Autumn tatting

Isn’t fall wonderful?  With cooler weather and spectacular colors it is one of my favorite times of year.
It would be nice if that were true here, but I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer.  We’ve finally had some days that were cooler but we’re still looking at 80ยบ F and the trees have not yet begun to change. 
So I’ve been working a little bit with fall colors to give me a better sense of the season.
Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 20
added 10/9/13 Motif by Wanda Salmans 2013
I really like the colors in Autumn Spice, lovely colors and very nice color changes. 
And how about my new shuttle?  I know the Aerlit has been out a little while but I hadn’t bought one yet.  But during our stay in Buena Vista last month I stopped in a shop that carried them and just had to pick one up. I usually use Clovers with picks though I have a few Aeros and am familiar with this type of shuttle.  So far this one works well, though it made my thumb a bit sore when I started as I’m not used to adjusting the thread in and out with a bobbin.  But it didn’t take long to get it working well. 

The shop I got it in is called “Serendipity”.  It is a really nice shop that sells items for knitting, crochet, tatting and spinning.  They have some items already made up as well as hand-dyed threads and yarns, besides the more normal yarns and threads (including Lizbeth).  It carries gift items as well (it would have been easy to spend a lot of money here!)  The owner has classes for the different fiber arts, including tatting; a tatting class  was planned to start the first week of October.  She does both shuttle and needle tatting but prefers using needles.  I’m glad we were able to stop in. 
A still-living tree growing sideways on the trail up Mt. Princeton
One of the trips we took while in Colorado was up Mt. Princeton.  The road is very narrow all the way up, with very few wide spots to let on-coming traffic pass.  We were fortunate that we met very few people driving while going either up or down.  We did not try hiking to the top so we didn’t become 14ers, we just drove as high as possible and looked around from there.   That is still about 12,100 feet.  It has a fantastic view of Buena Vista.
As you can see by the trees in this picture there was very little color change yet.  There were some aspens that had changed on the trail but we hadn’t yet reached them. We were somewhat disappointed that we didn’t see everything in their fall colors as we had hoped, but the trees were so green it was only a small disappointment. 
There is autumn yet to be enjoyed at home.
14 Fabulous Fall Quotes: Wonderful Words for Autumn!

Home again

We are home again after spending a week vacationing in Colorado.  I now have a better Internet connection.  Oh, happy day!
We spent the week in the same area we did last year, close to Buena Vista.  There is still a lot of things we haven’t done there, but we had a lot of fun checking a few things off our list of things to do.  
We went back through St. Elmo and this time went all the way over Tin Cup pass (we didn’t make it last time). We stopped in St. Elmo for a few minutes to see what had changed since last year and to take a few pictures. The post office in this picture is a good example of the state of most of the buildings in the town.
Me tatting in front of the St. Elmo post office, elevation 10,006 feet (3050 m)
Jay seen flitting around St. Elmo.
Can you believe I actually caught this guy sitting still long enough to get his picture?  I just got lucky.

Flying chipmunk
The chipmunks were unhappy with us that we didn’t give them any seeds.  They would come right up to you in search of them.  One even climbed part way up my leg (it’s an odd feeling!) I was snap-happy with my camera and was able to catch this guy jumping from one rock to another. 

Aspens at St. Elmo
We came up a week earlier this year than last and weren’t sure we’d see any of the Aspens in their fall colors, but they were just starting to change while we were there.  Here you can see that some have changed while others are still completely green.  You can see some of the color change on the mountain side in the distance, too. 
We spent a lot of our vacation in a jeep going up and down mountains.  The roads are not conducive to tatting while in the car!  I was able to get some tatting done but very little.  I’ll share some of what I worked on later.
Deer in someones yard in Buena Vista.
We saw more wildlife out in the mountains this time than we did last year but, like last year, most of the deer were seen in Buena Vista.  They have become quite the pests.  This lovely buck was seen in the front yard of a house, along with four other bucks and three does.  You have to be at least as careful driving through town as you do out of town so as not to hit them. 
I had a cup of Refresh tea yesterday for Tatting Tea Tuesday, but due to life’s twists and turns was not able to post.  I’m hoping that next week I’ll actually get to post on Tuesday!
We had a wonderful vacation and are sad it’s over and we have to return to our normal life, which includes working, though I am glad to have a normal Internet connection.  It is (very) likely that I will be sharing more vacation pictures next time ๐Ÿ™‚
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travel’s sake.  The great affair is to move.”
Robert Louis Stevenson