Even though Charlie is 14 months old, it's only been a year since he came to live with us (Bruce picked him up in North Carolina last August). It's certainly been entertaining watching him grow and seeing what he likes and doesn't like. As you can see from this photo, he isn't a big fan of having his picture taken. I tried to take this one after he came back from the groomer. Luckily, she didn't shave him this time, but just took off an inch. He doesn't look quite so shaggy anymore, plus he's cooler. He doesn't like hot weather, which will be good when winter rolls back around. Unfortunately, I hate the cold.
Bruce took Charlie hiking in the mountains this week.
I took him to Starbucks. He seemed to like both outings. Frankly, he just likes going someplace; he just wishes he didn't have to get in the car to get there.
This has been a busy week. On Wednesday, our bike club rode the East/West trail and then went out to breakfast. The East/West trail is not my favorite, because of all the hills. And the wind kicked up, which made it even harder. But the breakfast was good - very traditional bacon, eggs, toast, and home fries. It's hard to find an old-fashioned diner around here. The thing that gets me about our bike club is that the 3 women in the photo all ride traditional bikes, while only 2 of the men do. The rest ride eBikes, and they ride them FAST!
On Thursday, I had one of my Ladies Out to Lunch groups. We went to a new Mexican place, which wasn't bad. The menu was somewhat limited, but I had a grilled chicken, rice, and bean bowl that was tasty.
On Saturday, I went to a talk on pruning at the garden center. Some of our bushes grow like crazy and some just seem to limp along. Of course, the ones that grow so well are the ones I wouldn't care if they died off (they are cheap specimens planted by the builder, not by us).
I told myself I wasn't going to buy any more plants when I went to the talk, but of course, I couldn't resist their 40%-off sale. I bought a Blazing Star Liatris for the back yard (also called Gay Feather, the spiky purple flower on the left). But the plant was so big, Bruce was able to split it in 2 and plant the other half in the front yard. The front yard doesn't have nearly as much color as the back.
The plants in the front yard also don't seem to grow as well as the ones in the back, so I bought a Scots pine bush called a Hillside Creeper. It's supposed to stay low but spread out to 6 ft wide. I hope so, because we need something to fill in that big expanse of brown mulch.
On Sunday, I went to a lavender farm. Our garden club went on a tour there Thursday, but I was at my lunch. So, on Sunday, they opened up the farm to individuals. It's a new family-owned farm that's only been in business a couple years. This photo shows their son demonstrating how they separate the lavender oil from the flower buds. They use a still, the same kind they use to make moonshine.
I wandered around the farm for a bit with my sketchbook. I did a little sketch of a lavender plant for my nature journaling challenge. But a stalk of lavender doesn't really fill up much of a page, so I moved over to the beehive area and sketched one of the hive houses. Luckily no bees were buzzing around.
Over the weekend there were several storms in the area. We only got about 20 drops of rain each time, but we got some beautiful double rainbows.
On Monday, I rode my bike down the Platte Trail to a new coffee shop in Littleton. It's called Dirt Coffee. I'm not sure that's the most flattering name, but they had good mochas and a really nice outdoor patio.
Melissa's kids went back to school this week. Violet got new contacts. She's so beautiful with those big eyes like her mother. I didn't get contacts until 9th grade, but boy was I happy when I didn't have to wear glasses anymore.
