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More apples than I know what to do with, or give away even.....

I could use an extension-pole picker-thinger, to avoid this complicated setup next year!

Sculpture

No shortage of sun on the first day this year I actually get to chill out. After 2 months to look for a house, 2 to buy one, and five more of projects, not without play, then the party, it is wise to take a break!

The sunflowers have started to wilt, as expected and hoped. They will become lawn sculpture for over the winter. Before the party, I pulled leaves off the sunflower stems in strategic locations, to expose the wilted flowerheads. The effect is dramatic, in a gothic, filigreed kind of way. Such an effect is what many of my art and home projects are all about.

These apples are about ready....enough for many baskets.....

Sunflowers.....

Poles support two of the sunflowers. I lost two plants completely in August because they were growing crooked, and sunflowers are very top heavy.
Why do they all wilt to the east? There is certainly something spiritual and zen about their poses.

Bird feeding

Last of the crop. Most of these final butternuts are like 1/3 the size of the butternuts that blossomed in midsummer.

A very fine wine stand, housewarming gift from Vas & Sal, an aspen log from Colorado.....

I will probably nail a varnished board to the flat top of the wine-log, so as to create a shelf.

A good day for football, even though Miami pounced on New England! Click on photo to see the horrible New England stats.

The yellow TV stand is the antique work bench from Brimfield last spring.

rain

This week, I took a break from home projects. I get frequent visitors from next door, they come for tomato seed & sunflower seed...

Visitors from the woods, came by for apples Friday morning. It is true that everone knows that David said there would be no deer because hunters took down them last fall. There were apparently more. These guys are welcome because they didn't touch the garden.

Heavy rain, last Sunday the day after the house warming. Check out the hanging plant outside front door....

I repainted the coffee table as seen below. And everyone likes the mirror over the couch.

The rustic knotted pine look in the upstairs-room was also a favorite at the party. I was planning on re-doing the whole room but not after so many compliments on the way it already is. Therefore, one less project.

..

Portraiture & photography....such a room is not complete with out the presence of Jules Verne, Michael Faraday, and Oscar Wilde.

Scene of much good cheer and tunes. We even played a couple numbers by Led Zeppelin.

And we killed off a quarter-barrel of Lite

Door of downstairs bathroom. I will probably dye the lacy fabric orange.

harvest

Yes, August is not a major blog month. Due to so much to be done with the house before end of summer and getting things in order for the house warming. And not without a round of golf yesterday, where I shot a 54 at Miner Hills.
Today, I pulled all the tomatos and most of the butternut. The tomato vines were withered so I pulled them out and on the compost heap they lie
.
The apple tree is full of apples; with this harvest I shall construct a butternut-apple bake using a recipe from the Internet.

after a scrubbing

Colorado

Posted from Boulder, CO (Specifically, from Buchanan's Coffee Pub, on 14 & Penn.)



This will be my largest post ever. Since I crammed much adventure into a weekend: Horse riding, hiking, mountain highway, and sightseeing.

First, one thing political. The city of Denver is making last minute preps for the DNC, to occur here later this month. I took this photo of the convention center after work Friday......




And Barack has at least one supporter!

Rocky Mountains

Red Rocks Amphitheater is just outside Denver in the foothills. I cruised up there after work Friday to check out the scenery. The outdoor theater is tucked in those rocks. And it overlooks Denver. The Friday evening event was a showing of the movie Purple Rain (of Prince fame). I didn't stick around because of an early start tomorrow! And ironically, it rained.

Red Rocks overlooking Denver skyline

Saturday, an early start to the Rockies. North on 25, then cut west through the canyons.

Canyons near Lyons, CO.

You get your first glimpse of the rockies after a half hour driving thru the canyons and foothills!

It only took 2 hrs to my hotel, but checkin and my horse ride weren't till 11:30. Before hotel checkin, a walking trail around Lily Lake, just off Rte 7 outside the city of Estes Park....

Photo below, Mt. Meeker and Longs Peak, from Lily Lake. Longs is a "Fourteener" because it's over 14,000 feet in elevation. It is a badge of honor to have hiked a Fourteener in the Rockies. Longs is supposedly a 12 hour round trip hike, where you have to start at 3AM! Estes Cone is the mountaintop on right.

Closeup, leaves of Aspen tree, Lily Lake

Aspen Lodge, just off Rte 7 about 10 mins south of Estes Park, where I stayed Saturday. Sleigh in foreground.

Horse Riding

The tour Saturday included our wrangler (guide) Carolyn, and three guests - Josh, and Josh's girlfriend whose name I forget, and myself. First off, the livery guys had to change the saddle on my Quarter horse Amos. The original saddle was too loose. The livery men grew up as ranchers in Wyoming and are total Marlboro men, the real deal, not actors!

Throwing on saddle blanket......

In photo below, they're about to put on saddle and saddle bags. Saddle bags and pommel sacks are great for carrying lunch and camera. Such bags are used with Western saddles on journeys. English riding saddles do not have those conveniences. "With English, you ride for an hour then go for tea" as Carolyn put it.....

We rode most of the way up Estes Cone, probably up to elev. 10,000. (base elev. is around 7500 ft above sea level).

Scenic trail and part of Carolyn's hat

Carolyn and Josh crossing a stream!

We took a wrong turn at the pass and ended up at Longs Peak ranger station (see map). It turned our 3 hour ride into an even more fun 5 hour ride. There was much good cheer and conversation since all of us have been so many places, the conversations were much about travels. Josh and girlfreind live locally but are from the midwest. Josh works in IT subcontractor to a phone company, involved in distributing phone books. Carolyn does wrangling occasionally on weekends.

Horses tied up at ranger station. They wait while we got proper directions back to the ranch!

It turns out that my friend Karen, from Ireland, taught Carolyn how to ride at summer camp in Maine. True! Small world. Here's me, Amos, and Carolyn.

Estes Park is a touristy town, a gateway to the Rockies. It has at least four fudge shops.

And it's home of the Stanley Hotel, inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The Stanley was filmed in a TV miniseries of The Shining. The scary movie, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall, used a ski lodge (Timberline) in Oregon as the Overlook Hotel.

After horse riding and sightseeing around Estes Park, I headed west on hwy 34 to the park entrance.

Rockies at dusk. These mountains are on the Continental Divide. Time to go home & come back tomorrow.

Sunday, I drove into the park a ways. Up, up, up.

one of several parking areas on hwy 36. my ears popped like every 1000 feet vertical.

And cyclists. There were many up there.

Above the treeline is alpine tundra.

I went as far as Forest Canyon, about a half-hour from Estes Park. This is probably elev. 11,000.

Critter

After the scenic drive, I hit this walking trail near Cub Lake.

Heading back toward Denver thru the canyons once again.....

Where foothills and prairie meet. Boulder, home to University of Colorado, is at the edge of the foothills.

Boulder waves hello. Or c-ya bye, as I fly out tomorrow!