26 September 2011

September is almost gone and it has been a busy month.  DMP and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.  Several years ago, we discussed a big party for our 40th,  thinking that with no children to host a 50th and we might be too old manage one 10 years down the road.  Somehow it managed to slip up on us and take us by surprise.  We did manage to give ourselves the gift of new patio furniture and have finally had a morning that was cool enough to enjoy it:


So no party but our usual trip to the San Juans in SW Colorado.  We both breathe a bit more deeply--at that altitude you have to--when we see Mt. Abrams as we drive from the airport at Montrose to Ouray.
We had a quiet, restful time enjoying the cool and the rain. 

Lots of reading and soaking in the hot tub. 

Good food at all our favorite restaurants.  

Easy highway drives to Silverton and Dallas Divide for a glimpse of the promise of golden aspens and the joy of first snow.

 We had great fun with our friends San Juan Scenic Jeep Tours--We drive you look.  If you go you want to make sure you ride in the yellow jeeps.   Here are a few pics:




We really enjoyed Corkscrew and the sweeping views of Red Mountain. 

There are three Red Mountains and the color comes from iron so they're really big piles of rust.

We were lucky that the afternoon we chose for our back country jeep ride was beautiful as indicated by the blue sky reflected in Lake Como.




We were in Silverton for the annual quilt show and this year I bought a quilt.  [We also found some lovely cedar boxes.]   I have long admired the piecing of Barbara Green although her hand quilting is not particularly outstanding.
I love quilts and I think this one will make a pretty winter slip cover for my living room sofa. 

Zacha & I used to thread a packet of needles onto spools of thread for Grandma Wieland every Sunday to see her through a week's work. She had her large quilting frame hung from the ceiling of "the front room" or parlor.  Every day  Grandma's dear friend, Miss Beulah Puckett, came by to visit [She was always "tolable, jus' tolable."] and she'd sit and quilt a spell.  Every day after she left, Grandma ripped out her "higgaly piggaly stitches" and redid them.  The next day Miss Beulah would admire what she thought was her work of the previous day.  "I was afraid I'd just messed it all up yesterday but those stitches look right well in today's light."