Good days, good eats and flowers

As the days pass by, the hotter weather is starting to build in a bit and the "monsoon" season rains have moved in as well.  After the mudslide up the canyon west of us last year, we have become wary when it rains for several hours/days in a row.  The grass and flowers are loving it but the day before yesterday mid-day, the river turned to mud and we wondered what that was all about.  We had had flash flood advisories around us but mostly to the south, closer to Rocky Mountain Nat'l park.  The river cleared up by the next morning - I didn't get a picture of it all muddied-up.

Coming home from town yesterday I snapped a couple shots through the car's window, and surprisingly, they turned out pretty well.

The lighting was fairly neutral which makes for an easier shot.
We've got a pretty good flow going right now.

There are several rafting companies in the area
so every time we traverse the canyon we see rafters.

Our neighborhood cotton-tailed rabbit is back making the rounds nibbling here and there, but it seems to be the chipmunks that gleefully munch on my flowers. We also have a nesting pair of northern flickers with chicks in the dead tree next door. We can look out our dining nook window (and up) and see the activities to and from the nest.  Pretty cool!

You can't see his white cottontail in this shot.

On this past Wednesday it pretty much rained all day so I got inspired as I watched one of my favorite youtube channel videos by Chef John - Food Wishes where he was making a smothered chicken dish, and decided to do the same.  My pantry has a fairly limited supply of spices, for example no coriander, no tumeric, and no saffron, but I made my gravy using cumin seed, cumin, hawaij, smoked Joe Parker chili powder and some others besides and it was yummy. This next shot was taken at  an interim moment, after a hard sear on the chicken thighs (skin side down) and while I was getting the veggies into the gravy to soften and cook.

I sure could've used a bigger frypan! I did get it all
 to fit and simmered it for a couple of hours. It had potato
wedges in it so no rice was needed.

Check out this porkchop cooked on the Ninja Foodi Grill - so good!

Some fresh corn on the cob, a tomato
salad and fresh sauteed asparagus - yum.

We were able to tackle a pet project of mine, swapping out the loveseat for a recliner chair and bookshelf.  My back wasn't very happy sitting sideways on the loveseat all the time, and since we won't be having any sleepover guests we decided to give it away and replace it with another recliner - lots of seating choices that way.  Adding a small bookshelf offered the opportunity to square away the craft supplies and etc., to clear the floor under the table. So far so good.

Still finessing it at this point but I'm liking it so far. The tray 
table that I use for the laptop has legs that easily slide under the 
furniture or swivel out and away from the chair for easy in & out's.
Since I often take the laptop to the table for food prep I've opted to leave
the cords in front of the bookshelf. A little less than tidy but oh well.

The flowers are all doing great, mine as well as everyone elses, and the peonies by the laundry room have bloomed. Such a soft, pretty pink.

And a few other pretties for your pleasure.

Columbines of course, but I'm not sure
what the tall blue bloom spike is. After
breakfast I love to make the rounds all around
the park, the upper level, middle and by the river
 too, plus along the properties perimeter, which
is what we back up to.

Well, that's pretty much it for this week's going's on's, thanks for stopping by.