Yummy!

God bless our loving neighbors who gave us this amazing apple pie! It was a special teatime treat today (And we look forward to enjoying it the rest of this week!)! Charles had presented one of his giant pencils (8') to our youngest neighbor and this was our thanks!

Autumn is here!

We're enjoying a nice stretch of weather during the first week of autumn.

 

Art in the outdoors

 

Charles spent his Saturday at the Avalon Drive-thru Art Festival! He was among the sixty artists with "booths" displaying all manner of creations. Charles managed to sell five of his eight foot long "pencils" which was a real treat!!

A wee bit of excitement

While Charles was across town with the exciting art event, Belinda and our neighbors had some excitement of their own: bears! The house that is next to the church parking lot was the scene of some commotion when a mother black bear and two cubs dropped out of a nearby tree!! We don't know for certain how the bears were released (or by whom), but it goes to show that there are good reasons that the trash bins have bear locks on them.

Another Zoom?

Wesley has been a good sport (mostly) concerning all of the Zoom meetings we've been attending over the past six months.
 

Another project

In what we are thinking is the final big outdoor project (of course, we've said this before), we painted the front porch this week, a nice shade called "toasted cinnamon."

The show in progress

Charles has two of his paintings in this week's annual Boulder Art Association exhibition at the R Gallery in Boulder.

The two paintings are: (upper right) "Impromptu" and (lower left) "Nebula #6"
 

A busy summer

This is the list of what we accomplished at the church and parsonage this summer:

June: +Mowed/cleaned back of church (path side) and between playground Mary Sandoe House. +Trimmed treetops by Franz Hall entry. +Painted curb along the Grinnell Ave. entrance. +Put down one ton of gravel in front of church (by the main entrance) and along office side (beneath office windows). +Painted cross by corner sign and the St. Paul’s name on the building. +Replaced and painted church mailbox. +Placed artificial flowers in corner sign planters, Franz Hall planters, front entrance planters, and by the mailbox. +Began trimming large tree at the personage (arranged for pro to complete). +Put down ten yards of mulch at parsonage. +Put down three yards of gravel in the parsonage backyard (refreshed a path). +Put down eight yards of mulch in parking lot islands. +Trimmed all trees in parking lot. +Trimmed trees on the church lawn – up to ladder’s limit and took seven pickup loads of branches to Western Disposal. 

July: +Cleared overgrowth alongside the sidewalk leading to Mary Sandoe House, removing more than 2,100 lbs. of brush. +Edged along sidewalk. +Power-washed and repainted outside of the parsonage.

August: +Cleared parking lot of weeds +Painted parking lot stripes (sixty-eight spaces). +Painted six handicapped spaces (using stencil). +Painted two speed humps (one by office, one leading to Mary Sandoe House). +Cleared weedy patch in front of the parsonage, put down landscape fabric and five tons of rock.

September: +Removed rotten wood (thirty years old) from the drains (in between the bushes on the parking lot side of Franz Hall). Replaced wood with fresh, stained wood. +Removed fallen branches at the parsonage & church following snowfall. 

+Repainted signs located at both drive entrances. +Placed autumn flowers in church planters. +Repainted cross (Gillaspie/Grinnell). +Removed/took to the curb, large amount of branches from Mary Sandoe House (from the September snowfall). +Painted front porch at the parsonage.

Quick projects

"Piet in de tuin" (Peter in the garden)

"Mondrian does Tetris"

Charles had fun this week with two Mondrian-inspired  projects. The first project used used three old hand tools left over from last year's church yard sale. The second project used scrap wood from his Labor Day project at the church. 

Almost autumn

With Wednesday's snowfall in the rear view mirror, it was time to take advantage of the pleasant weather and prepare the church and parsonage for the coming of autumn!

Last snow of the summer!

And the cat sleeps on...

The snow starts to accumulate Tuesday afternoon

Cleaning up the debris from the storm

On Monday, we had temperature over 94°, by Tuesday, it had dropped to 34°. A steady rain Tuesday morning turned to ice in the afternoon and more than 4.5" of snow fell before Wednesday morning.  Charles spent some time this afternoon cleaning up the downed branches in the back yard.

One last project

There was time for Charles to tackle one more project before tomorrow’s snow, replacing the rotten wood (30 years old) that was part of a French drain system. He got wood, cut the wood to size, stained the pieces, and then installed four sections at the church. 

This time he really does believe that this is the last outdoor project at the church and parsonage for the summer!

Pray for rain!

There are a number of fires here in Colorado including a major fire near Estes Park & Rocky Mountain National Park (about forty miles northwest of us). We had a dusting of ash this morning, bringing the seriousness of this event close to home!

A smoky Sunday

There are major fires burning in Colorado and even here in Boulder the smoke is heavy and some ash has been seen. After our online worship, Charles retired to the studio to work on several projects: working with scrap pieces of moulding; getting twenty-five donated pill bottles ready for painting; and having forty outlet covers on standby for painting this week.

A nice touch to the front garden

Belinda found a nice bench to go into the new rock area in the front of the house. Charles changed the look from black to teal and added some color to the leaves and roses with a nice result!

A great day!

Belinda surprised Charles today with an assortment of campaign buttons from the 2020 Democratic field!