Altered Postcard and a Story - Purple Haze

HI EVERYBODY! I'M BAAAACK!!!

Well, I hope so, it's been a long relapse and I am still having trouble sleeping, but ... there is hope!!! There is always hope!

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An altered, mixed media postcard; the reasons I like to make these are several fold: I use up bits and bobs of scraps, they are small enough to do in a shorter amount of time, and I can send them to people! (who hopefully like to receive them!)

This one includes scraps of patterned tissue, a flower cutout, a scrap from a German newspaper, inks and paint, textural pieces for interest.

PURPLE HAZE

35th in the Tuesday Story series

During the time John was the CEO of the water utility of Charleston and we were homeschooling our daughter Tabitha, we would accompany him on several of the trips he was required to take in connection with his work. One of our favorite places to go, and we went there several times, was Colorado.

On one of the last trips we made there, Tabitha was old enough to go horse back riding and we signed up to go on one with an outfit near the Rocky Mountains National Park. The three of us ate lunch at a lovely lodge near one of the gates to the park, and then Tabitha and I left for our adventure. The place was not far from where we were and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. It was a gorgeous summer day in Colorado, no humidity, sunny, no clouds and an inviting temperature. As we stood around the stable yard waiting for the others to arrive we watched the horses.

They were quite attractive, and everything was as clean as a stable area could be, and the cowboys/guides/whatever you called them were friendly and chatted with people. The horses waited calmly, reins wrapped around a long pole horizontal to the ground. When the group for our particular ride were all checked in, the lead boss gave us a few words to help our ride go more smoothly."Lean back when the horse is going downhill and lean forward when it is climbing uphill - you'll help the horse and won't fall off." Good words to remember! Then the horses were untethered and lined up, our names were called and one by one we were assisted onto our horse, and given the name of the one we were on. Then the next words from our leader were "You can just relax for the ride, these horse know exactly where to go and will follow one another. You really don't have to do anything other than what I explained earlier." And with that, he clicked his tongue, his horse turned around and we were off!

Immediately all of the horses shuffled together, nose to tail, and I mean nose to tail, as if they were invisibly pulled together as tight as possible! Before we passed through the high timbered gate, the leader turned around for one last bit of information. He told us to be aware of certain horses who had personalty quirks, such as one wanting to veer off (just give little tug back, he'll come along), one who liked to grab a bit of grass here and there (just give a gentle tug to his reins, he'll stop) and so forth, including one who had digestive problems and may or may not have gas issues. Well, um okay. I hoped I was not on any of those he mentioned. It turns out that my horse did like to snatch a mouthful of grass, but he was very cooperative when I tugged on the reins.

The countryside was beautiful, and we went on a well worn track, up small hills and down. I was really enjoying it when.......... "what in the world was that smell? A skunk? Oh my! Well now it's gone thankfully! Look at this country! I love the colors and the fresh air!" ......cough ........cough

"What WAS the odor?!"

Then, I realized I was BEHIND the horse which was contributing more than his fair share to the Greenhouse Gas Problem! And oh my, why hadn't I worn a bandana like a real cowboy? Better yet, why hadn't they given me one! So I tugged my shirt up over my nose, it was that bad, and I never knew when it was coming again. As we were going around a small bend at the bottom of a hill, the leader glanced back at us and saw me and started laughing. "Well, I see ole Bessie is up to her tricks today!" So then of course everyone had to turn and look! I just laughed and waved at them all, what else could I do!

All in all, it was a lovely ride, even though I wish we hadn't had to stay so close together in line. And I think they should make it a standard practice that "ole Bessie" be the last horse on the ride!!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Tag Tuesday - The Spoon; And a Story: BIGHORN IN THE SKY

Today's theme in Tag Tuesday stretched us a bit! The theme is the SPOON and here's my take on it:

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The background is from a collage of fiber, fabric, papers and acrylic paint on Tyvek. It's the same piece from which I have cut postcards earlier and posted on my blog. If you want more details about the making of this, please click here.

Bighorn In The Sky

Twentieth in the Tuesday Story Series

When our daughter became old enough to travel, my husband and I used to take her with us on his business trips. He would travel several times a year for his job, and because we home schooled, we could go anytime. Her first trip was to Colorado when she was seven years old and we enjoyed very much being able to be there together!

We were staying in Ft. Collins, which was about an hour north of Denver. Colorado State is there and John was involved in a project with the Engineering department. So while he was in meetings during the day, Tabitha and I did a lot of sightseeing. John and I had been to the area before and so I already knew where she and I could enjoy some wonderful outings. We rode the trolley in Ft. Collins, visited a petting farm, went to the "old town" area of the city and to the zoo in Denver. But my favorite place to share with her was Mt. Evans.

Mt. Evans is almost directly west of Denver and is the highest paved road in America. At the top is an observatory (not open to the public) and the ruins of an old restaurant which burned down many years ago. But before you get to the top, there is a wonderful area with a glacier, and a small lake called Summit Lake. In the summer, you would still see snowflakes and if you were from the "flatlands" like we were, you had to move slowly because of the high altitude. It was so beautiful! We came very close to mountain goats and bighorn sheep.

 June 1986 - Mt Evans at Summit Lake

The road up to Mt. Evans is two lane, and on one side there is no shoulder. I kid you not, it is straight down, with only about 6 inches between the pavement and the edge. You did not speed. The view was tremendous, but you drove very slowly! On the day I took Tabitha up there, as we were coming back from Summit Lake we noticed Bighorn Sheep walking single file between the road and the drop off. We slowed down (even more) and pulled up along side of them. I rolled the window down and the leader of the pack stopped and studied us. I whispered to Tabitha to feed them one of the snack crackers she had in her lap and she held one out to him. He stuck his head in the car and munched it down, then suddenly several of them were trying to get in on this largess. How they managed to finagle around like that in such a small space is very amazing! We finished feeding them everything we could find and because the drivers in the few cars behind us were getting impatient, we reluctantly drove away.

1990, Mt. Evans with Tabitha and Bighorn

That trip has always been one of my favorite memories. Every time we had a trip to Colorado, we made sure to drive to Mt. Evans. However, the last time we were there, we were disappointed to see that there was a admission booth where you had to buy tickets to drive up the road, and a gift shop, etc. Mt. Evans had fallen to commercialism, and it wasn't quite the same. We really enjoyed it when it was a wilder place!

Rebecca