L  S

What it stands for is lazy summer days.  Once again we are humid and that is so awful that I can hardly stand it.  I may have mentioned how I hate humidity!  Once or twice.  So, I haven't been doing anything and we are supposed to have storms.  All I've been doing is farming on Face book and getting neat free stuff (like the window below) from Dover.  

Well not entirely true, as I've done a bunch of cooking and cleaning and such, along with a bit of knitting and lots of fun reading.
But mostly it is a lazy summer time for me.  I do need to go to the Container Store and get a glide out rack for bottles of cleaner under the sink.  But now with the new dishwasher and air conditioning, why would I bother with going out when I don't have too.  Okay, to get books, yarn, beads and colored pencils, but this is what I don't like about summer.;  not a lot of get up and go in my fuel tank.  And lazy is only good for so long.  Well, I'll enjoy the lazy while it is here, before long it will be gone.  

How is your summer going?

THE TOES

A picture of the toes follows.  Nothing earth shaking here, just my toes with the flower decal on the big one and it is painted a teal blue, but shows up as just blue in the photo.  Aren't toes about the oddest thing?

A couple of answers to posts, that might prove interesting to comments and hopefully everyone can enjoy!  

The name Cherry Creek came from the old days when Plums and Cherries were about the only fruit trees that could survive here.  I'm not sure how they got started, but in those days the creeks were full of the sturdy little trees and we have a Plum Creek and a Cherry Creek with lots of little tributaries to each.  Cherry Creek is on the east side of Denver and Plum Creek is on the west side of Denver.  Cherry Creek often flooded and adds to the Platte River that runs through town so it was a mess until it was dammed up behind the Dam with it's name.  Plum Creek has the same story for the west side and now is dammed up at Chatfield Dam.  Just a little interesting folk lore/history.  

I'm on the trail of the Worship Bible and hope to have it as well as one for Daily Devotions for Women soon.  I've got feelers out for both and would really prefer the large print if I can find it.  

Short post, but busy day and I need to get on with it.  

HAPPY FIRECRACKER DAY!

I've returned and it is the time to tell you I've done another pedicure and it went very well!  Praise the Lord!  This one didn't hurt and the part that was so bad before we didn't do.  But, Oh! The paraffin felt good on my feet.  This time we painted my toes blue and put little flower decals on.  

So below is more of the grounds around the ditch that goes into Cherry Creek Dam and around our exercise building.  This is a close up of the swampy area with cat tails and willows and such.  In the winter it is just frozen.  Hard to believe that now.  

Isn't it difficult to believe that after a thistle blooms that it looks like this?  Well it does.  

This is the second weir built in to the stream to help it slide down in altitude from our higher hills to the dam.  We are escarpment land out here so hilliness is sort of a way of life.  I like this little falls because it had a squirting corner toward the far end of the falls in the shadow.  This stream is still running pretty high for this time of year.  

And of course who doesn't love the puff balls of a milk weed.  You should be able to click on any of the photos and get a large screen and photo for a close up of this one.  Some of the pods ready to open are there too.  

This is looking toward the skate board park section of the land and I've tried to erase any people in the photo, but you may see a body portion without any head or something.  Several kids were there playing.  

Sometimes I had to hike down a fairly steep bank and this is just a photo with the normal fauna along this stream.  The brown pods are Indian Tobacco Plant and it can be used for natural dying of wool or silk.  There is also a nasty weed called a Knap Weed that the state would like to see eradicated.  It is a European origin weed and is just nasty with stickers and ruining the grasslands.

Back where we began with the swale and the still holding pond.  Looks so peaceful here, but can you imagine all the bugs like mosquitoes, thriving in this pond.  A year ago DH was recovering from West Nile Virus Encephalitis and that comes from mosquito bites.  


A closer up of the Indian Tobacco Pods.  There is a similar plant that looks a lot the same and is called skunk cabbage, but has different pods and lives in drier conditions.

And we close our journey with a closer view of a young Canadian Thistle as we call them here.  The bloom is so pretty.  My horse Spot used to bite the purple parts off and eat them whenever she could.  It was funny to watch as she would roll her lips back and chomp it off with her front teeth and then toss her head up and down, I guess from any prickly stuff she had chomped on with the blossom.  
And the last photo is a repeat of the first weir area with the more sloping banks.  

Hope everyone has a happy, safe 4th of July.  I hope to see the fireworks from Coors field tonight after the game.  We may get rained out though.  We hope not!  

THE BUILDING WHERE WE SOMETIMES EXERCISE

We, my DH and I, are really grateful for having the health and energy to exercise.  Now that it is in the 90's (temperature wise) we don't always want to get up early in the morning and go exercise.  So, we go later to this building where we can exercise inside in air conditioning.  This is part of the side where we usually park and walk in.  What you are looking at isn't the front of the building, but a walled rock patio off the 2 swimming pools.  The sun is pretty high by nine in the morning so this photo looks a little washed out, but I'm hoping you can see some detail. 

This is closer to the front and I love the windows up to the top of the slide in this part of building.  You can see some of the walled patio again as well.  The tall part has the the tube slides that dump into a quiet pool with the "river" to walk in on the outside of the quiet pool; (with a current to walk against and about 3 1/2 feet deep) adults can walk in during the winter until 10 a.m.  After that hour they turn on all the water features for kids which includes water down the slides, squirting faucet jets over and into the "river," and triangle buckets spilling water, etc.  Noisy but fun to walk the river in the winter.  Almost like water aerobics. 



In this photo below is the front entrance with some of the new landscaping and the old roses (like wild bushes, but hearty and fragrant) and some of them are just in full bloom.  

Now we are on the back of the building and this is where the multipurpose gym, track and ball courts are.  The walking/running track runs around the upstairs with two lanes and the one side skirts the gym for basket and other ball playing (racket and handball) and then looks over the two pools and the front entrance as it goes around on the inside.  Much less UV rays when you walk on the track and have air conditioning.  

Behind the building is part of the Cherry Creek system feeding into the cherry Creek Dam a mile or so away.  It is very lush this time of year and even in the bright sun it pretty with two weirs the length of the building dropping in grade to go into the holding dam.  

Also behind the building is a shot of the little holding swale in the land where a storm drain empties into that same creek and is damp much of the time.  If you click on the photo (to enlarge it) you can also see Mount Evans in the distance and how much snow it has lost.  It is nearly bare.  In the little pond area are a bunch of cat tails growing in the damp/moist man made swale. This is a view I can see on the track inside while I'm walking.
By this time I'm sure that DH is hot from waiting in the car, but I liked the way this looks and you can see the windows of the training pool.  They do water aerobics here as well as lane/lap swimming and hot tubbing.  
The back sides of buildings are often empty, but here is another little fenced/walled patio area way to the back and the gym wing ahead.  
This is the far side of the back, looking back toward the lap pool.  Again the interesting use of rock, cement block and iron beams on the outside.  
This is part of the back side structure also, just because I think iron work is a beautiful thing.  

I took several photos of wild growth by the stream and at least one of the skateboarding park on the other side of the stream.  This is part of the facility we get to use because we are members of the Silver Sneakers and it has at least one of every machine I've ever seen as well as free weights and classes and if you desire personal trainers.  I don't go that route, but you never know.   

Hope you enjoyed the little journey .

TIRED OF THREATENING WEATHER AND A BIT OF ART

I really am tired of the having threatening weather.  This isn't what I remember and the news and weather channels bear witness that I'm right. This is our most wet June if we get two tenths more of an inch of rain in the next two days.  So it seems right to show you the clouds that were visible out of the back of the house.  This first one is of the cloud on the left side as you are looking at it.  

And this is the cloud in the front of the house at that same time.  
At the front of the house again.  
The right side of the big one that this is all a part of at the back view from the house again.  
Here is the left side of that cloud again.  I'm not showing the dark part as it was just that, a big dark middle.  Nothing very photogenic.
And it is now almost 6:00 MDT (Mountain Day Light Time), as you can see we still have lots of clouds, but these aren't going to do anything.  They are just little pretty clouds blocking some of the bright sunshine.  
And because we had so much rain we have tall weeds in the water/wastewater owned green belt, that are now turning brown.  Not very pretty on our green belt and usually they would have mowed the grasses and weeds, but they haven't this year!  My nose is not a happy part of my face.  It hurts quite often.  The eyes are dry and drops are a big deal in my world. 
Yes more of the grass and some of our new fence posts to help the fence stay as it should and not topple over in the winter winds.  
Clouds as they are now, at about 6:00 today.  
My attempt to match the flower in the book.  Wow! Do I need to work on this type of drawing.  But, at least I know what I'm up against.  
The roses are going nuts with blooming.  I think they enjoyed being buried in all the snow this winter/early spring and the damp weather we've been having.  They really are heavy and fragrant right now.  We have been extra-ordinarily humid.  It is killing me, but my roses are overjoyed.  Not some big loss, but what some small gain!
And lest I forget this is two of my little basil plants growing.  I think they may need some water.  
Off to save the thirsty plants and then I get to read as that is my favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.  

USE THE MUSE

At last it is done and if you click you can see the bigger picture and more of the detail.  You'll notice an area that is covered and the is the muse area.  We are not to show this area until all is said and done.  

For my piece the muse is not the main focus, but you can see what I did in the center part of it.  This is the Freido with the tiny, so called 'marble beads' pushed into it.  I like the working with Freido I think, but it isn't quite the answer all and be all that I'd hope.  As I'd suspected, the sculpture part is the part I thought I'd love and once again I was not correct.  I'm in love with the idea of sculpture, I think, but not in love with the process.  

The focal point is a glass piece that I'd bought a long time ago.  I'm not sure when.  As I was sorting through my boxes of beads I found this and thought, I'd like to use this Now!  It sort of made the muse secondary, but I think it is a good secondary place for the eye and that is hard to see with it covered.  In the form it in, it has no chain, but I can see this as a 'coat/jacket' Brooch or as a statement on a long necklace.  The back has hardware for both.  I hope you enjoy seeing it.  I've used all sorts of beads on it: cubes, squares, sharp cuts, Delicas and sizes 8, 15 and 11, pearls, and various sizes and colors of crystals.  I'm not getting a lot done as I'm doing Diva and Miss Piggy things.  That means I'm pampering myself.  

PLAYING WITH FERIDO

(Pronounced fray-ah-doh)

What a weird day today is.  It is getting to be summer, something is blooming with gay abandon and making me sneeze, and the car is in getting new belts.  Something in the power steering or air conditioner froze and seized, I'm told and DH worked getting the fried belt off all morning. So it was really nice to have new stuff to play with and experiment on.  Below you can sort of see me little set up and packages and some beads that are finished.  Hey it is trickier than I thought, and in some ways came out better and in some ways not as good, but beads are definitely not the starting point.  

Below is a photo of the start of making the beads, pendant and earrings.  You cut off two pieces from the same package which had an epoxy that needs to be mashed together.  The two pieces aren't very big and tend to get lost in the gloves.  And you have to  mix for 4 minutes.  I didn't try any more or less as this stuff is pretty expensive.  
This is the pendant finished and all items used to make this need to become permanent Ferido objects of use.  So that is what we are going to do.  The setting is sterling and would look fantastic with the right chain.  Now it has to dry.  For up to 3 hours.  Getting the finish smooth, I found, is my hardest part as well as getting it even.  Not too sure I did that very well, but it is a start.  In the photo above are some piles of silver backed crystals that I bought to go into the clay/glue modeling compound (I'm going to call it that anyway).

I'd wanted to show you some blue Ferido that I worked with, but I have to figure out a way of covering up the muse and not the pendant/brooch/Ferido part.  Hmmmmm, I'm thinking, I'm thinking.  

Below is a closer up of the beads.  You can see the little packages, the awls and the sparkles of the crystals.  It will be interesting to see they stay inside the bead or on the bead in our semi arid climate.  (Yes we are drying out finally.)  I also found out what happens on the very bottom one when you roll it and work with it a bit after you've put in the crystals.  Don't think I'd recommend that, but I had to find out. 
And the other day while volunteering, because we are building an addition, I got a lot done while upstairs, on the BJP for May.

The eyes are done in the small beads, sized 15.  I'm not liking it particularly, but I think when I get the other parts beaded it will look better.  Remember to click directly on the photo for a larger size.  

I've also gotten the first scarf blocked, which only took about a week, but that is fine.  It is done.  I'm still knitting on the second one and it is much longer and wider.  This one may find a home around my neck.  

I can see the last post struck some cords in readers.  I think of that as a good thing.  This one is much more cheerful.