Winter Drawing...

Night Ski II

6" x 6"

Prismacolor/Lyracolor on Bristol

Here is a resurrected design that I finally brought out this week.  Made a few holiday cards where the design was 3" x 3" and thought I would enlarge it a bit to see if it worked.  Now I'm contemplating doing a 2' x 2' painting of the same design just to see what it would look like.  I'm not very good at capturing the detail with the camera... have to work on that.  I'm working with an old Canon 3.2 mp Power Shot A510 which is obviously not state of the art, LOL.

The Last Few Days of the Year

Hope everyone had a great Christmas (if you celebrate it!).  I noticed today that the daylight hours are just a few minutes longer now that the Solstice is past.  Hey, every minute adds up!

So how was 2009 for you?  What are your hopes for 2010?

I've planned a few things so far in January: Mid-month, I'm heading up to Boulder to take a long weekend course in Sports Massage.  I'm sort of beginning to explore a few modalities to see what I enjoy most and what might be the best way to use my education.  I'm excited!  

In late January, I'll head over to Ouray for a couple days of ice climbing.  Finally!  It has been two years since I last picked up an ice tool and I'm ready to get back out there, if only for a weekend.  Yay! 

Snowflakes

Snowflakes!  Both inside the house & outside!  We got a skiff of snow this morning.  The forecast was for more, but now the sun is out & it's fairly warm. 

Last night and this morning proved productive.  Made another batch of sugar cookies (no purple ones this time, LOL).  Since I didn't have a snowflake cookie cutter, I used a Ball jar lid to make round cutouts.  I didn't have an icing bag, either, so I used a makeshift one: quart Ziplock freezer bag with a very small diagonal cut off one corner.  It works, but not as well as a regular bag with a tip on it.  I just made up some ideas for snowflakes and drew them on the cookies.  Cool!  They are going into some goodie bags I'm making up for friends.

BTW, If you're short on time, use the Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix.  It tastes good, is inexpensive, & is super easy!  

 I've been focusing more on projects lately rather than getting out in the mountains.  The reason being that access to trails above town is quite easy -- you can get out for a one or two hour jaunt and feel like you're more remote than you really are!  Many of the Salida Mountain Trails remind me of the Dale Ball trails in Santa Fe.  You're out amongst the pinyon & junipers, with the occasional open view of the valley/mountains.  Love it!  It's not that I don't appreciate where I am right now, but I'm missing Santa Fe!  Maybe because my experience there last winter was filled with learning & exploring new things?  So what's next?? 

   

Solstice Fun!

Happy Solstice, everyone! 

As you can see from the pictures above, we had a stellar day here in the mountains of Colorado.  Temperatures were quite moderate, in the high 30's (at 11,000' even!), and the sun was shining bright despite being the shortest daylight hours of the year.  Monarch Mountain was a little busier than a usual weekday with the school kids being off for the holidays, but still... the longest we waited in a lift line was a couple of minutes.  They have pretty decent coverage right now and snow with colder temps is predicted in the next few days.  So if you're getting out on the trails or roads this week, be safe... and have fun!   

P.S. The 2010 Timberline Adventures catalog is now out!  :-)  Check out the cycling & hiking trips online or call them for a copy.

Cookies & Cocoa!

I have to laugh at the sugar cookies... what you can't really tell from the photo is that the yellow looking ones are really sort of neon green, the blue ones are turquoise (I was missing Santa Fe, I guess), and well, the purple ones are... purple.  They're more Easter egg colors than Christmas/Solstice, for sure, but hey, I just needed to be artistic, I guess.  I would have made Picasso shapes had I had wierd shaped cookie cutters!  Maybe next time.  LOL.  If you think my cookies are wierd, check out this blog for inspiration!  (Love her blog!)

And the cocoa mug -- it's my favorite mug.  Love. It. Probably because it's colorful.  And because it is painted with a mountain landscape.  Wrap your hands around a nice, hot mug of cocoa complete with mini marshmallows -- or better yet, a mocha -- and see how good it makes you feel!  ;-)

Hope you're all enjoying the season out there!  

Project Time... 'tis the Season.

I would love to make this blog more useful. Rather than just trip reports & pictures (which is great fun, don't get me wrong), what information can I pass along that you would like? Please help me out here. I'm thinking along the lines of anything related to the subjects I normally cover at this point... art... outdoors... self improvement... etc.

In the meantime, It's that time of year again... for me it means Project Time. That accomplishes many things. For instance, a project can produce something, such as a holiday gift for someone, something that really needs to be done and I've been completely procrastinating (like organizing pictures, books, equipment in an orderly fashion). It can also be something that simply distracts me from the Season of Darkness, as I call it -- that time from "Fall Back", with the shortened days -- up until the Winter Solstice and on into mid-February, when the days start to get noticeably longer. Examples of this would be doing yoga, workouts, reading, studying, drawing -- you get the picture.

One thing I noticed while living up in Canada for all those years was that light really affects me. Moving from the climate of Colorado, which has something like 300 days of sunshine per year, up to British Columbia (I'm thinking Whistler, but it was also true for the East Kootenays) was harsh reality! Little did I know that darkness = hibernation mode for my body. Sunshine = energy. Crazy, huh?! Though on a nature-related DNA level, I suppose it makes sense. I managed to keep my sanity by having a late afternoon/evening job that allowed me to get out in the sunlight in the mornings, walk, run, whatever. It really helped!

I'm back in Colorado these days. Salida is a reasonably sunny place but nonetheless, daylight hours are shorter this time of the year. So here it is, Project Time. Gotta keep at it -- chocolate only helps so much! LOL. I'm currently working on "normal" projects, such as holiday cards & presents as well as organizing *all* my boxed stuff & art (huge undertaking for me, and it's going pretty slowly, much to Steve's dismay). Also, I'm gearing up for my NCETMB Massage Boards sometime this winter. Hoping to sign up for another CE course early 2010 and maybe Chicks With Picks again (see link on sidebar). Chipping away at it, that's about all any of us can do.

Here are some ideas for you to start with:
*Crochet, sew or knit something (i.e., crafts)
*Make holiday cookies
*Organize pictures/stuff
*Do something productive that could help someone (volunteer?)
*Draw or paint
*Work out/do yoga/ski/run, etc.
*Clean out the closet
*Organize music (Steve's current Project)
*Read the book or sign up for the class or trip you've been putting off
*Get a massage (ok, that's not really a project, but it can really help alleviate stress)

Looking Back on Summer

I'm finally back online and getting settled into a place for winter. We're back in Salida this winter after a so-so summer of guiding. I say so-so because the season didn't really kick in until around September! Such is the state of the economy, I guess. Nevertheless, I *am* grateful for the trips we led!

Above is a picture from this September's hiking trip to Kings Canyon National Park. This shot depicts part of the descent from Alta Peak. What a great hike! We were all pretty much gasping for air on the way up -- the summit of Alta is just over 11,000'. Everyone in the group made it, though!

I had hoped to post more pictures this afternoon but my laptop is being uncooperative! LOL. Oh, well. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!