I've waited a loooong time...

...for the chance to use this graphic! :-)

Thank you all, once again, for your thoughtful comments on my busted elbow post! I still intend to reply to each one, but life has torn me away from blogging. My elbow has been healing very well and I've been relatively pain free, except when I overuse it. I have another appointment with my orthopedic doctor (who looks all of 17) this afternoon, and hope to trade the splint for a brace that will allow more mobility and not have to be wrapped in saran wrap and painter's tape before every shower!

Update:

Well, I was naughty... because I have almost no pain, substantially increased mobility, and a helluva lot to do every day, I was using my right arm a lot. I thought I was being prudent, with any twinges of discomfort as my guide. Um, oops! I didn't do any damage, but yesterday's elbow X-rays showed very little change from last week's, which had shown substantial healing from the original X-rays - the period when pain and immobility required I hold it still and do nothing with it. The doctor asked me if I was refraining from pushing, pulling, lifting and twisting and I confessed, I'd been a baaaaaaaad girl... but with good reason, because here on Reality Street where I live, there is no way I can just lay about on the fainting couch eating vegan bonbons and watching infomercials all day! So as punishment (well, not really - this was going to be my fate either way), he put me in this hideous contraption!

(That's not my torso, of course, as treatment for a broken elbow 

at our local hospital does not include transgender surgery. 

Though if it did, this wouldn't be a bad choice for a new look! LOL)

Not exactly the brace I'd been expecting, which I imagined to be a chic, lightweight little velcro'ed number in fashionable colors that I could remove at will (for showering, mostly!) and easily put back on by myself. This thing can't get wet and requires a mechanical engineering degree (and two high-functioning hands) to take off and put on! The Spanish Inquisition would have been delighted to get a shipment of these. And I'm in it for the next four weeks! With firm instructions to not vacuum nor mop nor do laundry nor make beds nor do dishes nor lift anything...

Yarite, Doogie Howser, that'll work! 

Especially since most of what has kept me busy and distracted is our housing situation. Our landlord decided (for reasons known only to himself) to put Dragonfly Cottage on the market on March 1 instead of May 1, which is the day after our lease expires and the date he'd told us he'd re-list it when we signed our lease back in September. Since he remained unmoved by our arguments that he was failing to keep his word (not for the first time), and that house showings will be intrusive and disruptive and will impede our enjoyment of the property (in real estate parlance), we started packing up a lot of our possessions and trying to find another rental in town that will allow our three dogs. (Due diligence, among other things, had us rule out buying Dragonfly Cottage ourselves). We just missed out on two rental houses that would have been ideal, and have settled for one that will just have to do. At least it's only for a few months, there's room for most of our belongings, they're allowing our dogs, and it's close to UPS for BW. But I won't be decorating it and don't expect any posts about it! We expect to be all moved in and spending the nights there by mid-April. Meanwhile, the real estate firm's photographer will be here at 9:30 this morning, and then we'll have to hunker down like mules in a hailstorm for the showings to follow. There are bound to be plenty of looky-lous since this cottage is a familiar landmark, and given that it's on a lot with zero drainage and we're heading into mud season (5" of snow yesterday and 40º sunshine predicted for today), I'll be a one-armed daily floor mopper for a while. *sigh*

We grew very frustrated and tired of looking at over-priced, shoddily built or poorly maintained (when maintained at all) houses for sale. So after a year spent looking at many homes in a wide price range and variety of locales and making a few failed offers, we have decided to build. Our builder, Todd, is one of the best in town, and he's buying the lot. So we chose the floor plan, have been making modifications and will be choosing all the finishes while he's getting the construction loan and will build it and then sell the whole enchilada to us when it's finished. His estimated completion date is mid-July. Todd is still lining things up and expects to get started in a couple of weeks, so I'll post more about the new house when things actually start happening, and since this will be our first experience with new construction I'll be photographing and blogging about the project as it progresses. It's exciting and intimidating and surreal right now, and mostly we're focused on getting through house showings while packing and moving - again! Argh. After living in one place for 19 years, I can't believe we'll have lived in 4 houses (and three storage units) in 10 months!

I won't have much time for blogging in the next several weeks ~ and adding to my woes, as of this morning I can't access my PhotoBucket account, where I have hundreds of photos and images stored! I've emailed them an SOS, and hope my account wasn't hacked or something while I've been on broken-elbow hiatus. It's always something!

In other unhappy news, two of the most vegan-friendly restaurants in town (Lulu's Cafe, which was less than a year old, and Tumbleweed, where I ate lunch nearly weekly for years) closed within days of each other this month. They were both very successful, so it wasn't due to lack of customers. Lulu's mysteriously claimed to have "received a new business venture opportunity that we couldn't resist," while the building Tumbleweed was in sold and they were given the immediate (and I mean immediate) heave-ho by the new owner(s). I never even got a chance to say goodbye to Anna and Liz, the sisters who own it, or use my finally filled up free smoothie punch card! Damn the luck. Since Tumbleweed had also been for sale we don't expect to see it re-open elsewhere and I don't know what poor Anna and Liz will do now to sell it as a business! It also put Fred the baker out on the street, as he baked delicious fresh artisan bread in the back area of Tumbleweed to sell as loaves and for use in Tumbleweed's yummy sandwiches. Boo-hoo! We ran into Fred at Home Depot last week and asked him what he's going to do, and he said (pointing to his cart full of tools), "projects!" I told him that was all well and good, but I doubted those tools would make decent bread! A third restaurant we like (a Mexican one with awesome vegan burritos and delicious sangria) is now for sale too, so who knows what may happen to that one. That'll just leave our favorite Chinese place, Chopstix. *sigh again* Guess we'll be back to eating all our meals at home again like we did when we lived 30 minutes from town! So you can bet the new house is going to have a spiffy kitchen! :-)

One last update before I vanish again for a spell - when Josie (who has suffered recurring bladder infections for years) had another "pee check" in January, she had crystals in her urine and her pH was elevated again. This time our vet had a new theory ~ an infection called ureaplasma. So we're on the second half of a month-long regimen of antibiotics (2 pills twice a day with food) to treat it, and her mid-treatment checkup last week was great. Ureaplasma is a tricky infection, as it doesn't show up on cultures, doesn't respond to the various antibiotics used to treat UTIs, and can cause secondary bladder infections like Josie's been experiencing all these years. So if we can clear up the ureaplasma, maybe poor Josie will have kicked these wretched infections once and for all! Fingers crossed!

I wish you a happy Leap Day, and hope it works a little magic for all of us!

It beats a broken heart (or broken dish)...

Or a twisted neck!

But it sucks nevertheless that I still can't nail the landing on my triple salchow/double toe loop combination, because as I was rushing to my car to go pick up a goodie I'd commissioned a couple months ago from a local artisan, Bob Tippie, I fell on the ice late Friday afternoon and broke my right elbow. And naturally, I'm right-handed. It hurt like the dickens (I can feel the empathy coming from you through the "Internets," dear Molly and Jane!) but I went to my appointment anyway, because this was the irresistibly tantalizing treasure that was waiting for me at Mr. Tippie's house...

He makes the easel he provides with each piece out of copper plumbing. Clever!

I took the first photo without flash and the second one with it, so you can see how the colors change and shimmer with the light. I love the funky shape of the clay dish and the sparkly glass and the colors, and am very grateful I got my thing-busting tumble out of the way before I had to carry this through the thickly falling snow and across more trecherous ice to my car, and then into the cottage! 

Only after it was safely ensconced there did I remove my jacket to survey the damage to my elbow. It was swollen and I could only bend it a little without excruciating pain, so I got a lift to the ER where I spent the next three hours getting xrays, a CT scan, a splint, and - only at the very end - pain pills! Sadists.

I saw the orthopedic doctor yesterday, who said surgery isn't required nor recommended at this point, and to my delight neither is a cast. He removed my splint, repositioned my elbow to bring the bone ends closer to together, and put me in a new splint that now allows me the somewhat awkward use of my fingers for typing. Which is good, since I'm not allowed to do anything else with my right hand and arm for 2-3 weeks, and at least permitted me to put this post together. He also had the xray tech put my elbow xrays on a disc for me so I could post one of them here (for ABC Wednesday tomorrow, which is the letter "E" - how perfectly did I orchestrate my pratfall, and how dedicated a blogger am I? LOL), but since my iMac can't make heads nor tails out of the disc contents, I thought I'd just post this update today and take the opportunity to wish you all a very.... 

And be careful out there, those of you in wintery lands!

ABC Wednesday: Critters

Happy February, the month of Cupid and candy hearts. Seems a perfect chance to use this week's ABC Wednesday to celebrate a sweet subject close to my heart: critters!

A huge fenced section of Kendrick Park (the park across the creek from our rented cottage) is home to a few bison and elk. While they sometimes choose to congregate close to the park's swimming pool, I most love to climb the big hill to see them in their favorite pasture near the Kendrick Mansion, where the Big Horn Mountains provide a majestic backdrop befitting such majestic creatures...

Bull elk

American bison

Even closer to home, this cutie-pie squirrel in our backyard captured my attention while I was photographing the waxwings and robins for last week's post. The squirrels are certainly cooperative photo subjects who clearly relish the attention!

And especially near and dear to my heart is my charming, captivating, comical and cherished chum Punky. These are the last photos I took of her before we closed on our house in the mountains last October and moved to town. We delighted in her calming and congenial company, and sure do miss her!

I think I could turn and live with animals,

they are so placid and self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long...

~ Walt Whitman

Carpe diem and go C more Cs at...

ABC Wednesday: Birds, Barns, Bling!

For this week's ABC Wednesday, I bring you a swarm of Bs!

From Beautiful Birds...

I looked out the window one morning last weekend and beheld a huge flock of birds in our two backyard juniper trees, breakfasting on juniper berries. They were so busy inside the dense evergreens, bouncing from branch to branch, that it took me a bit to identify them. They were Cedar Waxwings and Bohemian Waxwings - the first I ever recall seeing!

They were very bashful, taking flight (and refusing to return) whenever I stepped outside to photograph them. So I took these through the kitchen windows, and was pleasantly surprised by the results...

Cedar Waxwing on a juniper branch

Bohemian Waxwing

An unintended action shot as a Cedar Waxwing barged in

on the bigger Bohemian Waxwing I was photographing!

A beautiful Bohemian Waxwing

A large flock of robins had also appeared, and were gobbling up the berries that were falling at the base of the trees. (We never saw robins back in Big Horn until March!)

This robin reminds me of Michael Smith's brilliant photo,

The Mad Bluebird!

One robin in particular amused me with his unique, bustling style of berry-hunting among the dead leaves...

To Bodacious Barns...

A beautiful barn on Beaver Creek Road

benefits from its Big Horn Mountains backdrop

An historic barn, no doubt bewildered by its new surroundings:

a golf course, businesses, and new housing developments.

And lastly, some Birthday Bling!...

A closeup of a bit of my very blingy birthday gift,

bestowed by my blogging bud Barbara in Old Blighty,

back on the "big day" earlier this month.

Know what it is? Leave your best guess in a comment,

the answer will be revealed in this very spot tomorrow!

(Barbara and AdventureJo, already knowing the answer,

must recuse themselves from the guessing game!) ;-)

And here's the answer...

How do you like my "special effects?" :-)

Bravo, Rose, you guessed correctly! Barbara's blingy birthday bestowal is indeed a pen, beautifully bedecked with blossoms, beads and jingle bells, no less! :-) She's not sure if it's from India, but she said the shop where she bought it carries a lot of fair trade items, so it very well could be.

Now be a good do-bee and go behold more Bs at...

Here There Be Dragons!

Happy Chinese New Year, and welcome to the year of the Black Water Dragon! (The Year of the Dragon doesn't actually begin for 12 days, on Feb 4, but since most folks mark the start of the new animal zodiac today, I don't want to feel left out!)

Dragons in Chinese lore represent power from heaven. A dragon year is ambitious (often overly so), daring, and unpredictable (but aren't they all?), a year when successes and failures are magnified, though the water element that goes with this cycle's Dragon year will soften things, making it a more empathetic and compassionate year.

I got up very early yesterday to start working on this post. When BW - who was not consciously aware we were about to begin the Year of the Dragon, and like me had no idea it was specifically the year of the Black Water Dragon - got up and joined me, I told him what I was working on. He gaped at me (like a gaping thing, as my friend Barbara would say!) and then told me about the dream he'd had that night...

In the dream, BW was standing on the bowsprit of a large (perhaps 60 foot) sailboat that was slowly motoring rather than sailing down a narrow, gently winding river overhung with a canopy of huge trees on either bank. There was a handful of other unidentified people on the boat with BW. As the boat came around a bend, BW saw a huge black salamander, twice as long as an alligator, swim past the boat, going in the opposite direction, just below where BW was standing. The captain at the helm called out, "Water dragon!" and the dream ended.

Hmmm.... :-)

I thought that in honor of this new lunar year, I'd share a favorite book with you: Dragonology!

I originally bought this book in 2003 for AdventureJo's daughter Melissa for Christmas. But when it arrived, I had a very hard time parting with it and ended up buying one for myself a few months later. Want to take a peek inside?

As you can see, the illustrations are beautiful...

(I chose this colorful page to photograph at random,

noticing later that the dragon on the right is a Chinese lung,

which swims rather than flies

and is associated with all types of water!)

... and it's filled with wonderful specimens any dedicated Dragonologist might find in his or her pursuit and study of this mystical creature. Like shed dragon skin....

...and dragon glitter (often found on the walls of their lairs)...

We learn about the lifecycles of dragons (European dragons live an estimated 300 years, but no one knows how long Chinese dragons live!), about their nests (they needn't be soft, but do have to be warm), and such handy tips as:

1. Do not release young dragons into the sewer systems of large cities (or, I would think, cities of any size!)

2. Don't leave children and hungry dragons alone

3. Dragons are innate hoarders, so hide all shiny or valuable objects!

The dragon's eye, which can see across many parts of the light spectrum and spot a valuable gem from 6000 feet (not unlike most women, lol), will always reflect the image of a true Dragonmaster. Look closely and you can see a little of my photo-taking self reflected in this one's eye! ;-)

I was born to catch dragons in their dens

And pick flowers

To tell tales and laugh away the morning

To drift and dream like a lazy stream

And walk barefoot across sunshine days.

~James Kavanaugh

BW's day began with promise, when he was offered the day off. So we'll be celebrating with our favorite vegan dishes from our favorite local Chinese restaurant! How will you be inviting dragon magic into your day?

ABC Wednesday: A is for Architecture

In celebration of the first week of a new round of ABC Wednesday, here are some lovely Architectural details on a few historic homes and buildings here in Sheridan that I photographed recently...

Now an attorney's office, this was originally one of Sheridan's first banks, built in 1894. You can still make out the faded (or was there a feeble attempt to erase it?) lettering on top that says Bank of Commerce...

A closeup of some of the old bank building's Beaux Arts details...

Regular readers of my blog may recall my referring to Trail End (aka Kendrick Mansion), just a short and lovely hike up the hill from our cottage, in past posts. Constructed during the years 1908-1913, the exterior was built in the Flemish Revival style with Neoclassical details. Threatened in 1968 with being torn down to make space for condominiums (!!!), it was rescued by the Sheridan County Historical Society with donations and loans. Now an authentically furnished and decorated museum on four beautiful acres, all under the care of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, here's the front of the grand dame in all her glory...

Click here for more history and photos of the home & grounds

And here are some of her architectural details, set off against a perfect January sky...

I'm sure a block of circa 1968 condos would have been a thing of beauty too (<-- withering sarcasm), but notice, just for instance, how the top of the downspout was made to match the dental molding just above it...

One of Kendrick Mansion's Neoclassical details, the scrolled capital of an Ionic column...

I've always admired this unusual dormer on one of Sheridan's stately homes on historic "Residence Hill"...

(Click here to see the rest of the house)

The lovely Victorian details on another stately old Sheridan home, this one built in 1895 on over an acre by the creek just a few blocks from downtown...

This home happens to currently be on the market,

so you can see more photos of it, inside and out, here!

And be sure to visit ABC Wednesday,

to Applaud Another Auspicious Alternation of ABCs! :-)

Come on in! (Part 2)

Well, once again it's taken me longer than I anticipated ~ these "open houses" are a lot of work! :-) But I'm finally ready to resume and conclude our tour of Dragonfly Cottage (with a few decor side-trips), starting with the tall and wide - but boring - hallway. :-) The master bedroom is to our back, the kitchen entrance and half bath (behind the closed door and too small to photograph effectively) are on the right, and the main bath and the linen/laundry closet is to our left. That's the tiny second bedroom at the end of the hall, which we're using as an office (as always, click on the photos for larger versions)...

I'm not sure if other people use kites as window treatments, but it works for me! It's very pretty when the southern sun shines through my butterfly kite. (Besides, I had nowhere else to store it!) The bookcase is our most recent, and final, furniture purchase, and I consider it my other birthday gift from BW since I have always wanted a bookcase I can take with me (not a built-in I have to leave behind someday!) This one is made of mango wood, and matches the new desk we bought last fall...

(Iain & Sophie - if you click on this photo,

you'll be able to see your wedding photo!) :-)

Here's decor side trip #1: if you clicked on the photo, you may have noticed the tea party scene in the display case on the bottom shelf. That is my favorite scene from one of my favorite books, so when I was in college my mother commissioned it from a pair of local Maine artists who created scenes on driftwood using carved wood figures covered in dyed corn husks, had my dad build the case for it, and they gave it to me as a Christmas gift...

(Notice the set of books displayed beside it?)

This next photo, taken just inside the office door, isn't very interesting but I'm including it as a teaser because on the dresser (one of my first furniture purchases when I was a brand new grown up in my first apartment) is another of my mother's miniature scenes: a one-room schoolhouse decorated for Halloween. She just sent it home with me during my last visit in November, and I plan to feature it in its own post next October. So you'll just have to wait till then to see closeups of all the goodies ~ neener, neener! ;-)

And here's where all my blogging action (such as it is, lol) takes place ~ at my beloved iMac on the mango desk that matches the bookcase...

(See anything familiar on the desk, Rose?) ;-)

The east-facing transom window above the desk, which frames some beautiful sun and moon rises...

Okay, I know most of you are just acting politely interested while it's the kitchen you're most curious to see (it's always kitchens for me too!) So here's our kitchen as you enter from the hallway...

See the illuminated grapes in the basket atop the refrigerator? I ordered them as a housewarming gift to myself shortly after we moved in (not knowing or caring if rentals warrant housewarming gifts to oneself!), with the intention of putting them in that big empty space above the windows. But they looked awkward there, in part because the grape bunches hang 9" below the vine ~ and the vine had just one lone grape leaf on it! So we used it and some artificial grapevines I already had to decorate the basket, and it's now up to that lone wooden folk-art chicken to do his best to liven up the big space above the windows. :-)

The 5-burner Wolf gas range may be our favorite feature in this house. We really love cooking on gas...

Here's a closeup of the stained glass chicken light in the corner. A holdover from the days when our kitchen and dining room were decorated entirely in chickens (an amusing but long story), I've had it so long I can't even remember when or where I got it. But it always gets pride of place in our kitchen, despite our switch a few years ago to a Tuscan-themed decor...

Where the cookbook shelves are (with the living room just beyond) is where the original chimney used to be. Well, it's still there, just not in use and now sheetrocked over with the shelves added. I love the shelves, but wish they'd left the old exposed brick! (I love old exposed brick in a house, especially in a kitchen!) That double oven is the one whose timer tried to trick me into burning my mishap muffins, and to the right of it is an under-counter roll-out island that BW likes to use when he makes bread and pizza dough...

Backing up a bit we find ourselves in the dining area, too small for a regular dining set so we bought this fun pub table. Both the bedroom/office and this dining area are part of a new addition, so neither has the 9' ceilings of the rest of the house...

Here's a closeup of the plaque between the dining area and kitchen...

"Live well, love often, laugh a lot"

This piece of cherry furniture, which I designed and had custom made many years ago to hold all our stereo equipment and CDs, has been repurposed since we got rid of all our stereo equipment during our downsizing. Here it comes in very handy for storing kitchen gadgets like food processors, waffle iron and popcorn popper, and makes a nice display area since it's the first thing you see when you walk in the back door. I fell in love with the old mirror on the wall to the right during our first visit to Red Lodge, MT in the early 90's but talked myself out of buying it, then had the opposite of buyer's remorse when we got back home. So I called the store and had them ship it, kicking myself black and blue for the additional expense but never regretting for a moment that I went ahead and bought it...

Preferring how I had the erstwhile stereo cabinet decorated for Autumn (and for Christmas, too, but failing to photograph it then - how did that happen?), I'm including this photo. I intended to continue displaying the pheasant painting (done by my mother on a piece of slate that fell off a neighbor's roof in a storm), but can't for the life of me find it since putting it away when I decorated for Christmas! (I'm certain this has more to do with living in a tiny space requiring creative storage uses than with advancing age!)...

And here's the dining area with the kitchen to our backs. To the right of the pub table is one of my least favorite features of this house, the trap door to the tiny cellar (which used to be the house's coal storage room, back in the day). Very heavy and awkward to raise and lower, it inconveniently requires two people to open it, and going down the narrow wooden steps with that heavy beast propped up against the wall above your head can be nerve-wracking. So we only store stuff down there that we need access to no more than once a month, since BW has to go down there that often to change the furnace filter...

The back door leads to a covered deck where the dogs often like to sit on hot days, and this is where our tour concludes! Thank you so much for coming to visit! Willow and Josie are already waiting by the back gate in eager anticipation of your return! :-)