Playing Catch-Up

In the time I was contemplating doing this blog, I took lots of photos. So, today I thought I'd tell you about some of the things I've been doing for the last month or so.

On Memorial Day weekend, I woke up to this:

The photo is of my husband's barn, full of old bicycles and other manly things, and yes that is snow. On May 23. On one hand, it had been a very long winter for us and I was sick of snow. This was a much disappointing sight. On the other hand, I got to wear knitwear to the Pagosa Fiber Festival where I met some very funny alpacas and a scholarly sheep. I bought some gorgeous stuff from the vendors and had a lovely day over all. By the time I came home, most of the snow had melted and the sun was out again.

The girls and I went on our first hike of the season on May 28. We trekked up the Junction Creek trail which is also the southern terminus of the Colorado Trail. This is a short hike, less than 5 miles, along a well-maintained trail. We saw many mountain bikers and runners (!), and after many, many switchbacks, we came to the top:



From left to right, that's Robin holding Biskit, Beth, Celia trying to hold Kenna, Linda standing, Kim petting Splash, and Marcia the speed-demon. Behind them is the view from Gudy's rest, looking southeast towards Durango.

On June 1, we had our 9th Annual Small Quilt Benefit Auction. We have a live auction every year of quilts made and donated by La Plata Quilters Guild. This year we had 134 quilts and raised almost $12,000.00. It was a somewhat stressful day because the City of Durango double-booked our park with a wedding. As you know, people having a wedding have no sense of humor, so I spent a good portion of the day dodging the mother of the groom who kept trying to find someone with enough authority to kick us out of the park. Luckily, others in the guild were able to keep the situation calm and I was able to focus on the auction itself. I never get photos of the auction while it's going, but here are all the quilts hanging up before the auction.




Our next hike was Animas City Mountain on June 4. This trail starts right in town (Durango, that is), and climbs steeply up to a great overlook. The trail then continues along the northeastern edge of Animas City Mountain and down to make a loop . The entire hike is about 6 miles on a rocky trail. On the way down, I took photos of the Animas River out of its banks in the valley north of Durango.




On June 6, I hiked the Sale Barn trail south of Durango. It was a lovely, easy 8 mile hike on smooth trails. This trail is dry and had lots of cactus and other flowers to keep me occupied:



Hmmm, kinda blurry, but still pretty.























Later that weekend, I finished these pink socks!





The pattern is Sugar Maple from 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. The yarn is Emily Parson's Sophie's Toes. Knitting these socks was fast, interesting and fun and the socks are gorgeous. I love this technique and am using it for all of my socks now. I immediately cast on another pair of socks plus a scarf, both of which I will cover in a future post.