Rocky Mountain Highs Day Two, Leadville, Turquoise Lake, and Red Cliff

Up, up, up...

Leadville - faded, Old West, rugged, gloriousness.

And oh, the views.

My grandfather was an Odd Fellow and my grandmother was a Rebekah in Fisher, Illinois circa the mid-twentieth century. I scored a sweet Odd Fellows' ceremonial collar just down the street at Western Hardware Co., a fabulous, stuffed-full antique store in an equally fabulous historic building, right before spotting the lodge from whence it most likely came.

Poppies attempting to masquerade as alpine weeds.

The architecture, gah. Ombré chapel.

Painted lady.

Well weathered cabin porn. And that view again.

After we finished roaming Leadville, we headed on to Turquoise Lake for a little hike. 

Incredibly low water, like thirty feet low.

Makes for excellent rock stacking opportunities.

Last stop of the day, Mango's Mountain Grill for a bit of dinner and a couple of drinks in Red Cliff, tiny town sandwiched between two towering red cliffs...

spanned by one amazing bridge.

Missing the mountains. One trip and I'm hooked. Sigh.

Dessert of the Moment

Peaches and blackberries warmed up in pan on the stovetop, no butter, no extra sugar, till they just start to get bubbly and syrupy + vanilla ice cream. Why didn't I think of this sooner? Another stroke of brilliance, last night I added a frozen (whole wheat, organic mind you) waffle to the mix. I normally don't abide by frozen waffles because we have a waffle maker and a killer batter recipe (the make-the-morning-of one), but these were left over from family visiting, and they worked out really well in this context, so I'm suspending my grudge till at least the end of stone fruit and berry season. 

Changing of the Guard

Finally from heat and drought to cool mornings and evenings and fairly regular bursts of rain. And then Saturday morning when we stepped out to head to the farmers market, we found the front step looking ever so slightly fall-ish. 

I'm starting to reflect on all I've learned this first season of attempting to be a flower farmer. I'm looking forward to taking those reflections, turning them into a plan for next year, and getting to work on it. In fact one of my reflections is that I do need a plan, or rather a lot more detailed one. For garden and business. 

The last couple weeks we've been working very hard at finishing the refinish of the finished side of our basement, which has been in progress for over a year now. Ugh. I'll save that whole story for another day, but that's really been taking priority as far as my time goes. It's coming along nicely now though, and someday I'll share pictures.

More from Colorado coming up. 

Rocky Mountain Highs Day One, Vail and Sylvan Lake

Creek flowing through Vail Village from the Covered Bridge.

Beautiful planters and beds everywhere.

Brunch at La Tour where one half of our hosts is executive chef.

After some hiking and rafting-appropriate footwear shopping, a late afternoon drive up to Sylvan Lake State Park for a little hike/altitude adjusting. Cabin porn along the way. And some happy Colorado cows too.

The lake.

Lupine. Oh, the Colorado wildflowers.

Breaking in the Chacos. 

So it wasn't "today", but it's not three weeks later either. Back soon with the rest of the trip. 

Off to Illinois (where husband and I both hail from) this weekend to help warm a house and be received by some folks who got married, in other words to party!!!

Time Flies

Above nor below are pictures from Colorado. In the interim between the last post and this one, I resigned from my "day" job in retail, went to the doctor about 50,000 times, to the ER once, had a great birthday weekend in Chicago with friends, turned a year older, almost had surgery, then at the last minute followed a hunch or intuition or whatever and sought confirmation, which I received, that I had in fact healed myself, therefore requiring no further intervention from the medical community. Hopefully for a very long time. I got my fill of intervention. 
Above is celosia.  

So with all that going on, staying caught up on life has been a bit of a challenge. Blogging no exception. But I'm back here now and I sincerely hope to be around a lot more often. 

Celosia again, too short for arranging, drying. Let the seed saving begin! 

I am really excited that I can be fully devoted to Unknown Blackbird Flowers for the remainder of the season. There's a ton of work I both have to and would very much like to get done yet this year. I hope to do better at recording efforts here. And life in general too. 
Ageratum. Right before we left for Chicago a storm came through and knocked most of the plants helter skelter. I didn't have the chance to stake them up until we returned, so in the meantime, a bunch of bent stems. The moral of this whole story? When life gives you bent-stemmed ageratum, make a wild, tangly, lovely bouquet. 
Colorado pics tomorrow. Oops, make that later today.