Tales from Kobi: On the road ... to Hugo

I wanted to tell this story, but Mom decided it was best she do it, especially since I spent a lot of the time sleeping in the back seat or waiting in the car while she took pictures, but she said I could make the introduction.

As you will see below, she put a bunch of pictures together in a journal about the trip we took last Wednesday. We did go for a walk at the Coulson Nature Trail. That was a good time.

It was a good trip and on the way home I got a treat. We stopped at a friend of Mom's and I got to play with two of my own kind for several hours. I hadn't seen Jack, the chocolate poodle for quite some time, and now there was Gidget, a Chihuahua mix. What a blast!

If you would like to download the pdf of all seven pages, click here. If you do that you can enlarge the pictures and see the type larger too.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you had a great weekend!

Walk and Click Wednesdays #4: CHANGING

Things are changing all around ... and inside of us ... small things, big things. As the season changes from summer to autumn flowers and leaves die. Flowers turn brown, leaves turn gold and red and brown. They have their own beauty in this stage.

Texture thanks to Kim Klassen: Grunge

I have often wondered then why we don't see the beauty in the death of our loves ones. How does one make that leap? How can we possibly see beauty when we grieve our loss? It occurs to me that a reason we don't grieve the loss of summer or even autumn is because we will see it come around again next year. We know we won't see our loved ones return next year, at least in the way we've known them. But, you see, the beauty of the flowers and the trees isn't the same either. Even perennials don't have exactly the same blossoms. They may look similar, but not the same. Is it possible our loved ones just appear in a different way after their physical bodies are no longer present? We might experience them in a breeze, the warmth of the sun, or a memory.

Texture thanks to Kim Klassen: Grunge

I also wonder why I haven't seen the loss of my job so clearly. Although I know my season was over at my last job, this latest season of dormancy continues. I'm waiting for the blossoms eagerly and am finding that I must wait and watch for signs of life. I must pay attention to what brings pleasure and the rest will follow. Is grieving the loss of a job any different than grieving the loss of a loved one?

If you've made it this far, are you uncomfortable? Our society quivers like the loosening leaves in fall when talking about loss and change, and especially death. But we all endure it. We all make it through. I wonder if we were to view our personal losses the same as we view the changes of seasons if it might be easier--if we would see the delays, the waiting, as simply part of the process that takes its own time.

Regardless, I find beauty in shuffling out of my house and delight in the colors. I hope you do too. I look forward to seeing what you found changing along you strolls this week.

PROMPT for NEXT WEEK - 10/3/12:

For those who like a prompt, let's look for some RED. Again, this is a good time of year to find red leaves ... but I wonder what else you might discover that is red along your walks. Let's see what comes up for us this week.

Please keep in mind these prompts are just to get you walking ... and thinking ... taking pictures. If they don't work for you, don't let that stop you. Share what you get! Until next week, keep walking and clicking! ;->

Walk and Click Wednesdays (WCW) Guidelines:

Are you new to Walk and Click Wednesdays? The party will open on Wednesday and close on Saturday.

Here are just a few guidelines to keep everyone on target.

• Please link directly to your WCW blog post or the specific flickr image, not to your main blog url or flickr stream url. Please do not link to an online shop.
• Please link back to laf Custom Designs. I'd love it if you'd share my WCW button on your blog (it's over there on the sidebar--see it?--just under the Friends Who Love It Here icons). It will also serve as a reminder to you since I know you all have a lot going on in your lives.
• Please visit the other WCW participants and share the love. Gotta get this party goin' on.

Have a great weekend and find some time to walk and click. ;->
See you all soon!

Walk and Click Wednesdays #3: PUBLIC ART

Welcome to Walk and Click Wednesdays #3: Public Art. I hope you had fun on your walk this week ... Walking down main street in Lafayette, Colorado, I discovered some pieces of public art I hadn't noticed before. Some pieces where so big you couldn't miss them, but others were small enough that they just seemed to pop out as I walked. I would have missed some that I actually liked. Now, that's an interesting point too ... I didn't say you had to like it ... just go see if you could find some. Until I took an Arts and Culture: History and Context course during my Master's program, I didn't even realize we had public art. Since then, I've discovered each municipality actually has a program in place to bring art to the attention of their constituents. Some pieces are actually indoors ... like in the City Hall, but lots of it is displayed outdoors ... lots of bronze, steel, or stone creations.

Sky Dance by J. Lucas Loeffler ~ donated to the City of Lafayette

April Charm by DeeDee Morrison ~ $50,000

Sundial by Ted Schaal ~ $3800

Chickadee by Louise Peterson ~ $20,000

Imagination by J. Lucas Loeffler ~ $40,000

Rusty by Doyle Svenby

I think my favorite is Imagination ... oh how fun it would be to sit on the moon and read a book ... any book ... and not have a care in the world! I hope you had fun looking for public art in your location. I'm looking forward to seeing what you found ... what you liked ... what you didn't like. ;-> If you didn't find public art, no worries, as long as you walked, discovered something new, and took pictures ... it's all good. PROMPT for NEXT WEEK - 9/26/12: For those who like a prompt, let's find something CHANGING. Of course, this is a good time of year to see things changing ... leaves are the obvious, but I'm wondering what else is changing during this time of year. Let's see what comes up for use this week. Please keep in mind these prompts are just to get you walking ... and thinking ... taking pictures. If they don't work for you, don't let that stop you. Share what you get! Until next week, keep walking and clicking! ;-> Walk and Click Wednesdays (WCW) Guidelines: Are you new to Walk and Click Wednesdays? The party will open on Wednesday and close on Saturday. Here are just a few guidelines to keep everyone on target.

• Please link directly to your WCW blog post or the specific flickr image, not to your main blog url or flickr stream url. Please do not link to an online shop.
• Please link back to laf Custom Designs. I'd love it if you'd share my WCW button on your blog (it's over there on the sidebar--see it?--just under the Friends Who Love It Here icons). It will also serve as a reminder to you since I know you all have a lot going on in your lives.
• Please visit the other WCW participants and share the love. Gotta get this party goin' on.

Have a great weekend and find some time to walk and click. ;-> See you all soon!

Decadent Delectables: Banana Custard Crepes

I made crepes for the first time yesterday! (Crepe Recipe) And mmmm, yummy ... they were so good warm out of the pan with melted butter and sugar. Since I had so many more than I could eat in one sitting, or would be prudent to do so at least, I refrigerated the leftovers and had a "light bulb moment" this morning ... I had bananas and I made some homemade custard last night (Custard Recipe), so I created a delectable dessert, which I had for breakfast!! Voila, Banana Custard Crepes. Of course, you can use packaged vanilla pudding or custard as well. UPDATE: I like this Vanilla Pudding Recipe better ... EXCEPTION: add 2 egg yolks ... stir in warm milk very slowly ... you don't want to cook the egg; then pour back into sauce pan and heat until thickened. This is a little sweeter than the custard recipe, so adjust sugar to your desire.

Use fresh out of the pan or off the griddle crepes or microwave a refrigerated crepe for 15 seconds. They can be served cold, but I like warming them up first.

Place a couple tablespoons of custard in a line near edge of crepe.

Place slices of banana on top of custard.

Drizzle a light line of chocolate syrup on top of bananas.

Roll the custard, banana, and chocolate in the crepe. Drizzle chocolate syrup for a beautiful presentation.

Serve one, two, or three! ;-> Yummy! Great for entertaining as everything can be prepared in advance. They could even be set up as a self-serve buffet with a variety of fruit since vanilla custard is versatile. Experiment. Have fun. Thanks for visiting. Have a great crepe day, my friends.

Walk and Click Wednesdays #2: YELLOW

Background: Kim Klassen's stampedright1

For some reason, it felt as though this day would never get here. I'm so excited to see your "yellow" images. I do want to emphasize though that although I will offer a prompt each week, it is not required as I am a believer in discovery ... sometimes you miss what's there on your walk when you're looking for something that might not be. So please explore ... discover ... and share. Ok, I'm sure I don't have to tell you all that walking is good for you and much easier and fun than a gym! But, if you want and need more info, you can find such benefits as heart health, deflecting diabetes, weight loss, and more on MedTV's website. If you like my little multi-colored paw prints on a circle, you can learn how to do the multi-color variation from Katrina's YouTube video. I just used a paw print brush instead of dots. I learned how to do dots on a shape in a single color from Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers. Now for my trip to Waneka Lake in search of YELLOW.

As I drove to Waneka Lake I was attuned to seeing yellow and at the first light I saw this car ... I think it's a Mitsubishi, but don't quote me. My son would laugh at me for not knowing! Scott works for Toyota and seems to know all makes and models. ;->

This cafe, Cannon Mine Coffee, which I used to frequent when I first moved to Colorado, has a very colorful rainbow mural. On weekends, they have live music. It's been quite a while since I've been there. I really should check it out again since it's so close to home.

I've always thought it was neat that this rainbow leans against a local elementary school. It makes me smile and I can't help but think the young children who go there have it pretty special. The rainbow needs repainting though ... maybe I should go volunteer to do that!

A concrete parking curb isn't terribly exciting, but I made myself get down low to capture a different perspective. Don't forget to look at things from different angles.

This is totally staged. I would love to tell you Kobi climbed to the top of the slide, dropped Wilson, and then slid down too, but that just isn't the way it happened. Fun pic though!

The flowers are beginning to wane, but I still managed to find these ... hmmm, they look like weeds!! Upon doing some research, I believe they might be a Gumweed Plant. They are quite a pretty shock of color even though the heat is having its way with most of the wild flowers.

And yes, fall is beginning to show its petticoats. Still some time until most of the trees change their colors completely, but its coming. This is my favorite season of all. Thanks to all for joining me here. I love to learn about new sights, see what you have discovered as you walk, and have a chance to pull up chair and share. I hope you've enjoyed YELLOW! PROMPT for NEXT WEEK - 9/19/12: For those who like a prompt, let's find some public art. Walk down the main street in your town, go to the nearest city, or if you live in the country, find something that looks like art. Here in Colorado, many of the cities have walking paths that feature outdoor art. It's wonderful! Maybe this will give you an excuse to visit a part of your surroundings you've never seen. Don't forget Google ... my smartest friend ... search for "public art near [your town/city]." Please keep in mind these prompts are just to get you walking ... and thinking ... taking pictures. If they don't work for you, don't let that stop you. Share what you get! Until next week, keep walking and clicking! ;-> Walk and Click Wednesdays (WCW) Guidelines: Are you new to Walk and Click Wednesdays? The party will open on Wednesday and close on Saturday. Here are just a few guidelines to keep everyone on target.

• Please link directly to your WCW blog post or the specific flickr image, not to your main blog url or flickr stream url. Please do not link to an online shop.
• Please link back to laf Custom Designs. I'd love it if you'd share my WCW button on your blog (it's over there on the sidebar--see it?--just under the Friends Who Love It Here icons). It will also serve as a reminder to you since I know you all have a lot going on in your lives.
• Please visit the other WCW participants and share the love. Gotta get this party goin' on.

Have a great weekend and find some time to walk and click. ;-> See you all soon!

Tales from Kobi: Waneka Lake

Mom took me with her to look for "yellow" for her Walk and Click Wednesdays this week (look for those soon), so we went to a local walking path around Waneka Lake. The water is a bit low and the mountains are hiding behind a bit of a haze due to more fires in Wyoming. It's still fun to get out and do a little walking.

Those of you in Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers ... do you notice mom's "dots" around a shape? She used little pup-paw prints instead of dots and in this picture they look a bit like little clouds, don't you think?

... but you can see them better here in the circle around me. How fun! That tennis ball I have in my mouth ... I found that on the trail. It got hotter than we expected though, so I kept dropping it on the path. At one point it fell down in a dry tributary from the lake and Mom went down there to recover it for me. She also carried it part of the way because my air conditioner wasn't working too well with my mouth full!!

Ahhhh ... this grass was so nice and cool -- a rest with Wilson as I watched some kids play on the playground. They have so much fun. Wish I could swing or slide down the bumpy slide. You'll see that soon in the focus on yellow. Hope you all had as great a weekend as I did. When I got home I got a great big drink of water and slept the afternoon away. It's the only way to live. See you soon, my friends. Kobi

Walk and Click Wednesdays: Prompt for Next Week

I'm getting myself organized and will be posting prompts in my Walk and Click Wednesdays posts in the future, but to bridge the gap, I just wanted to post a note that NEXT week's prompt is YELLOW. It doesn't have to be a flower. Feel free to be creative!

I'm also posting to LeAnne's Flower Art Friday #20, since I actually HAVE a flower to post! I do take pictures of flowers, but like to take a variety of images; hence, I haven't been a regular in her lovely collection.

The Walk and Click Wednesdays party will open on Wednesday and close on Saturday. It's wonderful to see the thumbnails light up with one color. I first experienced this when Kim Klassen did color prompts for her Texture Tuesday.

Walk and Click Wednesdays (WCW) Guidelines:

Are you new to Walk and Click Wednesdays?

Here are just a few guidelines to keep everyone on target.

• Please link directly to your WCW blog post or the specific flickr image, not to your main blog url or flickr stream url. Please do not link to an online shop.
• Please link back to laf Custom Designs. I'd love it if you'd share my WCW button on your blog (it's over there on the sidebar--see it?--just under the Friends Who Love It Here icons). It will also serve as a reminder to you since I know you all have a lot going on in your lives.
• Please visit the other WCW participants and share the love. Gotta get this party goin' on.

Have a great weekend and find some time to walk and click. ;-> See you all soon!

Walk and Click Wednesdays #1: Join the linky party!

Welcome to the very first Walk and Click Wednesday linky party! Yay! I finally got my ideas connected to my actions. I sure hope lots of you will join in.

We all know that walking is good for both our physical and mental health. I don't know about you, but it makes it a whole lot more fun for me to get exercise when I'm out looking for nature treats. You could just walk outside your house and click away, but my hope is that you'll go a bit farther than that. Find new walking paths in your neighborhood or county or state. Explore your neighborhood. Find public art displays. If you live in Colorado, particularly the Denver metro/Boulder County area, feel free to follow me as I post where I've been.

The party will open on Wednesday and close on Saturday with the idea that most of you will have more time on weekends to get out, then have some time to process your photos.

If you're ready to link up, just move on down to the end of the post for the guidelines and linkup.

In the meantime, here's a little bit about my Labor Day adventure.

I tend to get a late start ... unlike my mother who would wake everyone at 3AM so we could be on the road by 4AM and stop for breakfast by 7AM. There are definite advantages of waiting until noon, as I did yesterday, to get on the road. As you can see in the photo below, the opposing traffic was a virtual parking lot! I suspect they were all heading home to "beat the rush" at 1:15pm!

I was actually on my way to Granby Lake in Colorado, but found an interesting detour that went to a place called Jones Pass. I didn't make it there either as I stopped at a little picnic area at Big Bend to visit the outhouse. As I returned to my car a young lady named Angela asked if I knew of any nice paths for dog walking. Hark! Do I hear an invitation? I said I didn't, but she had maps and I got my bearings and gave her some direction, then asked if she minded if Kobi and I joined her. Not a problem. We drove in tandem to Butler Gulch Trailhead and ended up taking "the road less traveled" ... a little path that followed the creek. We missed the mine and historical sites of the "real" path, but we enjoyed our adventure nonetheless.

I loved the discoveries on the ground. Mushrooms, berries, moss. It's fun to get down low sometimes.

Angela and her teenaged son, Ashanti, and Angela's sister, Ebony were such pleasant hiking companions. Their Aussie, Cory and Kobi just had a hay day running, playing, and splashing in the creek. As you can see, Kobi is ready for another bath! It doesn't take much.

We parted with smiles and promises to exchange pictures and I drove on toward Jones Pass. I didn't get far when I discovered a really nice pull-over (lay-by in British terms) where I wandered beside the creek, had a snack, and listened to the rush of the water, which always clears my mind. On the way back down the mountain I stopped to take some pictures of the early changing leaves. Aren't they gorgeous already?

And finally, Kobi was fast asleep in the back seat in a matter of minutes as we headed back toward the puffy white clouds. Homeward bound. By the way, I also missed the traffic on the way home!

Background texture thanks to Kim Klassen: Phoebe.

Walk and Click Wednesday (WCW) Guidelines are:

Since we're all new to this here, you can link up a favorite easy-peasy image or mosaic of images you took on a walk this week. And in the future you can plan in advance--a great excuse to put your shoes and socks on and get out the door! I also plan to get ahead of this and start posting some prompts as well.

Are you new to Walk and Click Wednesdays? Here are just a few guidelines to keep everyone on target.

• Please link directly to your WCW blog post or the specific flickr image, not to your main blog url or flickr stream url. Please do not link to an online shop.
• Please link back to laf Custom Designs. I'd love it if you'd share my WCW button on your blog (it's over there on the sidebar--see it?--just under the Friends Who Love It Here icons). It will also serve as a reminder to you since I know you all have a lot going on in your lives.
• Please visit the other WCW participants and share the love. Gotta get this party goin' on.

Tales from Kobi: Eldorado Springs

Earlier this week, Mom and I went out to Eldorado Springs in the morning while it was still cool. When we arrived it was comfortably cool, about 72º. Even by 9:30 when we headed home it was already 85º. It was a nice walk though.

Eldorado Springs, a tiny town, nestled in a nook of the Rocky Mountains was shrouded by puffy white clouds. The rush of the South Boulder Creek invited me to sniff and explore, but Mom keeps me on a pretty tight leash because I love the water and it was moving pretty fast.

We sat for a little bit on a great big rock almost in the middle of the creek and the noise of the flow was loud. Mom likes that because it is soothing as it clears her mind of current concerns. I know she's going to be okay, but sometimes she worries. I know getting out and taking pictures is really good for her.

Click the image to see larger for more detail

After a bit, we wandered through the trees on a narrow path still near the creek. There were rock climbers' gear hanging from the walls of the canyon and they were preparing for their climb. Does anyone see the camel's head in the last rock formation. Looks like he's eating flowers. ;->

What fun we are having exploring new Colorado paths. There are so many here and discovering new vistas is so much fun. We hope to bring you more adventures, especially as fall approaches.

See you again soon. Kobi

Tales from Kobi: Me and Snoopy

One day my mom Googled "Snoopy" so she could draw a good likeness for Draw Something and found that Mim's Zoe Bear and Snoopy came up as the very first image. Ever since, I've been a little jealous, so I had Mom take a picture of me with her Snoopy, which she's had since she was fifteen! That was just a few years ago. LOL

Seems like a good way to start off the Labor Day weekend. I don't have much else to say this evening 'cept I was a little worried Snoopy was going to try to kiss me! Oh my. I don't know what I would have done.

Hope you all have a fabulous long weekend. Kobi

Mom had fun playing with Shadowhouse Creations' new overlays. Textures thanks to Kim Klassen: paperandpaste, jay. Linked o Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers.