The Color of Fall

I went to the cabin last Saturday afternoon just for an overnight.  NOAA was predicting a week of rain for both Boulder and the high country.  I thought if I wanted to get any photos of the aspens in full fall regalia I'd better make a quick trip up.  

By Sunday afternoon I had taken two walks and 127 photos.  Having read the latest Vanity Fair from cover to cover and finished this book (If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  Filming of a movie based on the book and starring Jeremy Irons, started this spring.  I will go see this one),

I couldn't wait to get back to the computer to see what I'd actually captured on film.  I spent almost three hours editing photos.  Here are a few...






















I snapped this just about two blocks west of the cabin.  The "leaf peepers" were parked almost bumper-to-bumper along the south side of Eldorado, the street on which the cabin is located, when I returned from Sunday's walk.  This was the eye-catcher...

The locals hate anything that brings more traffic to Eldora, so now I can't decide if I'm a local or a "leaf peeper"!  

Someone had even driven as far in as they could on the access road along the south side of the creek, usually used only by residents, and parked just a few feet from one of my favorite photography subjects...

this old rusty mining auger...

I guess, based on the way this made me feel, I consider myself a local!

Join me on my favorite walk...

Not everything colorful is up...

 

One stalwart harebell hanging in...

At least this "peeper" came by un-motorized conveyance...

It was so dry earlier in the year that there are few rose hips...

...no rose hip syrup for gifts this Christmas.  Remember last fall?...

I love the way decades of heavy Rocky Mountain snows have, gently, molded this metal over this boulder like chocolate fondant over nougat...

Nature's frame...

That's all for today.  Tomorrow...Fire on the Mountain.  Teddee

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

Last Post From the Cabin

Well, this is it.  The last post from this location.  Of course I'll be coming back to the cabin on a regular basis, finishing up my decorating projects and hopefully getting out and walking and having some fun!  This spring and summer have really been busy what with moving, trying to get the apartment in Boulder at least livable and returning now and then to the cabin to try to get it in shape for my own enjoyment and that of my sister and her husband should they decide to come out sometime this summer or fall.

Yesterday while I was talking to my brother on the phone I saw this spectacular hummingbird.  It was exactly the color of a new copper penny.  I'd never seen one like it and, of course, I wasn't prepared to take a photo.  After we ended our conversation I got on line and discovered it is a Rufous Hummingbird.  It returned today and I got one fairly good shot...

Here are some shots I got off the internet...

Sorry, I didn't write down where I found these or the name of the photographer.  I also printed off a bit about these particular hummingbirds.  It says they are "by far the most aggressive of the three" hummingbirds being discussed in the article and noted they "...sound like buzz bombs as they swarm at the feeder, fanning their tails and trying to drive off competitive Broad-taileds, as well as other Rufous."  This one was true to form.  I had on a bright hibiscus pink tee shirt yesterday and all of the hummingbirds, including this one, seemed particularly attracted to it, so I flung it over my shoulder today when I went out to try to get this guy's photo.  He must have thought this was one big flower because he stuck around as long as I was out there, keeping a certain distance except when he had to come in close to run off any other hummingbirds that tried to get to the feeder, which I was standing by.  I had some real aerial fights going on above my head and right in front of my face and wish I had better camera equipment and was quicker.  I could have snapped some real great shots like the three above.

We had another major rain this afternoon.  It has really been a challenge to get the things spray painted that I brought up here with me.  I tried to capture the intensity of the rain and set my camera to capture movement, which I'd had some success with last winter with snow, but it doesn't work the same with rain.  All of my photos that I took with that setting look as if big white worms were falling from the sky.  This one is not too strange...

The ox-eye daisies are loving it, but the door that leaked snow all last winter is now leaking rain...

...I've been using pieces of drop cloth and an old towel to sop up the water, but nothing gets dry before the next rain comes...

I'm not complaining.  It is such a relief not to have to worry so much about the cabin burning down.

This morning I took all of my recyclable trash to the town dump.  When I got back I gave a couple of the things I'd been spray painting another coat.  

Then it started to rain and I had to bring everything inside...again.  

While I was waiting for it to stop raining I washed the windows on the inside.  Sort of got that backward since I put up the new curtains first, but they needed washing so badly.  I could hardly see through the soot from the smoke that belched out of the wood stove all last winter.  Last week I cleaned this dove print that I had hanging over the bunk all winter and this will give you some idea of how bad the smoke issue was in here...

That was just one swipe across the glass.  I hope my lungs don't look like this.


I've got to be back in Boulder tomorrow for physical therapy on my shoulder so I have the car mostly packed.  I'll dismantle the computer in the morning, pack it up, along with some tools I brought back up here that I'll need at the apartment, and I'll be off.

Check back in in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully I'll be back on line.  Teddee

Finally the Fun Stuff

I'm finally doing some of the fun decorating stuff at the cabin.  I got these vintage (and huge) snowshoes...

...that I found at Savers several months ago hung in the only place they'd fit, up behind the wood stove chimney.  They are 48 inches long.  No wonder snow shoeing was once considered a real challenge.  Here's a shot of some of the newest snowshoes.  


 

They've come a long way!


I also got this great clock hung that I've also been holding for several months.  I think I may have found this at the Goodwill in Longmont...

It's double sided and huge for the space and is sort of a joke because the last time my sister was out here she was complaining she couldn't see the clock!  I'm actually loving it, but sure wish I had had someone here to hold the sucker while I was getting those screws in.  It's heavy and my arm was complaining, but I prevailed.

Let's see, what else...This hide-a-bed, which my sister brought out and says is really comfortable, is covered in a white floral fabric that's been grating on me ever since it appeared.  A country cottage perhaps, the seashore maybe, but not this rustic mountain cabin.  This covering is just makeshift since the first time anyone opens the hide-a-bed to sleep on it, it will necessitate removing this fabric, but I just had to see what it would look like.  I had bought this fabric at a Savers for $5.99 and I actually think I bought it while I was still living in Phoenix.  I wish I could afford to have the hide-a-bed reupholstered, but this is going to have to do for now...

I am so in love with this fabric...the elk...

...and the pine cone and acorn motifs...

and this pillow, another Phoenix find, I've had for years just waiting for the perfect spot...

...it looks and feels like oil on canvas.  I found this in a bag with some other pillows two winters ago when I returned to Phoenix to try to clean out the three storage units I (still) have there and brought it back with me.  This is why I can't just close these storage units down without going through everything first.

I made these curtain tie-back rosettes last week at the apartment and brought them up with me....

They were fun and easy to make.  I just tore strips of the curtain fabric about three inches wide and 36 inches long, folded the strips in half lengthways then turned them and coiled them, hot gluing as I went to hard cardboard circles.  I had spray painted the clothes pins black and glued the rosettes to the clip clothes pins.  Now I have rosette tie backs instead of just clothes pins.

I also hung this wooden "Welcome to the Mountains" plaque that I found in my storage unit...

 ...and this welcome pineapple cone...

 

...on the side of the secretary/hutch.  Yep.  Nailed 'em right in there.  I've done this to most of my case goods over the years and really like the effect, but guess it's a good thing I don't have really high-end furniture!

This morning I hung this cute Bear Crossing sign, another Savers find...

 

...just around the southeast corner of the cabin where the bear had actually been crossing earlier in the spring. So that's some of what I've been doing since I arrived at the cabin on Friday.  

Since this will be my last blog for a couple of weeks, I thought I'd also throw in what I'd done to my bedroom at the apartment.  I had some fun with it.  I decided to put the old steamer trunk in that room against the north wall...

 
I've been looking for months for a lampshade just like the one in the photo that's just a bit larger...

I just love the way this marabou fringe moves in the draft from the air conditioner.  I have several of these little folding pastry stands, but the others are in storage in other states.  I like the rusty patina of this one and am using it to display a candle and two little similarly colored lamp chimneys...

This urn was looking for a home and seems to fit here after I raised it in height by putting it on a book.  I loaded it with some outsized rusty looking keys and a rusty metal cone...

The metal stag head fit in this little metal bird feeder, which also is holding some colorful hat pins and that strange-looking thing on the left is a small scrying ball.


I also was able to pair up a beautiful bird cage that had been out on the balcony with a little inexpensive crystal-clad chandelier, an antler bowl I believe I bought at the Orange Tree gift shop in Mesa, Arizona, and a ceramic dove...

...I just love the patterns this throws on the walls.  I've been turning this and the little lamp with the marabou trimmed red lampshade on...

 and everything else off when I go to bed just to enjoy the lights.


I also threw this beautiful piece of fabric...

another Phoenix find that I'd uncovered in storage two years ago and brought back to Colorado with me, over the bedroom window and the light coming through this is an added delight.


Makin' it mine.


Stay tuned, Teddee