There were still tons of Prairie Sunflowers in bloom along Hwy 60.
Hwy 61 takes you through mostly high prairie rather than juniper forest.
It loops through the little town of Concho and then turns east to St Johns.
At St. Johns (which is bigger than Concho but that’s not saying much) we turned south on Hwy 191 until we reached Lyman Lake State Park.
Lyman is a nice little lake that provides water to this area of high desert.
Here and there I spied Broomlike Ragwort (Senecio spartioides) in bloom.
And the Rubber Rabbitbush (Ericameria nauseosa) which we’d seen along the highway was in full bloom here.
We paid our day use fee and then drove around the lake and out to the Petroglyph Trail on the southeast side of the lake.
The trail takes you up a ways to give you a view of the lake (that’s the campground over just left of center across the lake).
Then you climb a little ways farther up the hillside and there are petroglyphs in the cliff side.
You also get another great view across the lake.
The trail goes down here and then follows the lakeside some more. It was getting hot so we turned around.
I got this shot of the next batch of petroglyphs along the trail with my telephoto lens.
There was Four-wing Saltbush (Atriplex canescens) along the way too.
We had our picnic lunch overlooking the lake and then explored the campground (they have lots of hook ups). From here we continued on south on Hwy 191 almost to Springerville where we turned west on Hwy 60 and looped our way back home. This wasn’t a stellar outing but it was still a good way to get away for the day.
That evening the Juniper Ridge Pottery Club had their annual party on The Patio at the Grand Lodge. This year it was a luau and the crew had a great time decorating. They had been hunting bargains all year in preparation for this event.
We all got leis and there were lots of Hawaiian shirts in evidence. There were Tiki torches but they wouldn’t let us light them.
And there was a young roast pig as the centerpiece of the dinner.
After resting for 1/2 hour (in which we ate appetizers including spam with pineapple) the pig was carved.
There were over 40 of us and we only managed to eat half of the pig. A good time was had by all.
The party ended at about 6:30 so most of the folks could go to the last Bingo Night of the season.
We went home to the sun lighting the tops of the billowing cumulus clouds.
Friday August 30th yet another load of lovely things came out of the kiln, including my goofy “May the Kiln Gods Be Kind” sign that I’d made when we were having so much trouble with the kiln.
I caught Eleanor unloading the kiln and managed to get a shot of it half empty.
Since we only have one kiln we fire mixed loads of both bisque ware and glazed ware.
One of our members made a large Christmas tree and gingerbread house last year and this year she’s making a whole village of trees and little gingerbread houses to go with it.
One of the other major artistic endeavors at Juniper Ridge is making Barn Quilts. Friday morning they had a poker run and handed out maps of all the barn quilts on display in the park. The winner of the poker run received this lovely barn quilt made by Sue, who teaches the Barn Quilt Class.
That afternoon, Walter and I set out (in the heat) to drive all the streets in the resort looking for the barn quilts. I missed at least 15 of them but I did manage to photograph over 80 of them.
People hang them on the sides of their houses.
And on the railings of their porches.
They mount them on their sheds.
And they hang them off of frames swinging in the wind.
They come in all sorts of styles.
And colors.
And they come in every theme imaginable.
They are tons of red, white and blue themed ones.
But they honor firefighters and veterans and Mickey and Minnie.
They are all geometric but many aren’t traditional quilt block patterns.
Sue assures everyone that you don’t need to be artistic or talented to make one.
But clearly there are lots of folks with a lot of talent who do them.
There are streets with just a few and others with 5 or 10.
And by the time I’d gotten in and out of the truck too many times to count, I was hot and tired and frankly didn’t care that I knew I’d missed a few.
On the last road, out on the back side of our lake there’s a house that has been decorated like at barn and labeled “The Unstable”.
It’s not a barn quilt but it’s cute.
Labor Day Weekend had parties and bar-b-ques aplenty all over the resort. We enjoyed a quiet weekend at home.
After Labor Day things begin to wind down here. The last Water Aerobics Class was on Friday August 30th. The Pottery, Sewing and Lapidary Clubs will be shutting down on September 25th this year (earlier than usual) because they’re pulling all the floors and subfloors from the Crafts Building to replace them over the winter. The pool closes on October 1st. The last special evening event happened on September 5th.
I have no idea why anyone would want to leave here to go down into the heat in the valley this early but they are certainly packing up and leaving in droves at this point.