Denver 2014

I'm a little late getting to this post of the last leg of my summer trip.  The whole adventure was planned around a wedding of a friend's only daughter.  I met Helen years ago while living in Denver.  She had moved from Newark and came to check out a room for rent in the house I was living in.  She didn't take the room but we hit it off and became friends.  She is one of those friends...separated by time and space we can just continue on when we get together.  She was a beautiful mother of the bride!

The wedding was held at Spruce Mountain on a beautiful day!  What a party.  There was general carousing and having fun till the wee hours. The smart bride had arranged buses so no one had to hold back!  She has been to all 50 states and 40 countries in her young life, pretty much all in 10 years since high school.  She is off to Norway for a honeymoon.  Good luck to them!

 
The sky goddess was flying the friendly skies, so BIL picked me up and barbecued.  I got to meet the twins.  They just turned 3 but were on good behavior while they checked me out.  My nephew brought the famous Jerry Garcia.  He is a two people dog...nephew and sky goddess.

Here he is pouting because the Sky Goddess left him behind with me while she ran errands.  I could not entice him with toys or treats :(    He loves to walk and chase his little softies as long as the Sky Goddess is with him.  While walking him on the golf course we spotted a herd of 7 deer and a heart shaped mushroom.

In Denver the anemone were in full bloom, and there are aspens instead of birch trees.  When they have leaves there is no mistaking aspens for birch trees.  In the winter with no leaves, the birch have more horizontal lines in the bark and triangle shapes where old branches have fallen off.    Just in case you wondered, cuz I did. The Sky Goddess has a green thumb!  Her house plants are huge and her garden full of color. 

I hit one yarn store, Fancy Tiger Crafts.

They had a small wall of Koigu and some nice upscale yarns in addition to other crafts such as fabrics, felting and spinning.

My nephew is a chef at Fruition, a farm to table restaurant in downtown Denver. While everything was most yummy, the Potato-Wrapped Oysters Rockefeller Parmesan-Leek Emulsion, Bacon Lardons, Baby Spinach was very special.

Not your mother's oysters Rockefeller.

Denver has grown so much since I was there last.  The medical school has moved to Boulder and the old haunt is abandoned and waiting for demolition.  Weeds are everywhere.  Aurora where the sky goddess lives has many teen-aged trees, golf courses and huge stores such as Target and JoAnn's.  It is high dessert, for sure.  I had forgotten how impressive the Colorado Rockies are.  I was blessed with great weather.  Not too hot and not too cold, and just brief drama and passing thunderstorm.

The last day we hit the Parker Farmer's market and found some wonderful Palisade peaches and Rocky Ford melons, and even a touch of Wisonsin.

Since coming back I've tried spinning again (some wonderful fawn colored Bond from Stitches Midwest)  .  My neck definitely noticed, so I'm taking it slow.  My f/u visit with the doc was favorable.  I'm still going to PT.

 Outlander inspired me to knit a beret.  In fact two.  Both of them came out ginormous!  I'm not sure they can be recovered, but I have some really nice felt, lol. Don't let the picture fool you.  There is a two inch tuck in the back.  All the indigo in my failed dye job washed out as planned.  At least that part was a success.  Knitting them up, though, I had really blue hands and nails!  I did learn that a proper bonnet needs to be shaved and molded before being ready to wear and the decoration goes over the left eye.  Who knew there would be so many hits about this subject?

 I also practiced some intarsia/Fairisle hybrid on the R2D2 Hat.  Need more practice.  








Teeny Carrot Top Tomte was more successful. Yes gang, Christmas is just around the corner.