Wow how time flies!
My last post in early September seems like lifetime ago!
The past two months are months away from the studio filled with garden harvesting and a long awaited away break away from our busy lives.
This post will catch you up on all the adventures and over the next few posts I will be shared new items being added to my Etsy shop over the next while.
This year’s garden was a bit disappointing. Mother Nature was out of sorts and not a typical growing season.
I am proud to grow everything from seed. No transplants in my garden.
Seeds that normal are very productive were not. Harvest times were not normal, so we made the best of less than desirable conditions.
As soon as my tomato plants moved from the greenhouse to the garden bed, a family of deer arrived to enjoy the tops of each plant. By only luck, the plants recovered and went on to produce tomatoes.
The productive parts of our garden were potatoes, squash, hot peppers and tomatoes, even though they were less than previous years production.
The productive parts of our garden were potatoes, squash, hot peppers and tomatoes, even though they were less than previous years production.
We harvested our garden before frost hit and now my dining room and a spare bedroom have become indoor ripening stations!
A special thank you to my son for his monitoring of our produce as we caught a flight out of Canada for a 13 day road trip adventure to the southwest USA.
This was our first trip since the dreaded covid halted travel. Our usual destination of choice is Wyoming/Montana which I deem my “happy place”. Over the past few years, these states have been filled with Yellowstone TV series fans, so for 2023 we took a different approach and decided to visit new locations and add new USA states to our list of destinations.
Here are a few highlights!
We flew from the east coast of Canada to Calgary, Alberta and on to Las Vegas!
Neither of us are gamblers, so we opted to stay away from the “strip” so that we could be mobile.
We visited Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, Red Rocks National Park, Area 51.
We did spend part of a day visiting Las Vegas taking in lunch at Gordon Ramsey Burger
and exploring the Conservatory at the Belaggio.
The Conservatory a free activity that is updated each season with displays made of flowers. The theme was Enchanted Garden and it was beautiful.
There is also a beautiful display of glass on the ceiling of the Bellagio.
From Nevada we headed to California to see Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Palm Springs and the Coachella valley.
Beautiful area and I took the liberty to fit in a few sites from the novels of my favourite author, Michael Connelly.
After reading his Bosch series, I felt comfortable with the area of Los Angeles visiting Griffith Observatory, Angel’s Flight and to the end of Route 66 at the Santa Monica pier.
From California, it was time to head east to Arizona.
We stayed east in Mesa and this was our home base of day trips to Sedona, Grand Canyon East and South Rims and Tucson.
In Tucson, I tried to locate the address for Beads Of Courage, however our Apple Navigation directed us to an older address (Beads of Courage needs to update this!) and as a result, time did not permit us to visit their current location. Maybe next time.😊
We did spend time at Kent's Tools Jewelry & Lapidary Tools & Supplies He has lapidary and jewlery supplies in a lovely spot to explore. I indulged in a few new tools for my studio.
I recommend visiting their website or Etsy store. They have SO MANY tools and the staff was very friendly and helpful!
The rental car, a Jeep Compass, was put through its paces covering 2906 miles (4649 km) and after 13 days away, I was very happy to sleep in my own bed!
I am still recovering from some elevation sickness due to all of the travelling we did up and down mountains, but there is no fun in sitting still!
Looking forward to getting back at the torch and in the meantime, visit my Etsy as there are lots of bead sets and more to come!
Til next time!
D.
