COLORADO ROAD TRIP

#1 Capulan Mt. area in New Mexico, #2 Mountains close to Raton, New Mexico, #3 Spanish Peaks, Colorado. #4 is a rain storm over the Cuchara Valley going west from Walsenburg, Colorado,#5 is an Elk and #6 is the view out the cabin window with the hummingbird feeder. They would buz by us when we put the feeder out of a morning and they would drink the whole feeder in a day.

A BEAR Story......

Jim and Sandy Lile came on Monday to spend the week with us in Cuchara. After unloading and emptying the contents of their ice chest, it was left on the porch of the cabin. We all know to be careful with food and not leave any in the cars or outside the cabin because of the bears. Who would think about an "empty" ice chest. Sometime during the night, a bear checked out the ice chest. There was a block of ice still in it and the bear must of rattled it and became curious with the hope of something to eat in it. The next morning, the ice chest was found in the weeds a short distance from the cabin open with claw marks on the lid. Obviously the bear was not happy when he found ice in the ice chest. So, even though we did not see a bear, we have proof that one visited us with the evidence of a clawed up ice chest.

A Hummingbird Story.....

Another interesting story is about the swarming hummingbirds around the feeder we hung by the window. We enjoyed watching the hummers dive bomb each other and fight to get their turn at the feeder. One afternoon Phil went out to the feeder and decided to put his finger over the perch by one of the flowers where the birds sit to eat their fill of the sugar water. The little birds would sit on Phil's finger rather than the perch. It was fun to watch. Now we call Phil the "Hummingbird Man" !

This is my last post on our Colorado trip. It was very enjoyable and relaxing. Cuchara and Catherine's Cabin has a special place in our hearts and minds. We can recall cool mountain breezes, the smell of pine trees and the clear mountain lakes when life gets too hectic back at work and here in the hot Texas summer. Home is good but if we could choose our second home it would be in the Cuchara Valley close to the Spanish Peaks in Colorful Colorado!

Canvas by Canvas is painting a mini series of fishing flies and fishing lures. Take a look at these 6x6 squares with an assortment of eye-catching flies and lures. They would make great gifts for any fisherman in your family! http://www.canvasbycanvas.com/

To view more of Margie's art work, visit her webpage http://www.margiewhittington.com/

Thanks for letting me share our vacation and come back to see the next post on MW Murals and More of a mural or a painting or who knows what !

Be sure and scroll down to see Baby Jack in his Bear Hat and Slippers!!!!!!

Also, Ella's two year birthday party, "A Cupcake Tea Party"!!!!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

Colorado Rocky Mountain High

We are home from our week in Cuchara, Colorado. It was a fast but fun week of fishing, golfing, painting, hiking and spending time with our friends, Jim and Sandy Lile and our son, Jake, Helen our daughter in law and five month old Jack. We fished almost everyday and caught enough speckled and rainbow trout for a fish fry on Thursday evening. Along with the fish we had sweet corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes and fried potatoes with onions. Sandy and Jim brought fresh olive bread and rosemary bread to add to our feast. It was all delicious! We ended our days with rousing games of Farkle, a dice game or 42, a domino game. A good time was had by all. Our grandson, Jack was the entertainment for the week. He laughed, cooed and blew bubbles. He also learned to turn over from his back to his tummy. He was a joy and watching his parents with him was fun, too. We did miss our daughter and her family, Angie and Eddie, Andrew, Christopher and Ella. We still enjoy the memories of Andrew catching his first fish at Blue Lake and the fun times we have had with both grandsons in Colorado.

We painted in group on Sunday afternoon after church at the Cuchara Chapel Sunday morning and a lunch of spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. Do you get the impression we did not starve while in the mountains. I think altitude affects ones appetite. Helen, our daughter in law, had never painted in watercolor before. She has painted lots of walls. Her first watercolor was of sunflowers in the foreground and Gomer's Butte, a familiar landmark in the Cuchara Valley in the background. Phil painted a view of Blue Lake where we like to fish and Jake drew a still life of the wild flowers on the table. I started the painting above with an Elk standing in a meadow early in the morning with the Spanish Peaks behind him.

We were sad to leave early Saturday morning but it was good to get home to good ole hot Texas.
Check back to see drawings I did along the way as we drove through New Mexico and Colorado.

This is Jack in his bear hat and slippers. We didn't see any bear but we have proof that one visited outside our cabin one night. That story will be in another post on my blog. Don't miss the bear story!!!!


Be sure and check the Canvas by Canvas blog and see our Sassy Shoes, Cupcakes and a new series of Angels coming soon. Also a collection of fishing lures and fishing flies are in the works.
Don't miss our new recipe and food blog with paintings to illustrate the recipes.

http://www.canvasbycanvas.com/

http://www.margiewhittington.com/

http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/

Cuchara Colorado

Cuchara, Colorado is the place to be when it is hot in Texas! The paintings above are plein air paintings painted on the porch of a cabin where we stay in Cuchara. The Sunflower was drawn from a bouquet of fresh sunflowers picked outside the cabin sitting on our dining room table in Cuchara. If you look real close there is a little spider on one of the petals. Nothing extra for the spider! Fishing, hiking, golfing, plein air painting. We all do exactly what we want to do to pass the time during a relaxing week in the mountains of Colorado.

Come back to see more paintings and photos of Colorful Colorado.

Visit http://www.margiewhittington.com/ to view more of my paintings and http://www.canvasbycanvas.com/ to view collaborative paintings by a group of 11 artists of which I paint with.

Scroll down to see Ella's two year old birthday party........
A Cupcake Tea Party!

Check out my Slide Show!