Whew! What a week!

Rolled in from the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival this afternoon to discover the roofers were actually working on the house. Call it a good news/bad news thing. The good news is that they seem to finally be making progress. The bad news is that we didn't expect to come home from this....


.... to major pounding and scraping and thumping on the roof and a pile of old roof rubbish all over the yard.

(Note: If the atmosphere looks hazy to you, it is. It is dry, dry, dry here, and fires are burning across Colorado.)

HOWEVER... the week that started with a great group of students also ended with a great group of students... and I enjoyed great groups of students in between. I'm kicking myself that I neglected to take photos of the books created by my handmade journal class... but here are a few students enjoying perfect sketching weather in Crested Butte.




Crested Butte experienced record snowfall this past winter (400+ inches), with mixed consequences. There is still snow in the high country, so wildflower blooms at alpine elevation are "behind." But, WOW! Look at the lupine!

As a result of the winter ravages, and despite an aggressive supplemental feeding program, hundreds (maybe thousands?) of Gunnison Valley mule deer were lost.

What's bad for deer turns out to be good for wildflowers, though. A local biologist speculated that fewer deer meant less nibbling on young columbine plants... and... well.... there are some spectacular shows of our state bloom this summer.

Thanks again to the thoroughly delightful folks who took the pencil-and-paper-plunge and spent time sharpening their sketching skills with me. Best wishes for the remainder of your summers!