More summer fun w/Hiking, Crafting and Cooking

 Summer is sliding on by pretty quickly. We've been out here in the Poudre River Canyon for 2½ months now and it won't be all that long before we are packing up to head back home to FL. 

It has been a really nice summer with quite cooperative weather; not too many hot days and enough rain to keep the grasses and wildflowers green and happy.  Some years with scarce rainfall the canyon terrain gets dried out and turns brownish golden. It certainly makes for a prettier drive into town when it's green, the rock formations stand out more and look more dramatic.

So far on our drives through the canyon we've seen deer (a group of 4) and big horn sheep (group of 4). It's always startling to come around a corner and there they are - yikes! Many times oncoming traffic will flash their headlights in warning, super helpful, nobody needs any drama!

Big Horn Sheep, ewe's or juveniles, heading back
out of the canyon. There were 4 in this group.

I've been mentioning the rabbits and tiny bunnies out and about, and how they've been nibbling. They have been good bunnies lately working on the dandelions and clover in the yard and leaving my flowers alone.

Headed over to a sprinkler puddle for a drink.

It seems I've gotten the "beading" bug and have been enjoying it very much. One thing I've been working on is using armature wire to sculpt flowers into which I add beading. They come out so cute, and look much better in person where you can see the sparkle & twinkling from the various colored crystal beads.

Another project (or 2) has been working with the chicken wire and bead suncatchers. I made one using a thrift store picture frame and enjoyed the process very much, however the results seemed a little stilted for me. I decided to try a few more "free-form" attempts using reclaimed deadfall branches. Here's how one such effort turned out, I like it a lot. Again, the missing sparkle factor really makes it look flat, but it's not, it's pretty lively when hanging outside with sunlight and breezes blowing.

This branch is only about 8" across, so not a huge
commitment in time spent or materials used.

As for outside activities, we went for another hike in Dadd Gulch the other day, which was a great leg-stretcher. Sometimes it seems like the hardest part is coming out of the gulch and walking down to the car parking area. If you zoom in on this pic you can see our car wa-a-y down there, lol.

It's that slightly downhill stuff that gives my hips fits. Here are a few more shots from the hike.

I get the Boss to lead the way.

I was going to try for a "wild berry" collage shot but only saw these bright red berries and didn't dare venture into the brush looking for others, can you say bears?

And some pretty purples..

I've had some nice chats with a few of my "sometime" residents. There are some really nice people in the world. I am doing a bit of crafting with one neighbor and another is from my hometown area of Rochester, NY.

Not a lot of cooking photos taken lately. I seem to get caught up in the process, then eating the results before I remember I need to take a shot of it.  One I did get was this nice-sized pan of eggplant parm I baked in the Ninja Foodi. It made 4, 2-person servings for us and 2 for my neighbor, (she takes my overage which is so nice!).

Check it out - I've already started to slice it, LOL!

One final thing, we like some of the regional bread offerings and miss them when we go back to Florida. The 2 that come to mind is Izzio's Sourdough bread (San Francisco style), and Rustik's *big* half loafs of seeds/grains. So big we always split it (how else are you going to get it into the toaster?, 😁).

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for dropping by and come again.