Last Leg ~ Santa Fe

During our few days stay in Santa Fe, I made my second visit to the peaceful Georgia O'Keefe museum and gallery. The display consisted of her city scapes and the simple beauty of her surroundings in Abiquiu, New Mexico. The contrast is striking, so much so that I purchased a city scape, a theme that had not previously drawn my interest. The stark beauty caught my eye as well as a print of the above poster displayed at the entrance to the museum. I decided I want to have a portrait of the artist as an elderly woman, though it is made from a photograph. (I just had to evoke "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".)

Because I love the O'K logo, I simply had to buy an earthen ware mug featuring the logo, which is displayed beside a grandly, large O'Keefe poppy in my office. After three wonderful weeks of travel in Arizona and New Mexico, we returned home to Colorado. We are blessed.

Succinctly Yours – Week 4

Our next invention will be a zero gravity folding chair. These canvas & wood ones are shoddy! We'll chat in comfort and appear less grumpy.

Visit Succinctly Yours

Sumptuous Sedona

 The RV Resort in Sedona was absolutely stunning in its natural beauty with trees and wildlife abounding, clever birdhouses offering shelter

 and fantastic sculpture throughout the park.

Even the strip malls and grocery stores reflect the natural beauty of the surrounding area.

 While enjoying a trolley tour, we saw this multi-million dollar summer home with its own dome and telescope for gazing at the amazing Arizona sky. Note the "cathedral" mountain formation in the distance. Praise God for the beauty of this land.

 These formations are called the "two nuns" on the right and "Madonna and Child" on the left.

A four-hour train trip took us through the inner canyons around Sedona in a 1937 train car

 still sporting the original interior painting. The amazing artistry is something to behold along with the glorious natural beauty outside the windows.

 Here is a section of thousands of years old cave dwellings that have been compressed over time.

 The train is entering a tunnel

with a last glimpse of light before our car entered the darkness within. Along with sight-seeing and shopping, we enjoyed our time among the red rocks of Sedona.

Phoenix

Leaving Scottsdale after five days, we drove to Phoenix for a week's stay. These grapefruit trees were just outside our door! Fresh, ready-to-pick grapefruit greeted us every day!

We spent the most wonderful afternoon at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden which includes cacti and succulents from around the world and a beautiful Butterfly Dome.

 

From low-growing ground cover

to these towering old plants,

the desert offers breath-taking and unique beauty.

 These feeding stations in the Butterfly Dome enable visitors to see how the butterflies feed through the proboscis.

 This beauty landed on DH's hat and rested their for quite a while as people stopped to look at this lovely creature.

 Then, this plus-size butterfly landed and scared everyone away!! hee-hee

Succinctly Yours – Week3

Succinctly Yours
Word Of The Week: procrastinate

Without time to procrastinate he wore an orange jacket to meet her at baggage, sure that only he could save her from herself. She smiled.

Friday Prayer Shawl Update

I've picked up the prayer shawl again with the hope of finishing it before wandering to of my other WIPs. This James Brett "Marble" yarn is so nice to touch and knit. This is my first experience with it and I quite enjoy it. Fortunately, I have another ball of it in tans and brown for a prayer shawl that I might use to crochet a triangle shawl. The current pattern is the Bernat "Mosaic Wrap" though I plan to omit the pom poms.

What are you creating?

Wednesday Microfiction Muse

Luscious Lula, bearing the burden of broken promises and misplaced trust, felt more alive when she wore her ruby hat to visit his grave.

The Microfiction Muse #1 at http://dianeestrella.com/?p=5129

Yarn Along Wednesday

 http://www.gsheller.com/2011/04/yarn-along.html

 

Here is another patch I'm knitting in ever exciting stockinette stitch for my crazy afghan that I am inventing as I knit. The yarn is Louisa Hardig "Jasmine" in a chocolate brown with a silver strand running through it.

I'm listening to The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen, an amazing author who creates plausible, yet magical, stories. The setting for this story is Walls Of Water, NC, a beautiful location surrounded by water falls. Isn't that just lovely?

What are you reading?

Are you knitting, too?

Teaser Tuesday

 From Knitting In Comfort by Isabel Sharpe:
"He went to the University of North Carolina, and could have graduated, probably with honors, but he missed Megan and wanted to settle." She shook her head as if Megan were responsible for bringing Stanley down from a sure shot at the White House." Stanley had actually failed out of UNC all by himself.

http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

What are you reading?

Scottsdale

March was a month of travel in our motor home beginning with a week in Scottsdale, AZ, to watch three Rockies' games at Spring training.

The first game that we attended was especially fun since it was against the Cleveland Indians. DH and I are from Ohio--long, long ago--so DH wore his Indians shirt and his Rockies cap. Rather like a split personality, but it was a conversation starter!

There's a dog under there! Lailah found a shady spot of relief from the hot Arizona sun.

Coming from brown and blustery Colorado, I was immediately drawn to the green, desert vegetation.

So, I snapped pictures of the gorgeous cacti and succulents whenever one caught my eye.

Stunning!

 Praise to God the Creator for nature's beauty!

 A trip to a LYS was on my itinerary, so I visited Jessica Knits.

 The store was arranged with the heavier weight yarns at the entrance.

 As you move through the store, the yarn weights are arranged to become lighter.

There were bargains! Much of the yarn was on sale, so--of course--I took advantage of that to buy some novelty yarns for my Crazy Afghan.

The warm sun, baseball, and knitting! What more could an antique girl want?