Trail Ridge Road

The family and I went up and over Trail Ridge today, the first time I've been there in years. It was absolutely gorgeous. With the well above average snow pack melting slowly up in the high country and the rain we were getting every afternoon, the wild flowers are just gorgeous. I can't remember ever seeing that many wild flowers, certainly not this late in summer. Even the alpine tundra was covered in little white and yellow flowers.

And the weather was just gorgeous as well. While Loveland hit 97 today, it was a nice 58 degrees at the Alpine Visitor Center. We drove along with the sunroof open and the windows down.

We spent some time walking around in Grand Lake and then on the way out of town saw tons of people standing on the side of the road. We pulled over and crossed the road to see two huge bull moose. The biggest one wouldn't take his head out of the greenery he was eating, but you could see he was a big boy with an enormous rack of antlers. The other bull was farther away, but he was out in the open and even gave me a nice profile shot or two.

bull moose (click image to see full size),
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

It was absolutely amazing to see them that close to town, that close to the road. the bigger of the two was literally a few yards away. Which was actually a bit scary, since moose can be quite dangerous, but these guys were too busy munching to care about anyone else, and the crowd was actually being pretty respectful and keeping their distance.

The saddest thing about today was seeing just how much devastation the pine beetle has wrought in Colorado. I noticed a ton of beetle killed trees on our side of the mountain, a lot of them new enough to still have the rusty needles. But the Western slope has just been decimated by beetle. There were swathes of trees that there were way more dead trees than live. And all along the roadway there were huge slash piles of killed trees that the park service has cut down. For the Park Service to cut and haul trees, there has to be a major issue, since the usual policy is to let nature take its course. It's such a huge problem that all they can do is remove trees that could be a danger in high use areas.

It's estimated that withing a few year's time ALL of the Lodgepole pines in Colorado will have been killed by the beetle epidemic. So for those who say Global Warming isn't an issue, come look at my mountains. Beetle only die off at temps lower than 40 below zero. Colorado hasn't gotten that cold in about 10 years, thanks to global warming. :(

My crazy quilt so far

all three,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

The squares are actually quite quick to knit. Well, when I don't have a smashed middle finger anyway. Amazing how much that finger just gets in the damned way.

Two nights ago it got in the way of my sliding glass door as I went to shut it. Wouldn't be surprised if my mother heard me swearing all the way in Iowa, lol. Goodness knows, I swore long and loud, along with some crying and whimpering. Yep, I am a baby. Poor G was trying to help by making me stick my finger under cold water but anything touching it just made it throb worse, so of course that made me whinge more. I wouldn't even look at my finger for ages, I was convinced that if it hurt that badly I must have lost part of it, lol,

Today it's still swollen and sore, so I managed only one round on the light blue square. Waiting to see if the nail goes black and falls off. Ick!

Crazy Quilt

I'm cruising right along on my crazy quilt squares, two down and number 3 on the needles. I'm going to run out of yarn before I run out of love for this project. I just love the squares, with it's itty bitty hole in the center from where you start knitting in the "square" ;) they have a bit of a lacey look, and I can't wait to have enough to start putting some together. Lucky for me and my marriage, JoAnn's carries some decently priced sock yarns now so I can occasionally buy yarn just for my blanket.

Miche

Deniece,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

Went to a lovely Miche party this afternoon and was very naughty. I bought two shells, Deniece, which is denim and "ostrich" skin, and Hope, which is their newest cancer awareness shell.

I swear, I only went with the intention of buying the Deniece, but then I saw the Hope shell and all good intentions went to Hell, lol. If you don't know what Miche is, you really need to go look at their website.

Miche is a bag system where you buy a plain base bag, and then you can change the look of it by changing the shell. It means you can change you bag's look to match your outfit, instead of changing everything over to a new bag! AWESOMENESS!

I do love my interchangeable accessories, lol.

Hope,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

Memories

I was reading a book the other day and the protagonist served olive cheese puffs and I flashed back to my Grandma Penny's kitchen when I was probably 7 or 8, and eating olive cheese puffs hot out of the oven.

So I emailed my mom asking if she had that recipe. She of course doesn't remember anything like it, lol. And didn't find any recipe for it in her recipe box. Good news is, I did find what I think is most likely the recipe. I think I shall have to try it out and see if it is as good as I remember or if it's just good memories coloring it.

There are a few of my Grandma's recipes that I think about making. As a kid she had a desert bar recipe that was always my favorite desert. My mom didn't make it often but when she did, I was in heaven. I keep thinking I should make them, but then I think if my daughter knew what was in them, she wouldn't touch them, and I know my husband wouldn't lol. Kind of a strange desert, coconut, graham crackers, brown sugar with a slightly lemony frosting. Damn. I want them now, lol. I wonder where my recipe box is...