A crispness in the air

It's September and around here it's not possible to ignore it. Haying is just about done and now the big cattle moving is happening all over. Ours, well, not ours, are still here for a month before they'll be pulled out. They're so fat now they can hardly get around, and there's a mystery steer we've seen exactly once that is monstrous in size. Heather was here for that sighting so there are three of us who swear it was a steer on steroids. I'm on the lookout.

Flap solo napping in our grass

Maybe Flap's fawn maybe not

Four huge bucks outside our gate

Jump over, the grass is great

The colors and the air are changing by the day but not the aspen quite yet. The deer are right in the mottled stage turning from brown to gray. Flap's been around quite a bit and we think she had, surprise, a fawn possibly twins this year. She's such an odd one it's hard to say, she seems to forget she has offspring half the time.

Mark and I had a fun outing to the Cochetopa headwaters, fishing for him, reading, painting, and photography for me. It's a fair distance, a two hour drive plus a 1.5 mile hike in but well worth it with lots of great scenery. Great fishing for Mark, he caught 60 or so fish!

One thing I will say though is the dreaded beetle kill is happening in this area and its tough to see. It kills the tallest and strongest pines with a 80% mortality rate and some of the forests look exactly as if a huge forest fire ravaged the area. Millions of acres are affected all over Colorado and it's slowly creeping to the Gunnison area. Solutions are not great, burn and thin.The logging industry at least is getting some benefit from this but they have to harvest fairly quickly or the wood is no good.

Love this valley. A bit of everything from double rainbows to magnificent vistas to bucks at your doorstep. And we get to share - Tiffany, Chris, and the girls fly in tomorrow for a week, with Lisa and Charles joining us for the fun for a few days. Crib, highchair, and a lot of toys coming out...

The fabulous Heather visit

And another whirlwind visit, this time with Heather. We did everything and more during this week. Wow!

Fishing on the Taylor, at least for Mark, and Heather and I relaxed, took photos, did a little sketching. Gorgeous, gorgeous river and Mark had success, releasing all.

Next up dinner out, as in at "our" camp site up Ohio Pass. The grasses are very tall this year, probably due to the May rains. Yummy, Mark grilled tenderloin steaks, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and Heather made twice baked potatoes. Oh and wine was present of course. Perfect.

Silver haired bat

We did have a little visitor at our dinner event. Heather noticed him first crawling slowly to me. I know many people have a bat thing, but I don't and thought he was kind of cute. It was teeny tiny, apparently most types of bats are, and I will say we moved our chairs to a slightly different spot for the rest of dinner. I didn't actually want one on me.

Heather's bowl and my pot - practice (clearly)

Next the pottery throwing class in Crested Butte. The first for us both and it was fun, we learned a lot, and Heather is considering taking a class back in Maryland. Laura, the brilliantly talented potter, was a terrific teacher especially to two novices No, we did not get on the wheel, we were learning hand throwing techniques - hard enough trust me, and no, we did not walk out with our bowl and pot. That's a whole other class...

Montanya!

Of course Maharajas

A required visit to Montanya before our Soupcon reservation. First visit to Soupcon this summer and it never ever disappoints. Magnifique Chef Jason!

Those are sheep not rocks - definitely a wow factor

Yeah, my great selfies continue

And it had started to rain/sleet and we were up sky high

Jeeping trip to Alpine Loop (north) to Engineer Pass. It was cloudy but always spectacular. First time for Heather. The Rock performed like a champ as usual.

The lunch Silverton stop. Handlebars was jammed but always worth the wait. This is also the area that's been in the news lately with the EPA accidental mine spill down the Animas River. We looked and looked but couldn't see any definitive place where it might have happened. It may have been further away than our jeeping trek took us.

Another not so great selfie but had to put it in as it was at Secret Stash. The pizza and margaritas can"t be missed. We had other meals at Ryce, Nugget cafe, and Garlic Mike's so I'd say we did a good job on the restaurant scene.

Fishing at the pond the last afternoon. The fish are giant size in there and to be honest here, Heather's fish was a combo catch with Mark. Fish went back in the water for someone else to have fun.

A good time all around. Heather had to do a bit of work and picked up a couple of new clients while here (she's started her own business- mighty impressive) and Mark is very glued to conference calls most of the time but we managed to do a lot anyway. Now a break week and then Tiffany, Chris, and those darling girls arrive for a week. Will the fun never stop!

Ohhh Santa Fe

I know I'm overdue but the wild and crazy Santa Fe trip came into play. This post will be a lot of photos and I didn't even get pictures of everything I should have. My excellent adventure with Lisa was a whirlwind and my head's still spinning.

Within half an hour of arriving off we went to a book signing and talk by Dr. Robyn Benson at a very fun enormous metaphysical book store. How to keep yourself healthy travelling - good topic I say. Then Charles zipped us off to Coyote Cantina to meet Nancy and Rodney. Superwoman Nancy is in marvelous recovery from breast cancer.

And, oh nearly forgot, the impromptu band on the street. Thanks for ordering that up Lisa!

The connected houses - :Lisa's is behind - common concept in SF

labyrinth

vortex

Next morning I walked on the gorgeous path outside their housing community. Santa Fe river with not much river since it's diverted into the reservoirs but so pretty. And very much the special flavor of Santa Fe. The little park includes a labyrinth, vortex sacred place, along with expected things like drinking fountains and benches.

A little shopping for me, haircut for Lisa, followed by lunch at the Teahouse on Canyon Rd, an institution in Santa Fe. Lovely lunch with a choice of tea called Monk's blood after studying the many pages of teas they had available.

On to Lisa's gallery (Bill Hester Gallery) of which there is no photo, apparently we had become a little dithery by this point, and also Waxlander gallery, her old employer, both of them full of wonderful artists (of course Lisa's art is at the top of the list).

Can you believe it, it was time for eating again. This event for a very late lunch/early dinner at Izanomi, the restaurant at the Spa. Ten Thousand Waves I'm talking about. The place I've heard about for 5 years now. That I was so excited to go and have whatever done, you know, spa stuff. The restaurant opened last year, eagerly anticipated and was really good. Our spa treatments were scheduled to start at 5pm hence the restaurant first. And there are no spa photos. There are probably never any spa photos. Clothes locked away, kimono on, and outdoor hot tub, massages, facial, lemon water, zen music, meditation rooms, well you get the picture. I would of, if I could of, taken a picture of Lisa when we met up after her head to toe massage. She was on another planet and I thought I needed to reintroduce myself or wave fingers in her face. Now that is a transformative massage.

Made it to Georgia 'Keeffe museum finally, a side Indian market (the international one that attracts thousands upon thousands downtown started today, and the impressive pottery studio next door. Stay tuned: Heather is flying in tomorrow and we have a pottery throwing class scheduled. Lisa wanted to give me the flavor of the thing...

Odd woman taking selfies and repeating at many concerts according to Lisa and Charles

And a finale with the quintessential outdoor concerts on the plaza. Whee, the characters were there. And yes, the crowd was an older one. And you mean what by that reaction?
Fun times in a very short space of time. Love and thank you Lisa. I will be back!