!  I've been giving some thought to this idea I had for the cabin--and for my dream shop should it every happen--and it is an idea I've used in decorating some of the other places I've lived.  I think it is the combination that resulted when women who lived in more cosmopolitan cities homesteaded in more rustic or ethnic places, taking their most beloved household furnishings with them, and augmenting them with local, handmade treasures.


That's all for today.  I'm not sure I'll post tomorrow.  Kind of depends on how the sewing goes.  Oh, and by the way, for some reason I re-read yesterday's post and fixed that egregious spelling error...let's just say I was not at my peak!  Teddee

I'll Have the Kibble, the Egg, the Chicken, Oh, and the French Bread, Too, Please

I returned to the cabin yesterday afternoon.  I was getting so depressed in that apartment I had to get out.  I sure hope I haven't made a serious mistake in taking it and that this is just transition angst.  So, life is already brighter.  I have had multiple visits from Vixen since I arrived...

I knew some fox was over east of the cabin when I arrived, the car loaded with things I wanted to spray paint, material to make into cabin curtains, as well as kibble and a chicken that I'd picked up in Nederland for the foxes.  The magpies always set up a ruckus when a fox is around and they were making a lot of noise over that way.  I think perhaps the foxes have started hanging around this cabin across the road east, called The Shire, that's been vacant since Apollo and his family moved a few months back. 

While I was unloading the car, Vixen trotted up from that direction, so I got the groceries out, set them on the floor just inside the cabin door, pulled out the chicken, the kibble and the eggs, carried them over to the kitchen end of the cabin and made her a dish of the latter two right away.  I always wait to give her chicken because the minute I give her chicken, she quits eating and runs the chicken back to the den.  

I gave her a great chunk of chicken breast eventually and off she went, returning almost immediately.  I gave her a few smaller pieces of chicken, hoping she'd eat them herself on the spot.  But, no, she felt obligated to take them back to the den.  However, she seems to have a built-in scale and when the amount of food she's contemplating taking back to the den doesn't quite measure up, she hesitates, waiting to see if I'll add more to the scale.  I didn't, so she carried them off.  She returned a third time and I gave her a drumstick and, again, she trotted off to the west and the den.  When she came back again I told her she needed to finish her kibble or the chicken wasn't going to last more than one night.  I put another raw egg in what was left of the kibble, returning inside the cabin but leaving the door open.  

I'd walked over to the kitchen end of the cabin to cut off a little more chicken for her, heard a crumpling noise I couldn't quite identify, turned around and could see that something was missing from the groceries I'd left on the floor.  I went to the door and there she was, halfway across the meadow, with an entire loaf of French bread, still in the plastic, crossways in her mouth like a bone!  And this wasn't a little baguette.  It was one of those big, flat loaves that I'd found on the day-old rack that was cheaper than the cheapest sliced bread.  No, of course, I didn't have my camera out!

About this time it started really raining...yes, our drought seems to have been broken...so I'm sure, if she and the rest of the troop were able to tear off the plastic back at the den, they just ended up with one big dough ball.  I think she thought if I was going to start staying away for days on end she was going to get anything she could while the getting was good.  What a character.  

She was here first thing this morning and as proof that the drought is broken, I had a wet fox...

...wet grass...

...and a dish pan full of water that I caught off the roof...

Today I've been trying to catch up with my e-mail and have been exploring internet options in Boulder.  So far it seems as if Century Link has the best deal, either $29.99 a month for six months, any speed, going up to $45 at the end of six months or $34.95 for one year, any speed, going up to $45 at the end of the year plus a free modem, which it appears could cost as much as $99 otherwise.  I tried Xfinity, the new name for Comcast, and got so fed up with their phone menu and automatic call-back procedure that I went on line, but they can't beat the Century Link deal.  

I need to do something so that apartment isn't quite so cell-like.  I love to read and haven't missed T.V. here at the cabin at all, but I've been able to get the weather report, the news and stream music on the computer and before that was able to play tapes.  I had left the old radio with tape deck and all the tapes up here at the cabin thinking my sister and her husband might enjoy those if they make it out this summer.  Since I'm paid up on internet here through July I'll definitely be taking the radio and tapes back with me when I return this week.  I haven't been depressed in years so will take whatever action I can to keep it at bay.

I had gone to the Boulder library, which is literally across the street from the apartment building, on Friday and got a temporary library card--they wouldn't give me a regular card until I brought a copy of my lease in, just one of the annoyances that made last week frustrating since if I had just kept my mouth shut and let them think my permanent address was this cabin as shown on my driver's license, I could have got a permanent card with no problem since Eldora is in Boulder County--checked out three books and finished two of them before I started up yesterday.  I decided I'd return those before heading for the cabin even though they weren't due for weeks, parked in the library parking lot and found myself thoroughly confused by the parking signage as I am by all of the parking signage in Boulder...and I've lived in two very large cities...but if this makes sense to you, tell me what it means...

...First of all, it was a Sunday, so what's applicable on Sunday?  Now, Monday through Saturday, it sounds as if you can park there for up to three hours if you're not a library patron as long as you pay, but if you are a library patron, it's free for the same amount of time between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.  What about after that?  And how do they know if you're a library patron?  And, they don't make it easy for you to pay.  There are no meters.  You have to trot over to a kiosk, put your money in, get a receipt and put it inside your car on the dash so it can be seen through the windshield.  I expect parking fees are one of the biggest money makers for the city of Boulder if for no other reason than many people simply give up understanding what they're supposed to do and go for the ticket.

I've already received a $25 parking ticket for parking in a spot on Walnut Street, the street that runs along the front of the apartment building, that the property manager told me belonged to the apartment building and was unrestricted.  Sometime after I parked my car there on Tuesday evening upon returning from Denver and the eye doctor, city workers dug a hole right at the halfway point on my car and plonked in a sign indicating parking was restricted to two hours and had to be between the signs.  Then another city worker gave me a ticket because the back end of my car was on the other side of the sign that hadn't been there when I parked!  I felt as if I was in a bad cartoon.  During a call to the city I was told that if the property manager gave me erroneous information I'd still have to pay the fine, but if she knew something about a special arrangement they didn't know about, I should have her call them.  I tried to locate her and she was on vacation until sometime this week.

What else might have left a black cloud hovering over my head?  Even though I wrote an extremely polite letter to the Director of Property Management at Boulder Housing Partners on June 25 with a copy to the office manager--who had helpfully given me a bag of ice for my eye and his card and her card the day I jettisoned into their front door--inquiring if they have liability insurance that might help pay my burgeoning medical expenses related to that fall, I have had no response. When I called a week ago, both of their recorded messages indicated they were on vacation.  I think she gets back sometime this week and he next week, so I've still not signed up for physical therapy for my rotator cuff damage and just canceled Wednesday's follow-up appointment with the physician's assistant since there was nothing for her to follow up on.

My trip to the glaucoma specialist was hot and on the return there was an accident just south of the stadium coming through Denver and a portion of the trip that should have taken ten minutes took forty-five with stop-and-go traffic traveling between zero and two miles an hour all the way.  It took almost that entire time before a patrol car responded and when I finally passed the accident, it just looked like a fender bender.  They used to call those accident delays "gaper's blocks" in Chicago.  Nothing really keeping the traffic from moving except other drivers slowing down to gape.  The pressure in both my eyes had gone up two points since my last visit so I'm now on three different glaucoma drops and have to go back to see if this combination is working the first week of August...another medical bill, another tank of gas, probably another hot trip.


I worked on this mess...

...the results of emptying my storage into this one-bedroom apartment and, early the morning of July 4, getting my huge steamer trunk and a futon delivered by my neighbor and another Eldora resident.  I got it mostly put to rights July 3rd through 5th.  I haven't taken any photos of the aftermath, but, trust me, it's vastly improved!  I've put quite a few things on the "free table" at the apartment building, taken a few others to Clutter Consignment which is just around the corner, dropped off some at Savers and Goodwill, wedged a bunch more into the storage closet and have actually been able to use some of them myself!

Here are some photos of the baker's rack after I played around with it...

That light switch presented some challenges.  I had to put the mirror, which I intended to hang behind the top, behind the bottom, so decided to hang the little palm tree print, which was narrow enough it didn't interfere with the switches, behind the top.  I kind of like it peeking through the wrought iron.  

I also had a lot more variety in the first shelf under the top originally, but the more things I unpacked the more of this bronze stemware I found so I eventually had the entire shelf filled.  You'd think I was a real party hearty girl.  I told my friend Evelyn in Phoenix once that if I had a party I'd have to invite her friends since I'm such a loner!  I actually enjoy planning a party, but would just as soon disappear once the party begins!  Did I miss my calling? Caterer?  Party planner?

I also started removing the gimp from what I call my faux faux bois chair...

I had to borrow some pliers from one of my neighbors in order to get this double layer off the chair back.  I don't recall that when I bought this chair the back was damaged, but it has been through the wars.  I brought it back in my car from Arizona two winters ago and then had it shoehorned into my storage and things had shifted when I got in there to vacate.  I had intended to paint this chair black, which might at least camouflage the soil.  I can't see going to the expense of having this "wicker" replaced and don't think I can do it myself, so expect I'll just have to live with it and I don't know how I'm going to get rid of the dried hot glue filled with gimp lint...

I really would prefer no trim on the back, but if I can't eradicate this I'll have to use something.  This is my only chair, so it is going to have to serve all purposes until I get that remedied, either by getting some of my things out of storage in Missouri or buying some additional chairs.  

It had been too hot to use the balcony--it would have been too hot anyway, but the a/c exhausts right onto the balcony, which is not much bigger than a Juliet balcony.  However, the temperature had dropped Saturday evening so I tried moving the chair out there...

...but the balcony is so narrow and the chair is so straight I felt as if I were on display in the red light district in Rotterdam.

While I've been waiting for my photos to upload, always an issue with Blogger, at least for me, I've been spray painting a few items I brought up with me with my favorite Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  I couldn't think of a way or place at the apartment where I could spray paint without annoying the other residents, many of whom have ailments of some sort or another that probably would be exacerbated by paint fumes.  At least the fumes dissipate quickly here in the wide open spaces...

...the large item is a small stool that could also be used as a table and the smaller item is sort of a twiggy candle holder.  I'm also painting this frame which came with a print, actually just a note card I discovered when I took it apart, of a square-rigged ship that I liked...

I'll take photos when I get this put back together.  

It has started to rain again...and no I'm not complaining.  We have needed it so badly and I am so enjoying the cool mountain temperatures.  I had my electric blanket on high last night and had to have one space heater and a wood fire going for a bit this morning.  

In Boulder, another apartment resident finally loaned me a fan toward the end of the heat wave and has now offered to sell it to me for $10 so, although I don't have the money to spare, I'll pay it because well, Olive is 88, she and her dog Kooky are both adorable, it's a great price and the fan really made a big difference in how hot the apartment was.  I was just about ready to move my table and chair into the bedroom and set up shop right in front of the a/c before I got the fan and it still isn't what I'd call comfortable, just passable.  I noted this morning that it's going to be 95F degrees by the end of the week in Boulder so I'll be going right back into it.

So now that it's raining I'm going to start covering stool tops with fabric, which I brought with me, using the electric stapler, and then tomorrow I will have run out of excuses and will have to move the computer, figure out how to get this heavy "portable" sewing machine up on the table with one weak arm, get the bobbin filled with black thread, thread the machine, get the fabric cut for the two curtains I must make (I found two ready-made curtains I'd put in storage that fit the east and west windows that almost match this other fabric) get out the little portable iron, iron up the side seams, etc., etc.  Have been putting this off since last November!  Wonder why?  How anyone can think sewing is fun is beyond me.

More before I head back to Boulder.  Teddee

Fox Tale and Museum Visit

Vixen just keeps me totally entertained.  

What a character.  This morning I was out of chicken and eggs but I gave her kibble and unsalted chicken broth I had left over from cooking some chicken legs (99 cents a pound) earlier in the week.  She kept waiting around for something she could take back to the den, so I gave her a small piece of country pork rib left over from last night's supper.  She trotted off up the road with that, but soon returned.  

I had taken my coffee and some cheese and saltines out to the picnic table for my breakfast and was reading.  She joined me on the deck and kept getting up on the opposite bench, checking out what I was eating.  I gave her some cheese and she seemed to like it, but I wasn't sure it was good for her so decided to come back in the cabin to get a can of dog food I'd tucked away just for such an emergency.  I could see she was eyeing the cheese, so brought that back in the cabin with me.  When I went back out with the dog food, there she was, trotting up the road with the entire sleeve of saltines in her mouth! 

I thought I was taking all these cute pictures of her this morning and then discovered my camera hadn't been functioning except for this very last shot.  The other day when I made the last minute decision to make a run down to the apartment hoping Dixie would be gone by the time I got back, I left my camera out on the picnic table and it rained on it.  It seems to be functioning except occasionally, when it should be in picture taking mode with the lens extended, you see nothing in the viewfinder.  If it's really bright outside you often are unaware this is occurring and that's what happened this morning.  So the only photo I have is this one...

...but it fits right in with the story....wily fox and packet of saltines in the lower right corner.

Just now, as I was preparing this blog, she hopped up on the picnic table and looked through the open south window...

...time for supper.  She's starting to come in and out of the cabin regularly if the door is open, especially when she has meat she needs to hide.  I think she may be starting to think this would make a dandy den.  Just about the right size.

Today, I did my usual chores...post office, library, spring for water, picked up pine cones and still had some time before 4 p.m. when the Cheap Wednesday Chicken in Every Pot goes on sale at B&F Market.  I've never been in the Mining Museum in Nederland...

 
...and the building housing the museum wasn't open today, but I decided I'd take some photos of the mining machinery outside.  I think they need to go for a grant.  This probably could be a very interesting museum and perhaps the displays inside the building are, but the grass is growing up through all the equipment outside...I thought it was interesting that my sister and her husband just returned from a cruise through the Panama Canal and here, in Nederland, free for all to see, is the only existing steam shovel used in the creation of the Canal...

It's huge.  This is just about half of it.  I would have had to have gone across the street to get the entire piece of machinery in my viewfinder.  Here is a close-up of some of the teeth of the scoop...

...actually they look more like fingers.  Here are some other shots of equipment and interesting close-ups of textures of aging metal...

Another day in the Rockies...Teddee