Home » dog

Tag: dog

Summer colors’ last gasp = Inspiration

 

summer colors' last gasp
To me, lantana is a fine example of summer colors’ last gasp in Albuquerque’s high desert gardens. (Taken at the Biopark.)

 

 

INSPIRATION

 

Being the fourth Tuesday of the month, yesterday was one of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild’s demo days  (we’re there the 1st and 4th Tuesdays) at Albuquerque’s Biopark, specifically the Botanic Garden. And although it clouded up and eventually rained, the morning was gorgeous: blue sky, cool, crisp. The colors in the gardens sparkled. I felt a need to pull out my phone and grab a few shots before the flowers all disappear into the chill of fall and winter.

 

 

 

 

summer colors' last gasp
I can’t grow cosmos in my yard here like I did back in Massachusetts. But I miss them. These, in the Biopark, turned their faces away from me and the wind that was blowing the storm in from the south.

When I got home, I headed into my own yard to record the colors of late September. Like the hummingbirds, most will be gone within a few weeks.

summer colors' last gasp
This is one of the bougainvillia. It lost its leaves last week, but not its vivid coral flowers.

 

summer colors' last gasp
Cherry tomatoes ripen in the garden after pretty much going dormant through the heat of July and August.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

summer colors' last gasp
Despite the rosy-colored crepe myrtle, the turned leaves and the chiminea and even the shadows in the backyard remind me that autumn’s already arrived.
summer colors' last gasp.
The vivid color of this bougainvillia suggests that there’s still time for Tom to mix me another margarita. If you’d like one, you better hurry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pumpkin colors
It may be the last gasp for summers’ colors, but it’s just beginning for pumpkins’ oranges, greens, and even blues!

Regardless of color, life goes on. Here at High on Hooking, we’re readying for a third show in less than two weeks. Sunday is the OffCenter Folk Art Festival at Robinson Park in downtown Albuquerque. Lots to do before that! I’ve sold out of all double mug rug sets and most of the singles. I’ll finish up another three singles in the next couple of days. Meanwhile I’m starting a double. Or maybe it’ll be a quadruple…

Anyone showing up to the OffCenter Folk Art Festival to buy a rug will get 10% off if they mention this blog post! Hope to see you.

 

dog and rug
Tynan took a couple of weeks off, but he’s back with “What’s on the Frame?” That would be the double (or perhaps quadruple) mug rug that won’t be ready for sale this weekend. But there’s always November’s events (more on them later!) or even the Internet. Careful of those pins, dude!
Share

The Sunflower Festival and one damn rug to finish…

 

Tynan and this week’s rug on the frame, which has been the rug on the frame for a few weeks. So close… Gotta finish it for Saturday’s Sunflower Festival.

 

As you can tell by the look in Tynan’s eyes, I have NOT finished the Boucherouite-esque rug yet. Yes, I am very close, but here’s the thing: I need it completely done for Friday evening when I pack the car for Saturday’s vending gig. That gig would be the Sunflower Festival in Mountainair, about an hour and a half southeast of Albuquerque.

The Sunflower Festival is supposed to be a fun time, and I’m looking forward to it. But I’d feel a hell of a lot better if the rug was done NOW! See, I have a few other things to do this week. Ironically, they’re all hooking related. Thursday, I’m hooking with friends. I considered staying home, hopefully, sewing up sed rug, but then they pressured me, told me they were making gluten-free items for lunch. Who blows off friends like that? (Or the GF food?)

 

Friday, Cathy Kelly is teaching some of us in the guild  a yarn-dyeing method that’s done with a microwave oven. We’re dyeing yarn rather than wool fabric, so it really appeals to me. Check out the yarn she brought in to entice us into learning the technique. Yum!

yarn
Yarn dyed by Cathy Kelly. Not sure if I’ll hook with mine or use it in some crocheting project.

So, somewhere during the next two or three days, I need to finish hooking the rug, steam it, and hem it. Then price and tag it and enter it into the inventory log. Agh! Oh, and pack the mobile store into the car, adding a tent and leaving room for Tynan. Since we’ll be gone all day Saturday, he gets to go. While I love his company in the booth, he does have a habit of upstaging the merchandise. Maybe I can get him to demo the “Woof” rug while he schmoozes with potential customers.

Gotta run now, have to hook!

PS:  Check out the home page; we’ve added two other shows to the vending line-up.

Sunflower Festival poster
If you’re local or happen to be in New Mexico Saturday, come on down to Mountainair’s Sunflower Festival. Mention this blog article and get 10% off the rug of your choice!

Save

Save

Share

The muse of minutiae

Flower is a muse of minutiae
The muse, she’s beautiful close up, yes?

 

So the muse called yesterday. Not from anywhere far from home, but right in the backyard and even in the house. Fortunately, she called while I was watering the plants and before we hit the jackpot temperatures we’ve been getting lately. Yes, we are “enjoying” that heatwave that’s the talk of the Southwest. But if you stay in the shade and don’t move around too much, it’s not bad. It really is all about the humidity. And the fact that we live in New Mexico, NOT Phoenix with its 119º. Okay, it helps that both of our AC units are back online. Last week we had to limp along with just one of them for several days.

 

But back to the muse; I’m calling her the muse of minutiae because I was looking at things close-up rather than trying to see the big picture as I often do. Really, I wanted to find something extraordinary in the hum-ho of the yard I look at each day. But who really looks closely at their backyard every day? Guess I need to practice that more, particularly at off times. It is a nice backyard, especially at the end of the day when the hummingbirds visit while you sit out with a glass of wine.

Muse's energy
This is a close-up of a painting by my aunt Pat Croke. Talk about the muse’s energy, people!
I’m a big lover of all things sun – hell, why else would I have chosen to live out here in the desert? This is part of a chiminea that the original owner of our house left. If we touch it, it’ll break. It has to stay.

 

 

Taken as I am by the sun on the chiminea, I’d never noticed this almost shadow of a kokopelli hiding down near the ground. Who isn’t inspired by the happy flute-player?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the muse in the shadows
What do you see in the shadows?

 

 

 

What a treat to find a rose like this one blooming during this heatwave!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Muse of touch
Then there’s texture. Who’s not excited by the muse of touch?
Muse of the sun
LIke I said, the god of sunshine is always here in my Albuquerque backyard.
Muse of the sun
And he brings his a-muse-d friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, someone else is not enjoying the heat one iota! Tynan barely agreed to show you “what’s on the frame” this week. He’s barely looking me in the eye to shoot the pic. Instead he insisted that he was too hot to pose, to move even. That is until I got the shot and mentioned the usual treat. He was up like a puppy – not a heat-stricken nine-year old. He’ll feel better when he gets his hair cut tomorrow.

dog muse of rug hooking
Maybe he’s just embarrassed by the shameless commercial nature of this new rug. Even if he was its muse!

A reminder, the blog will be back in a couple of weeks. I think I mentioned that Tom and Tynan and I are off to Pagosa Springs in southern Colorado soon for a little R&R. Nothing big; it’ll be just as warm there. But nothing sounds better than morning hikes and afternoons spent lolling on the patio with books and beverages. Pics to come!

What fun are you up to now that summer’s fully set in?

Save

Share