Trip home, just dodged Hurricane Helene

 Here we are with another catch-up post covering the trip home from Rocky. In general, it was a good trip, with a few extra days included. 

It was beginning to look like time to wrap things up out west and head back to Florida. The overnight temps were in the high 30's range, and even though the days were beautiful, we knew it wouldn't last much longer. The electric fireplace was very welcome and really sheds a lot of heat. Between the fireplace and the thermostatically-controlled plug in heater we never had to fire up the furnace. Time to say goodbye to Rocky, and Rustic, until next time.

Coming home, we did our usual thing of overnighting in Cheyenne WY then hopping on I80. We stopped for 2 nights at the Point Randall Resort on Lake Ozark, Missouri. It was a restful stay however the weather was soggy. From there we headed over to the Paris Landing Lodge in the Tennessee State Park system. West of Nashville, what a beautiful setting on Kentucky Lake, just off the Tennessee River. It's rather newly built and quite fancy. Cushy rooms and a nice restaurant too.

Paris Landing Lodge, Kentucky Lake

Ed came through this area on his river cruise back
in May and wanted a better look at it.

Nice pool and firepit plus outside 
seating for the restaurant.

Lovely Kentucky Lake

At this point we began to become concerned about our weather prospects due to Hurricane Helene moving in and heading north. We dithered for a bit trying to decide whether to stay or go, but eventually headed east as quick as we could and spent the night in Knoxville. Our original plan had been to head over the mountains down to Asheville, then hit I26 to 95S, but fortunately, after scrutinizing the weather from every direction, the Boss did a re-think on that plan and instead we headed east on I81 to catch I77 at Wytheville, VA, then over to 95S and down the east side of NC/SC and GA. 

This was the day Asheville took a pounding and I26 got washed-out in places. We dodged that bullet, and skirted much of the rain. That evening we made it safely down to Santee, SC for the night - WHEW!! 😳 The next day we saw quite a few trees down as we made our way home. Everything in our area was fine with just minor debris (mainly tree limbs and lots of palm tree fronds).  

Since we've been home it's been lots of food shopping and cooking, plus plenty of cleaning and decluttering. Nothing like spending 4 months in a 26' RV to make you appreciate less clutter. 😉

Here's a look at the chicken pot pie construction and completion - so good, and 3 for the freezer.

Got to have the obligatory frozen peas!

The last thing on my mind is to cover my recent obsession with my beadworks projects. I got started on these while wiling away the hours  this summer. The result - I've made quite a few "bobby-dazzlers", or suncatchers if you prefer. I made the decision to set up a booth at a local craft show. It's a smaller one at the Mandarin Garden Club here in Jacksonville, so hopefully it won't be too overwhelming. Those big craft fairs totally freak me out, too many people and too much happening. I won't even attend one. Next post will be about how that occasion turns out. I'm having a blast making these pretties, now if I can just brighten someone's day with them.

These are just some of what I've made, but they
give you an idea of what I'm talking about. This pic
definitely doesn't do them justice at all, you need
sunlight to see the fabulous sparkle ans shine!

I'm also offering my trivets and wood/chicken wire suncatchers. I'll let you know how it goes. They are fairly labor intensive so I'll never make more than 50¢ an hour, haha. 

Thanks for dropping by and we'll see you the next time. 😘

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.