I love the colours of these leaves in Autumn.
Cornus Controversa ‘Variegata’
We have a Lupin in flower on the last day of September.
White Lupin
The Clematis, Bill Mackenzie, is alive with bees all day. The yellow flowers on the wall outside the kitchen look like a constant stream of sunlight and clearly, they are very attractive to the bees.
Pollen laden bee on one of Bill Mackenzie’s yellow flowers
Sunday 9th September 2018
Mesa Verde was a looming green mountain and a cracking drive of hairpin bends up to the top where we were to stay for three nights. From the National Parks website: “Mesa Verde National Park was established in 1906 to preserve and interpret the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from 600 to 1300 CE. Today, the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.”
https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/mt_far_view_sites.htm
Outside the station, where we went to buy our tickets to go to London next month for the Anti-Brexit march, we spotted this colourful and interesting mural.
Learn signing
The Autumn colours are appearing.
Changing leaves
Our Dahlias are a bit weather beaten but make a beautiful bouquet nonetheless.
Mixed Dahlias from the garden
By the way, we had some of the Pickled Grapes with cheese this evening and they are truly scrumptious!
Pickled Grapes
Saturday 8th September 2018
Four states in one day! I bought a beautiful little decoration for the Christmas tree in Utah, made by Yolanda LaMone who lives in New Mexico!
Someone with a limb in each State
The stall in Utah where I made a purchase
Father Christmas, an original clay figurine made by Yolanda J LaMone
From Arizona into Colorado
On our way to Mesa Verde for a three night stay.
While we were in Atlanta, my lovely SIL made some Pickled Grapes which looked so beautiful in the jar that I had to give the recipe a try. I did that this morning and they do look amazing. I don’t yet know what they taste like!
Pickled Grapes
The different Clematis plants all have different fluffy seed-heads.
We have just come in from a fabulous musical experience, The Bowie Lounge at our local theatre, The Regal. The whole place was abuzz with excitement and delight at the show, an artistic response to the work of David Bowie with music, word and dance – and all brilliant local talent. As Mark Kermode said, “A strange and wonderful experience, The Bowie Lounge …. is joyful, melancholic and really rather moving. I absolutely loved it!”
The Bowie Lounge
Friday 7th September 2018
The first time we passed by Canyon De Chelly, many years ago, and looked over the rim, we both felt a very strong spiritual pull and we have wanted to return ever since. Today, we drove both the North and South rims and felt the same deep sense of awe and wonder at the beauty of it all.
Canyon De Chelly (pronounced Shay) National Monument is a vast park in northeastern Arizona, on Navajo tribal lands. Its prominent features include Spider Rock spire, about 800-feet tall, and towering sandstone cliffs surrounding a verdant canyon. It has been inhabited by several Native American peoples for millennia and is one of the longest continually inhabited landscapes in North America, with pueblo ruins built between 350 and 1300 A.D. – as well as a contemporary Navajo community that still inhabits the canyon floor, farming and herding sheep during the summer months. The White House Ruins and Mummy Cave are remains of ancient Pueblo villages.
Click on any image for a larger view and the caption. Photos with a date stamp were taken by the lovely Mr S.
There were Navajo dancers at our lodging, Thunderbird Lodge on Navajo tribal land, in the evening – such a privilege to see. We were asked not to take photos so, of course, didn’t. Each member of the audience was presented with a little gift at the end, of a bag of cornmeal.
“Corn, the symbol of food, fertility, and life itself, is of major importance. “Corn is more than human; it is divine; it (is) connected with the highest ethical ideals.” Information found here.
On my walk to choir this morning, I passed this colourful screen.
Found in Penryn
The river was particularly lovely in the early mist. I was a little late to choir so couldn’t take a photo but my singing pal Jan had done so and has sent me this beauty to share.
Penryn River in morning mist, taken by Jan
We have been singing tonight at the Hall for Cornwall, at the very last event before the developers move in tomorrow to begin work on the redesigned theatre which will take about eighteen months. The key was handed over with the words from a local child, “Please look after our theatre!”
On our way home after a meal out with lovely friends, first a Badger loped across our path and later a Hedgehog. No photos, but they both crossed the road safely.
Thursday 6th September 2018
Today we have driven to Chinle for a two night stay so that we can explore Canyon De Chelly. We first drove through the Rainbow Desert many years ago and its beauty moved me to tears then and again today. I wish my photo could convey the colours more truly. The desert is pale pink and red, pale green and sage green, pale yellow and dusty gold – truly beautiful to behold and vast!
A small part of the Rainbow Desert
Just a short stretch of the long, long roads that America has the space for!
The Hubble Trading Post
is an enchanting place, full of treasures and we serendipitously arrived just as a rare tour of the Hubble House was to start. The Trading Post dates from the 1870s and has a fascinating history. Click the red link for more. Enjoy the gallery below.
It made us smile to find ourselves in Room 67 in Thunderbird Lodge as 1967 is the year we married.
Room 67 at Thunderbird Lodge on the edge of Canyon De Chelly
Walking back from town today, first I found a beautiful little feather at my feet and then, in the overgrown and weedy hedgerow, a Fuchsia flowering among the nettles – and all this under the bluest of skies on a crisp Autumn day when it is a joy to be alive.
Frothy feather
Beauty among the nettles and brambles
Cerulean sky
Wednesday 5th September 2018
Cacti from the Westerns
Steep hill to come
Driving from Phoenix to Holbrook, the vegetation changed from enormous cacti such as we see in the movies to scrubby bush, larger bushes and pine trees as we climbed to an elevation of 5000 ft. Holbrook was just a stopover en route to Canyon de Chelly and our ride on Route 66 was vey brief. Happily, we have done much more on previous journeys though I still have the dream to ride some of 66 on a Harley!
Dream Harley
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