Long Time, No See

I spent a few hours with an old friend today.

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Debbie was an instructional aide in our program when I first came here to teach at Blue Ridge High School in 1990. Soon after, she began working on her own education degree, and in 1996 she left the mountain to take a job as a teacher at a Mesa high school.

Now we get together every summer when she and her husband come to their summer home to escape the Valley heat!

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Today we had lunch at El Rancho before doing some browsing at one of our town's quaint little novelty shops. Debbie was in search of a Father's Day gift, and I just love to look at the products of other peoples' amazing creativity.

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This shop is called The Burly Bear and, as you can imagine, it is stuffed to the rafters with likenesses of bears, moose, and other woodland critters, as well as many other rustic crafts both large and small.

There are so many art objects for sale, they begin out at the curb and grace the grounds long before you even enter the building.

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Life-size carvings of wildlife have become very popular over the past several years. You can find them in front of many people's homes, and it seems like half the businesses have at least one statue out front, and usually more than one.
This was my personal favorite of the outdoor, life-size carvings. I love the mountain lion creeping down the rocks and the deer almost hidden in the shadows at the bottom.

This one is cute, too. Are those bears wearing sunglasses?

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The large bear statues like this are the most commonly seen carvings in town.

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Now wouldn't this be a conversation piece for your lawn?

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"Mogollon Monster" is carved at the bottom. I've never heard of him, but I have heard people talk about our very own local Bigfoot. That must be who this represents.

Inside the store, the items for sale are so densely packed, it's almost overwhelming to take it all in!

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You can't tell in the photos, but the pictures hung above the beds are actually 3-dimensional carvings, with multi-layered pictures chiseled into the wood and then painted. They are awesome!

The small table at the foot of this bed was the one I most wanted to take home with me.

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The glass top is like the surface of a clear stream. Below the glass is carved a 3-D underwater scene, including swaying plants, pebbles, and two brown trout scouting the bottom of the creek for food.

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I just love creativity. And I love enjoying it with a great friend.

Thanks, Debbie!