Out of Reach

I did hang the Hummingbird feeder outside of the sun room (which I refer to as the morning porch).

You can see it through the window. You by the way, you do not have to put red food coloring in the water. Just some sugar...which they love . The bears love the sugar too, so it has to be out of their reach.

 

If you are wondering how I hung it out there....I didn't do it through the window. It is a crank out, at the bottom..and you couldn't reach up there. If you hung it below the crank out, you couldn't see it. Removing the lower screen would be a hassle too.

I wasn't kidding when I said it was way up there.How did I hang it there?..Okay, give up?

I simply lean out over the railing of the porch off of our bedroom. There is no staircase to the ground...for a bear to come up. Yes, I am aware that they can climb, but we have been in the house ten years, and a bear has yet to climb the posts to get to the feeder.

The Feeding Post

Click on photo to enlarge

I don't hang a bird feeder ,since we are in bear country. So, I put a few scraps of bread on a deck post every morning, and it's not long until the Stellar Jays show up. Our house is at about 9,000 ft. above sea level, so The Stellar Jays are about the only birds that hang out up here. Although, we do have a lot of Hummingbirds. We just arrived in the mountains this week, and I need to get my Hummingbird feeder out. Yes, the bears would attack it too. But, I hang it where they can't get to it.

Sunny and Mild

The weather here is perfect. Sunny warm days and cold nights.

 

Slightly out of it's banks, the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River looks muddy. When it calms down , after the snow melt, it will again be clear. 

My secret waterfall, that I discovered last year, just north of town, is running nicely.

 

and T-mountain just southwest of town is still topped with snow.

as seen from our south deck this morning. Not unlike my header picture. 

We have finished unpacking and I am looking over recipes. Need to make out a menu for our arriving guests. You have to really make sure you have all your ingredients are listed.....since the supermarket is 120 miles round trip!

A Protest

 

click on photo to enlarge

We are now in the mountains for the summer. The trip here was long, but  always  interesting. You never know what you are going to see. Like this sad looking little house (duplex) in a dusty little Texas town, near the New Mexico border. I laughed when I saw the sign. Someone was having their say, and a lot of people were reading it, because you could hardly pass without seeing it.  Even though who ever wrote this, seems to be not be living the American Dream, they still are exercising their right to voice their opinion.The longer I looked at it (we bought gas at a station next door) the less funny it became. Kind of sad.

I was going to go to the website, but Tom, who is always a bit smarter than I, cautioned " Don't do that...you may not want there to be a record of you going to that sight". I actually thought the little duplex was kind of cute. Could use some grass, and a little TLC...So could the person that wrote it.....(TLC...not the grass).

*TLC....tender loving care

We Are Here!

We had the most beautiful trip today.....You see after spending the winter in our new town of Ft. Worth, Texas....we have traveled to our summer home in Lake City. Colorado!

 

We traveled on a few uninhabited back roads today... where you don't see another soul! 

Finally arriving in the northern corner of the state of New Mexico

 

click on photo to enlarge

 Where the deer and the antelope play. Yes, there are wild antelope everywhere.

 

We pulled into the great state of Colorado about noon.

 

Where beautiful delicate blue flowers were blooming all along the fence lines

as blue as the sky above! 

 

All of a sudden the Rocky Mountains were visible out the car window

 

and the roads were still empty. Can you tell I am happy to be here?

One last pass and we are here. Yes, there is still snow up on Slum,

Okay, don't be disappointed. It doesn't look like much...but just you wait. You won't believe what all goes on in this tiny town.....Stay with me!and we will have a great summer!

Moving On

Fifteen months ago we moved (from Houston, Texas) into the top floor apartment of an old house in Ft. Worth, Texas, lugging just our laptops and clothes. Nothing else was needed...and I mean nothing. All of our other  belongings were to be stored temporally in a storage unit. We had visions of finding the perfect house...in the city, no more suburbs for us..... Well, that just didn't happen. So, we bought a lot (yes, in the city), and hired a builder. If you have ever built a house, you know that things don't always stay on schedule. The house was to be finished in April...then May...and now the first of June.


Since we live five months out of the year in Colorado, and have commitments on our June calendar there, we are packing up, and heading north.....and plan to come back in  late June, and finally move in.

Friends, I have gotten attached to this place...and this place, by the way, actually has a name. It's Linda's Place....and it always will be. I knew Linda, she was a friend of my sister's and a huge friend to her community. Very civic minded, she was a Trojan at getting things done in Ft. Worth. Sadly, Linda passed away, at a much too young an age, in October of 2012. Her daughter, who lives far away, sold this place completely furnished and it is owned by a very nice gal in the neighborhood. You can find it on Airbnb,Ft. Worth, Linda's Place.Yes, you too can rent it.

Go through the door on the right and climb up

Too many stairs for you, you say?

Well, then go around back, and take your own private elevator (that I have mentioned before) that deposits you into ...

the breakfast room ,which is right beside the updated kitchen with it's own butler's pantry.You will have to bring your own butler. Mine is going with me :)

Turn around, and notice that you can also eat outside on a spacious deck.

Too large to capture in one photo...the master has nine windows. One guest commented "the bedroom was larger than my entire New York apartment".  I could go on and on, because this place really does have a very special feeling to it.....
 maybe, just maybe...it's the music floating up the stairs. For you see, Clark lives downstairs. Clark is a concert pianist and practices every afternoon. Twice he was a finalist in The Van Cliburn Competition (2007 and 2011, where he took second overall). Van Cliburn (1934-2013) was a very famous pianist, who in 1958 shocked the world by taking first place in the International Tehaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, in the height of the cold war. His list of accomplishments are too lengthy to list...but, every four years pianist come from all over the world to compete in the Van Cliburn Competition, and as good as they all are...very few place...

Clark we will  miss the beautiful afternoon concerts..thank you.

Hey! I am not signing off. You are going with me!!(no, not you Clark). I plan to keep right on blogging ...when I find something interesting to share. ...so please stay tuned, for many adventures await us!....Janey

On the Square

The weather was beautiful last night, so we joined my sister Polly, and her husband for dinner at a small restaurant with an outdoor terrace (and a guitar player), and then ventured downtown to Sundance Square. The square which is relatively new, is a multi-purpose, European type plaza in the heart of downtown Ft. Worth. Surrounded by  elegant restaurants, cute Bistros, shops, a stage for events, and  even a dancing water fountain; where anyone is welcome to play.

I was armed again, with only my cell phone. Notice the mural on the building. A depiction of The Chisholm Trail that at one time was a heavily traveled trail of cattle being moved overland from Texas ranches to Kansas rail heads.

 

We really enjoyed watching the children play in the fountain

There were also folks trying to negotiate a ride in a Cinderella type carriage, through the streets of downtown, where the buildings are always outlined with lights. I hope that you too, are enjoying nice weather and a fun weekend.