A couple of cubs having a snack . . .

The bear cubs - yes, there are two of them - have been visiting our neighbors a couple times a day all week. Yesterday I went over to get a picture. Only "Poly" was there - they have been named "Roly" and "Poly" by their host. Our local Fish and Game folk are going to come pick them up as they have determined they are not old enough to make it through the winter without their mother and she is nowhere to be found. Maybe she ran off with the mailman. So here is Poly having an afternoon snack of apples.

And . . . here is our "little cub" having an afternoon snack with his "B-Bop" on Wednesday.

Snow in the Rockies . . .

Wednesday - wonderful Wednesday! Weston and I were coming back from his house and saw the Spanish Peaks with snow so I stopped to take a picture. Then when I pulled into the yard, the reds around the house were so pretty that I had to share another picture. (You can click on any picture to view it larger.)

Weston loves the backyard so we always head there first and guess who was there to greet us. A mother deer and her two young ones. One of them is standing behind her. He was amazed!

And, I added one of Weston on the yard tractor as he always has to visit that as well.

And then - just to let you all know that I do still have a longarm and I am still quilting when I am home. I am finishing up a "first quilt" for a young quilter who just loves quilting. She wanted varigated greens thread - it is bright green and darker green. Nothing fancy, but I am so proud of her and enjoying finishing it for her in the evenings. I have a couple baby quilts to do before I head back to Laramie.

I am learning to use my new little digital camera. I love my older one and have had it for 5 years, but it is pretty big and I decided I needed a smaller new one. I am not good at the closeups with it yet - or else it is not going to have the quality of my older one. Of course, I could read the instructions - novel idea, huh?

Who is painting these trees?

Yesterday morning they had just barely started to turn yellow and today there are even some reds. We don't have the hardwood trees like you do in other parts of the country, but we have beautiful colors anyway. Here is one tree just off our road. Our house is just to the right and off the road about 200 yards.

Last evening our neighbors called to run over (about a quarter mile) to see a little black bear in their back yard. So we went - quietly. And there he was - up in the apple tree eating his supper. Then he came down and wandered toward the creek. His tummy was full and I suspect he was going to get a drink. I couldn't get a picture as it was just beyond dusk.

Love this time of year!

Sunday night at home . . .

Whew! It is good to be home. I taught in Casper this morning to finish a wonderful week-end with 17 grad students. What a great group! I have confidence that the schools of tomorrow are going to be in good hands if these students are an example of the new principals coming up. They are smart, courageous and totally committed to what is best for each and every child. Very impressive!

I then drove home today, leaving Casper about 1 p.m. and got here about 7:30. It rained most of the last 2 hours. I stopped to get us some soup from Safeway. I usually don't shop our Safeway store here in Bozeman, but I do in Laramie and they have the best soup in their deli. I brought home the Jambalaya - it is s0-0-0-0 good.

As I was leaving the store, I walked by the magazines as I am always up for a new quilt mag - and there was a 2008 Quilt Calendar from our Montana Historical Society. And the "January" quilt belongs to Mom. It is called "Railroad Through The Rockies" and came into Montana about 1860 by wagon with a family from Texas. She has a collection of over 50 antique quilts. Here is a picture again. It will be one of the quilts in the book our Historical Society is publishing in a few months. Exciting!

Getting ready . . .

Ready for what? I am teaching this week-end in Casper. The students in the course are teachers who are getting Masters degrees and hoping to become principals. Then on Sunday afternoon, after I am finished, I am heading home to Bozeman and I will work out of there for a couple weeks as we are having 2 week-ends of friends coming for visits.

Tonight we went to a dinner event. The speaker was the Dean of Education from the "other UW" - that is the University of Washington. She was very inspirational about the value of all kids and how we need to work harder using what we know to help each of them learn. We need to make sure they have dignity and ownership in their learning and that we are honest with them. She shared great stories about kids and learning. In an era when all seems focused on testing, testing, testing - it is refreshing to step back and revisit the joy of why we are in this business of education.

This blog may be representing my life. . . moving further and further from my quilting. My job is to just enjoy the journey and that I am doing.

Wednesday - always a good day . . .

Normally when I am here in Laramie, I work in The Cottage and come on campus when I have meetings or such. In other "jobs", I have gotten used to working out of a home office and I love it! You can wear your pajamas the whole day. Unless of course you have a video conference, then you at least have to put on a "non-pj" looking top with hair combed and makeup. And, you can take a break and sew a few seams and let your mind be cleansed with a creative walk.

But, today is different. I do have a small office on campus, but it is not conducive for me to really think and work as my mind wanders to faint conversations I hear in the halls or in other offices. I am a great "eves-dropper" which is another story for later. Today, I came up early. You have to do that if you want a parking space. And, I will be here all day as there are meetings throughout the day and this evening is a video conference with students throughout the state who are preparing to be school principals. I even brought my comb and lipstick so I could look fresh for the camera tonight.

But, I didn't wear my pajamas.

Long drive - lots of time to imagine. . .

I drove back to Laramie today. It is a long 9 hour drive and my mind wanted to wander around so I let it rather than listen to music or talk shows. I enjoyed reliving the wonderful weekend.

And then I started thinking about "pin weaving". It is a class I took a couple years ago from a local fiber artist friend and we each made a vest. I could hardly wait to get here so I could look in my digital pictures to see if I had taken photos. And I had. The vest fronts were cut out of a tricot iron-on interfacing. With the glue side up, we attached the piece to foam board with glass headed pins and then placed pins, evenly spaced, all around the piece. We then wove with ribbon and or string up and down. The side to side weaving was done with ribbon, yarn, strips of fabric, ultrasuede or whatever we wanted.

Once the weaving was complete, we ironed the weaving onto the interfacing, sewed around the edge and then trimmed it to the shape of the vest piece. We then secured it by sewing in patterns all over. This is the only piece I ever made and I gave the vest to Mom. I must need to try it again. You can click to enlarge the photos for more detail.