I think this is called desert parsley. Not sure.

Hey, its a cute little Super Mario Brothers toadstool!

Another mushroom. It pays to be next to the creek the whole time.

There were fields and fields of snapdragons.

Lichen.

Trail on the first section of the climb is very rocky.

Mike and Daniel in the meadow.

View off the cliff of the trail. Points out to HWY 24 near Green Mountain Falls.

The reservoir at the top, I think this is South Catamount Reservoir.

I failed to mention we had handfuls of raspberries the whole way up and down!

Wanted to show my first beet though, I had to pull one up to see the progress!

Finished the second Spring Ruffled Top with the other batch of fabric I got. This one has a more “night” feel to it, vs the first one.

Still loving it. Very comfy and cool.

It is a very pretty trail that follows the creek to Gold Camp Road, and I can see adding this to our roster of hikes!

Plentiful raspberries to pick all the way up!

Love these signs.

Perty.

View to the city with Cheyenne and Cookstove Mountains.

At the falls.

Punchbowl.

Pin cherries.

Flowers.

Decided the first zucchini of the year should be made into my favorite muffins!

Anyways, some excitement was to be had in harvesting the garlic and shallots. Those 2 are sort of a mystery to me. Right now they are curing and drying out for storage. I’m excited to see if the flavor is much different than store-bought.

I am a little sad though, about half of my shallots were lost to some kind of wormy thing that ate through and rotted some. At least my compost pile appreciates the gifts.

An interesting thing I noticed is that I planted my zucchini seeds directly into the ground this year and was able to get a my first fruit only about 2 weeks later than before. I thought it would be drastically late. And the kale was surprisingly easy to grow as were carrots. The carrots are still in the ground until I harvest them, but here is a fun pic of what’s been going on underground all summer:

Carrots in love:

I plan on planting more kale and spinach as soon as it starts to cool down a little bit. We have had tons of rain and its making everything grow like crazy! I planted more lettuce a few weeks ago and have tiny sprouts, hoping they shoot up so we have lettuce again. I am not so great at timing out my plantings yet, but in time hopefully we can have a continuous harvest all summer long!

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is building a cold frame or a mini greenhouse of sorts for greens all winter. Just thinking about going back to the grocery store all winter long for spinach and lettuce just makes me sad. It really tastes so much better to grow your own!

It makes sense, I have been very busy. Not much knitting going on. But I did start my own graphic design business and things have been bumpin’ as of late! It kind of tends to distract you from everything else! If you look to the right, you’ll see a link to my design site, longnamedgirl design. That is mostly what I have been up to lately!

But I have had some time to cram in some outdoors. I will share a select few things to get you up to speed:

Durango, CO.

View from Strater Hotel.

This is where I jogged most days as I had a nasty wrist injury from a motocross crash. Biking was out of the question for the last few months.

Then our friends Tom and Megan got married! This is our only picture…

Then we did some fishing on the South Platte, and caught nothing.

Mike built a platform so we could “truck camp”. So far we have camped twice and its been great!

Had a great hike along the Avenger Claim Trail Loop:

Then headed to BV and Salida for the 4th.

Breakfast at the Boathouse Cantina.

Carne Asada calzones over the fire.

Stormy campsite.

From camping, went to ride the Rainbow Trail in Salida.

Then on the way home, explored the backroads and ended up driving from Tarryall to Deckers.

Loving it.

More pics:


The inside.

I also had bought fabric for this Spring Ruffle Top a while back and finally got the gumption to start it last night. I spent most the time trying to make the straps and ruffles as neat as possible, and then got far enough to pin the body pleats in place:

Here is a shot of the pieces so far:

Close up of pleats

Close up of ruffle band.

I also have a more “night-oriented” selection of fabric to make another one of these. A grey spotted version with red detail. Hopefully I will get that one going as soon as I finish this one!

I do have to make a note too, that I really love these kind of instructional sewing patterns. They are just so much better than tracing a piece of paper and hoping the product will fit you.