Countdown to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I'm looking forward to being a guest at Thanksgiving dinner. I've done a lot of hosting but this year we'll enjoy dinner at Good Samaritan Village with Mom and several members of my brother's family who will be driving up from the Denver area.

The rest of the week-end I'll be busy with Holiday House - setting up on Friday and staffing the booth on Saturday. Our Trail Ridge Quilters group has already made over $8000 this year (to benefit the medical center) and this will be our last opportunity to sell our quilted items this year.

Estes Park Salvation Army has started its bell ringing campaign. Wayne is heavily involved, as usual. I hope they do well this year.

Autumn is my Favorite Season

The aspens are at their peak, beautifully gold against the blue sky and dark green pines. We camped one night in Rocky Mountain National Park last week and had a wonderful time. Our camp site overlooked Moraine Park with it's herds of elk. We heard bugling all night. My sleeping bag kept me cozy even when the temperature dipped to the low 40s. We had a visitor - a handsome buck nibbling on bushes around our site. He wasn't a bit shy and hung around for several hours into the evening. We cooked over an open fire and tried biscuits in the cast iron dutch oven with mixed success.

The town has been full of tourists for Elk Fest this weekend and Autumn Gold Fest last weekend so we've been avoiding the downtown area.

My hanging baskets of geraniums are still beautiful but all my other potted flowers have been nipped by frost and looking bedraggled. I haven't seen a hummingbird for over a week and brought the feeders in yesterday for the season.

I'm savoring each minute of Autumn, my favorite season in the Rockies.

Sunday Morning Hikes

Colorado Blue Columbine - our state flower

Wayne and I usually hike together on Sunday mornings. Because of an unusually high snow pack last winter, Old Fall River Road didn't open until yesterday. It usually opens by July 4. Today we drove partway up this narrow, gravel, one-way road, hiked to a wild-flower filled meadow, then continued driving on Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake for lunch. We got home just in time for a thunder storm with spectacular lightning and thunder.

Tomorrow I plan to tackle my sewing loft which needs a great deal of re-organization and cleaning. It's been easy for me to procrastinate doing this task but tomorrow is Day 1 of the Big Tidy.

Alpine Meadow

Indian Paintbrush

Little Elephant's Head

Quintessential Britain - Part 3

The Cotswolds, Wales, and Scotland were also on our travel agenda. Our favorite hotel of the entire trip was Three Ways House (home of The Pudding Club) in Mickleton, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. The meals there, especially the desserts, were the best we had on the trip. We saw lovely landscapes and beautiful gardens. Hidcote Manor Garden, once privately owned, is now owned by the National Trust. We spent several inspiring hours wandering the paths.

I'll finish this post with a few more photos. We hope to visit the UK again some day.