TGIF-

Another week gone! Wow-its Friday and I always like Friday!! I think its left over from all those years of having my nose to the grindstone and Friday brought welcome relief! This week it serves that purpose well as Ive been keeping my nose to the grind getting the pen website upgraded with a new color scheme, a new navigation menu, new tables to show the pens, and updating the wood selections pages!! I'm now waiting for some content info from my B-I-L and once that is done the fall update will be done!

Just in time for Wednesday Im headed back upstate to get the scoop on another project my Sis has for me at her work! They have hired me as temp to assemble 620 storyboards for the new fabric lines!! ITS a lot of work and she said it will probably be approx 130 hrs job. So Wed & Thurs I will up there and then back home to complete the project at home! I will be scarce around the blog when I return--Im sure as usual they will want it done like yesterday! I will try to take a few photos when I get cranked up so you can see exactly what Im talking about..lol.

Meanwhile today I took a pretty big load of "stuff" to the flea market! I helped mom update her closet we added another shelf and she had a lot of stuff to get rid of, I raided my closet for stuff I dont want--and added in lots of other things we had laid aside for the purpose- I dont know bout you guys but I love to get clutter out of my life and out of my space--it clears up the mind and allows new ideas and stuff to enter your life!..So today I did it... loaded up my Blazer yesterday got up at 5 am and off to the flea market. I had a good sale and took what didnt sell to the Salvation Army store in town.... it got hot--and I got a wee sunburn on my face--

In the west the thistles were so inspiring--I included one in one of my latest drawings--I like it!

Hope all of you have a great weekend.

Home Again!

I returned from my dogsitting/web page design/upholstery trip to sisters house! In explaination--I was asked to dog sit...and I had planned to reupholster an ottoman that one of her dogs chewed up...and I am the "web designer" (feeling my way around HTML) of my B-I-L's web site for his pen business. So to put it lightly I worked my butt off! Its good to be back home! I have not finished all the changes he wants on the web site its a slow process...He makes hand turned pens! These are quite handsome- He wanted to add a few new designs and so I took about 15 photos of the new stock here is one that I really

 like!

   

 So while I was in Greenville it rained, rained, and rained!! What a miserable time it was taking poor ole' Spanky out for his constitutionals---he is a bit thinner, but his mental status is about the same. I didnt take the time to try for a foilage trip...too wet and cloudy..but yesterday we took a short drive to a nearby town and I snapped a few shots of some of the scenery along the way...including the Great Falls Catawba River Dam C-1920. As you can see it was quite a cloudy day.

 

We passed by the old Country Store in Liberty Hill, SC a very small rural community.  We pulled into one of the river access points and I took this shot...there were men fishing in a nearby boat - I decided not to invade their privacy...but I overheard the word "longjohns" as they huddled together in their

 metal john boat. LoL

 Across the way from the boat landing area is this old electric generating building, I dont know if still used...it does look to be kept up to a point... I love the style of it.

  

 We stopped for a fish sandwich & fries that finished off the day! On the way home we got the clouds of the setting sun

   

Hope everyone of you is in high spirits and all is right in your world!

Fall is all about Color

Today its a steady eastern rain dampening my world. You know one of those all days rains with no let up. We really need it too, September was such a dry month here in the South East. I have to admit I have barely taken my camera out of the bag since I arrived back home...it always sort of hits me after a wonderful adventure to have a case of the blues. Tomorrow I am headed upstate for the dog sitting once again, and that usually cheers me up but not this time. Due to Spanky's illness I cant take off and go into the mountains and take a hike or visit the road side stands filled this time of year with apples, freshly canned jellies n jams and local sweet honey...I wont be able to have a "side" adventure as I always have before when dog sitting. I really hope Spanky is better than when I last sat with him. I was thinking of heading west toward the Appalachians in north Georgia to look for early leaf color on my return trip..sort of make a wide swoop-- it all depends on how badly Im needed back here at home since Mom will have to take care of our own 2 dogs while Im gone. I wish they were all coming with me. Normally the best time for leaf color in the southeatern mountains is the first week of November...so it may be a bit early but in the higher elevations I might get lucky. So I will see--meanwhile I did see some of the most awesome leaf color ever while in Colorado last month....probably cant top that...but I do love the orange and reds that the Maples and Oaks here in the East throw into the mix as well.

 The Aspens are hard to top and not the only golden thing I saw...I snapped this shot of a Golden Eagle that caught me by surprise...I did fire off a few shots but got only this one clear enough to share...I had to zoom and crop this quite a bit.. so its a bit pixelated---

I am a lover of the prairie and the sage grass that grows in the dry canyon country too...the soft greens and the deep gold colors just amaze me. I took this photo of a mare and foal and just as I snapped the shot, the foal shook his head--I guess a fly was bothering him!


                                            

And here is the shy burro that stuck his head behind a juniper just as I snapped the shutter! He is standing in an aromatic stand of soft green sage!

   

 Ok, enough trekking through memory land, I have to go to Walmart, ---I'd rather be horsewhipped! Hope all of you are having a wonderful time today!!

A visit to the Navajo Nation

I want to share more photos and memories from my visit to the Navajo Nation. Here is the infamous Monument Valley-- this is a such an awesome place! You can almost see the DUKE, John Wayne riding off toward those buttes.

  

                                                  I took some liberties with the moon,,,,:0)

The famous Mittens,,,

 Here is another bird that we saw plenty of, the Raven 

 OH THE beautiful rugs we saw-- this one hangs in the gift shop at Monument Valley at the View Point Lodge--I hate to think that this craft could be dead within the next generation! Not many of the young Navajo women are interested in learning how to weave--this modern world holds little fascination with the patience necessary to learn this time consuming but beautiful craft.

    

 We did check out the gift shop & we saw these colorful Kachina Dolls sitting in the window with the Valley as a backdrop. There is a Navajo ceremony upcoming, its always held after the first frost...when the YEI (Navajo Deity) are called upon...the ceremony last 9 days and is called a Yei Be Chey-- the singers will ask to be renewed and have the evil of this modern world washed off them. I hope it works!


 Maybe there will be Kachina Dancers there!

   

 While on the Navajo Reservation I found the people --the Dine' --to be hard working, very close with family, extremely friendly and helpful. They are not into materialism they live humbly and simply in small dwellings that are comfortable and serve the purpose every home serves. Here is a typical roadside stand where one can purchase hand made crafts and meet the artist at the same time. The price is very reasonable, and I know that my purchase goes straight into the hands of the family this artisan
 supports!

   

Sis makes a deal 

                                                            Locally made goods, 

 I would much rather support the locals than the pricy gift shops. We stopped at the historic Shonto trading post. It's a very small very old "mercantile" with a general store and post office combination, they also sell gas from one old pump. Outside there are dogs laying in the shade to greet us and we enjoyed talking with a couple of Navajo Tribal EMS workers who came to fill up the ambulance, I was able to "talk shop" with them, and I enjoyed that very much! They have the opposite problem of what we had in NYC when I was working as a paramedic there. We were always within 5 minutes of the call since our system was laid out in a grid and well covered. The Navajo Tribal EMS...said they have never been asked "what took you so long?" They cover a grid of over 100 square miles each!!

   

 This young artist is holding the art I purchased from him! Its fantastic...he sits on the South Rim of Canyon DeChelly (pronounced DeShay) and paints and sells to tourists such as me! He said he is allowed to collect the rock he paints on below the White House Ruins--an ancient Cliff Dwelling that we saw from the South Rim of the Canyon....I will save for another post!

   

 Have a wonderful day friends!