Back Home Again!

We returned home yesterday from our traveling adventure! As much as we enjoy such journeys, we are so glad to be back to our usual comforts and routines. Hello, comfortable recliner and entertaining digital television! Oh, how I missed you, my cozy bed! And, I am once again reunited with my devoted computer and the magical internet!

The trip highlight was visiting once again with our Chicago friends. We had lots of laughs and shared many new memories. We enjoyed seeing the landscape wonders of eastern Utah and western Colorado, including some fall colors. Yes, we managed to take a “few” pretty pictures along the way! Except for a little rain shower in Estes Park this past Saturday, the weather was terrific. All in all, we didn’t think that the tour itinerary measured up to the one we took this past spring. We would have liked more time visiting in the National Parks and less time sitting on the bus or walking around in shopping districts.

My cantankerous left knee was not fully cooperative, so that dampened our spirits a bit. I was in pain much of the time and poor hubby had to endure my frustration. We felt dehydrated during the trip and neither one of us slept well. Rest at home is our number one priority this week.

Like our last journey, I will be sharing some beautiful vacation pictures with all of you in the weeks and months ahead! Please stay tuned for regular episodes!

I will also be having my 100th post celebration on October 1, so please come back and visit my blog later on this week. You’ll want to put your name in the hat for my bloggy giveway! Yee-haw!

Our Next Adventure? National Parks of the West!

We will be leaving later on this week for another vacation adventure! Hip-hip-hooray! I fell and bummed up my bad knee last week, so we were worried for a bit that it might derail our plans. But the doctor said that I didn’t tear or break anything, just royally ticked off the joint for a temporary period of time. I’ve been working hard on getting the swelling down, healing, and walking again without assistance. It still hurts and I’m moving slowly, but the trip is a GO! We’re packing those bags!

Continuing on our southwest theme this year, the trip is a Tauck World Discovery tour of National Park areas in eastern Utah and western Colorado. So once again, we are packing our clothes and camera gear for another trek to the wild, wild west! We are excited to be joining up with two dear friends from Chicago. We met them in 2002 on a heli-hiking trip to the Canadian wilderness, and we rejoined them for a “reunion” heli-hiking trip a couple of years later. They are totally fun and we know that we will have the time of our lives hanging out with them! We will be going out two days early to rent a car and explore the Grand Junction area on our own before the tour begins on September 20th.

This map outlines the tour route and stops along the way. We are looking forward to a new journey, a relaxing time with our friends, and beautiful autumn scenery. Stay tuned in the months ahead for stories about our trip and lots of great journey pictures!

I will not be posting while I am traveling, so please check back in two weeks for my return. I’ll be offering a bloggy giveaway when I get back. Woohoo, you won’t want to miss that!

Pretty Pinkeep - Thank You!

I want to extend a sweet “thank you” to Terri at Thistle House Primitives! I received her adorable pinkeep in the mail today. She offered it as giveaway prize on her blog earlier this week. The pincushion is made from hand-dyed wool, and it rests on a distressed painted paper mache box. I’ll be putting this lovely and functional pinkeep to use in my sewing studio!

Never Forget (9/11)

Bad Luck and Good Luck

The bad luck is that I fell on the garage floor yesterday and hurt my left knee. It’s swollen and very painful. I have an appointment tomorrow with my orthopedic doctor to check it out. This is my bad knee that has gone through two surgeries and is a candidate for an artificial joint. I am nursing it and hoping that I can get it to work with a few less magnitudes of pain when we go on vacation next week.

The good luck is that I won a bloggy giveaway from Terri at Thistle House Primitives! It is for a gorgeous handmade little pinkeep, which I will put to good use in my sewing studio (and general headquarters for monumental messes)! I had a hard time picking which one I wanted, but finally selected the blue one. Thank you so much, Terri, for your generosity! And for my readers, please check out her lovely blog and creative folk art!

I am rapidly approaching my 100th post, so keep your eyes peeled for a bloggy giveway in celebration of that milestone!

Tanking Up for the Commute

The constant chatter outside my home office window has disappeared this week. It seems that the little hummers have started to hit the road for their long commute to Mexico and South America.

Hubby has done a terrific job this year cleaning the feeders, cooking up fresh sugar water, and keeping the reservoirs filled. The feeders will remain up for a little while yet because the ones traveling on through might need a little sip for their long journey.

During the past few weeks, there was a crescendo of feeding and chasing activity. I’ve read that each bird nearly doubles its weight before departing, from about 3.25 grams to over 6 grams. The adult males start migrating south as early as mid-July, but the peak of southward migration is late August and early September. By mid-September, the ones visiting the feeders are just passing through.

Bye, bye, our little friends! See you next year!

Zion National Park - Part 2

This is the last installment of our Southwest USA trip that we took in April! It is sad to come to the end of this trip. But I know all of my readers have been anxious to see a few more pictures at spectacular Zion National Park.

I can still vividly recall the majesty of this park, with its towering mountains. You spend much of your time looking up from a canopy of trees at the base of the canyon floor, spellbound at the mountain peaks all around you. These pictures, taken at The Grotto and Weeping Rock along Zion Park Scenic Drive, provide perfect examples.

The Court of the Patriarchs area, located in the middle of the park, is well-known for being very photographic. We visited it twice to take advantage of the changing direction of sunlight. This was our first stop to explore after we got settled into the lodge. Since it was late afternoon, we had already lost the namesake western ridgeline to the shadows. But we had plenty to subject matter to photograph in the other three directions. We explored along the Virgin River, which strikes a north-south course through the park.

As luck would have it, we got to see a parade of horses and mules returning to their stable.

The next morning, we visited the Court area again and viewed the magnificent mountains to the west. What a glorious way to start the day!

If we ever get a chance, we would love to go back to Zion and spend more time there. Our brief stay barely scratched the surface. But the tour bus headed out right on schedule and took us to our last destination – Las Vegas.

It was quite a contrast to have over a week exploring some of the most beautiful southwest country and parks, and then finish up the tour in the famous city of glitz and glam. We put away our cameras as soon as we arrived. It took some concentration to not get lost at our hotel, the humongous Caesars Palace. We are not glitz and glam people, and neither the gambling nor the shows interested us. After spending a night and saying farewell to our newfound traveling friends, we headed back to our Tennessee home, sweet home.

Photo Challenge: Things with Wings

Time for the latest Brenda Photo Challenge! The subject is Things with Wings, picked by the current challenge hostess, Shannon of Paint Mine Pink. To select photos with “wings”, I reached into my digital inventory from our northeast USA journey in 2006.

Directional Wings - We visited the Shelburne Museum a couple of decades ago, and we couldn’t resist seeing it again on this trip. Located in Shelburne, Vermont, the museum has an amazing collection of historical Americana artifacts. We were like kids in a candy store, taking pictures of the grand buildings, antiques, and folk art. One of the dozens of buildings on the grounds is the Horseshoe Barn. The 2-story barn contains one of the best collections in the world of 19th and 20th century horse-drawn carriages, coaches, and sleighs. Perched on the top of the barn’s copula is a gorgeous American eagle weathervane with a beautifully aged patina. It reminded me of our eagle weathervane that we purchased on a coastal Maine trip years ago.

Spooky Wings - We discovered a precious little graveyard next to the Church on the Hill in Lenox, Massachusetts. It was a treasure trove of old headstones, carved with images of folk art angels and other figures. We had stopped to take pictures of the lovely church, built in 1805, and were instantly smitten with the charm and history of its adjacent cemetery. Here’s an example of one of the headstones with a stylized winged angel standing guard.

Speedy Wings - Remember the REO Speedwagon rock band from the 1970s and 1980s? They got their name from a flatbed truck made by the REO Motor Car Company. When we visited the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, we saw a beautiful antique REO vehicle parked in a garage. Nearby was this delightful metal advertising sign, featuring the winged logo of the company.

Here Come the Sunflowers!

I have always loved sunflowers. One look at these cheerful flowers which follow the sun and you can’t help but smile. We usually plant some seeds at the eastern edge of our kitchen garden each year. Since we thought that this might be our last summer here, we planted a big assortment to enjoy. The local bees and goldfinches appreciated the blooms as much as we did!

The sunflower garden is past its prime now, but the glory of the blooms forever lives on in the pictures.