land of contrasts

This morning I took a picture of the classroom while it was still tidy: it will not look like this tomorrow. When there are not classes here, people can come and quilt or do surface design at a modest cost per hour - and Jane has a longarm machine which people can come and use for their own quilting. After lunch we headed out into the mountains...you can see our destination at the top of the picture. The scenery changed as we climbed and it was as though we had flown (well, ascended) to another planet. Less than an hour away from Grand Junction, in the opposite direction from yesterday's trip is another landscape, entirely. Did you know that this part of Colorado was wine country? Apparently.

After the vineyards, more rock on our left and right after that, farms. Love this old barn, which could have been in New York State or rural Pennsylvania.

and couldn't resist this sign in front of it.

and after a while, we were near the top of the mesa: evergreens and aspens ahead of us.

When we finally got to a flat place, we stopped. Here is Jane taking a picture of me taking a picture of her - LOL. Jane took a picture of me in my shirtsleeves and Birks (which I haven't seen) And I took a picture of this stop sign in the middle of nowhere.

The road is buried beneath the snow but Jane says in the summer, this area is full of lakes and is a great place to come and cool off. We cooled off today. The snow plow came up the road on the side where we were parked, so we made a quick K-turn and headed back down the mountain. This was my favorite view on the way down. Contrast this with yesterday's pictures and it is hard to believe we were in the same state, let alone the same region. Magical! Tonight, Jane and I mixed thickened dyes and got the rest of the classroom ready for tomorrow -- and I am headed to bed. After midnight, mountain time and after 2:am eastern time.