"Stop Your Living So Fast..."

We are enjoying the most beautiful summer days this week with highs ranging from the upper 70's to the mid 80's and low humidity.  It's great weather for taking walks, which we do several times a day.  It's hard not to when every time we look out the window we see people walking, jogging, biking and skateboarding out in the lovely sunshine, and since there are so many interesting and easy places to walk from our house.

I say "easy" because I'm still recovering from the torn muscle in my hip which means I can't do much uphill hiking right now.  Boulder has got to be the best place to be if you need PT for such an injury; with all these athletes here there are plenty of experts who know just what to do to help when you're injured.  I had my first PT session yesterday and was so impressed.  But that's a story for another day.  Today I want to tell you about the Pioneer Cemetery.

One of the great things about the location of our house is that it's on the same street as the Pioneer Cemetery, ten acres of open space with Flatiron views and the Anderson Ditch running through it.  

We're enjoying exploring the many gravestones dating back to the early pioneer days as well as more recent memorials such as this one for Mark Chapple Murphy, a Boulder resident who died of liver cancer at age thirty-five.

The words on the plaque, based on a poem written by Mark, are a great reminder to live more mindfully.      

Spikey is coming home today.  I'm glad because as ridiculous as it seems, I've missed having him around.   Making space for him has resulted in rearranging my studio again, and I like how it's turning out. 

The initial plan was to put his habitat on a table under the big window in my studio, but I love that window and realized that I just couldn't block it with his cage.   And the table I bought turned out to make a great "right return" off my main work surface, so I decided to use it that way instead of for holding Spikey's habitat.   

So Spikey is going on the cutting table in front of the side window.  When I need the cutting table space, I can just pop up the leaf.   The daybed will still go on the wall to the right of the blue rug; it arrives next Thursday and will add some comfy seating area for visitors like Ben and Paul to hang out in as well as another place to relax.   Can't have too many of those kinds of spots in your house. 

Here is a photo of the first way I arranged the room.  

The main work space now faces the opposite way, with a nice view out the window.  Not only is there lots of pretty green things to look at, but you can check out the people going by, which is a lot of fun.   

The other day I used that new "right return" as a surface when I did a little stamping project.  I picked some poppy heads, coated them with black paint, and stamped them onto white fabric.  I like how it turned out and now plan to print some of my red poppy photos onto fabric and mount in on this black and white background.   Maybe this weekend?  Today's "to do" list includes getting Spikey home, driving to the Container Store to pick up materials for a closet install that's scheduled for tomorrow,  getting a massage for my hurt hip, and going to see "Tillie's Punctured Romance," a Charlie Chaplin silent film, up at Chautauqua this evening.