Back again :)

Barrier Lake in the Kananaskis

South from the Highwood Pass

Well, so much for those good intentions to post often ....... Suffice to say that we've been having some glorious fall weather here in the West, with not too much wind - here's a photo of where we went on a short drive one day  .......  We took along a picnic and enjoyed the fall colours and warm weather - very little traffic either, as we were able to travel on a Monday.  The only wildlife we saw up close was a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep who would have put his head into the car if we'd left the windows open - he was obviously quite accustomed to tourists.



Driving this highway over the Highwood Pass reminded us of a trip that we took there almost 40 years ago - this was just a gravel road then, and there were frequent signs warning of logging trucks.  But the beauty and magnificence of the mountains are still the same, and being away from the busier highway north of Banff is definitely a plus, at least in our books.

We decided at the Highwood Pass that we wouldn't go for the short hike into the surrounding Alpine meadows - this sign really decided for us. 

Entrance to the Ptarmigan Cirque/Highwood Meadows trail.

On this trip, though, we didn't see any bears - a few years ago, we were fortunate enough to see two grizzlies on one day, and even more fortunate to be seeing them at a distance and from inside the car!


I'm making fair progress on my stitching as well.  My major project of the past month or so has been Heart Note Alley, a design from Kathy Bungard of Gracewood Stitches.  I plan to finish this as a wall hanging, but haven't found quite the perfect backing fabric yet.  I loved the colours and the motifs on this one, especially  knowing something of the background for the design, the love of perfumes and scents.  Kathy outlines this on her blog - you can read of its inspiration here.

 
  I stitched this one on an antique white linen - I believe it was a 28 count.  And my threads were cottons from DMC, as I may want to wash this at some time. 

I've also stitched Sanctuary and Acorn Patch from Gracewood Stitches, and I'm currently choosing threads for Coromandel, a design based on the Oriental screens that Coco Chanel had in her own apartment in Paris - I plan to stitch it on black linen with a gold silk.  Also in my "must stitch" stack is Hortulus, a woodcut-inspired design - I have the thread for this one, but no fabric yet. 

On my frame at the moment is Monasterium's Four Seasons Quaker - I'll show photos of that next time, as well as a small framed piece from Kreinik.