Hey the rain has gone away for the moment

Flute circle wasn't remarkable, one man we didn't know arrived, Bernie, a very nice man from Parksville, a snowbird like us, and Terry came, so that was 4 of us.  We jammed and had a great time, but I must admit, I had hoped for a better turnout than that.  We'll persevere, as we get some great practice that way, and a spur to get the flutes out and play.

Lary often takes his flutes outside and plays, but I prefer to be inside playing.

Our 3 night camping trip was nice, at Rondalyn at the south end of the airport on Timberlands Road, though not warm overnight, the days were without rain, but with some large wet grey clouds kind of stalled overhead during the day, so that kept the back of our necks chilly.  Still we had no rain, and an enjoyable first outing, I think you forget what is in the camping unit from season to season, so good to get back in to that mode once more.  We try to leave some clothing that is appropriate there to use, so we don't have to drag it back and forth each outing.

When we used our trailer all winter down south we always knew what was at hand, but since we don't take it with us now over the winters, we forget what's inside all those nice cupboards.

Next campout will be at Living Forest literally right down the road from where we store the trailer, so that will be handy.  At the end of this campout we took the trailer through the big rig car wash in Ladysmith, it is made for semis so you can walk up a set of metal stairs inside the wash bay and direct the spray on to the roof, and try to get rid of all the lovely green goop that our "wet coast" generates over the winter time.  Maybe we will investigate a cover for next year.

Trailer sure looks better- though we still need to address those black streaks that inevitably form as the rain and water run off the body of the unit, and down to the ground.  They don't come off unless you use a special spray that dissolves them.

I held Mothers Day tea for my sisters and our niece here, we had a nice time to visit together as we all get busy doing our own thing, and forget to let the other sisters know what's up.  The day itself was warm and picture perfect, so a real treat.  Our niece is leaving for a job in Edmonton, so we caught up on her news.

Big excitement is Gill's wedding at the end of July in Victoria, should be lots of fun but also a bit of a logistical challenge as the catered reception is at the family lake, mostly without power, reception including a meal to be held in an open meadow.  Sue was telling us a few details, they have a school bus that will run back and forth from downtown to the lake to ferry guests back and forth when needed.  That should be nice if it works smoothly.  Gill's future mother in law is a bit of a worrier, so that is a concern for the event.

Wedding service itself will be held downtown, and likely most guests from out of town will be staying downtown in hotels there.

Funny how things look so much better here in the sunshine.  Lary and I had coffee today at the clubhouse in our complex here, great to hear the latest, and have a bit of a visit with our neighbours who we really don't know that well at all.  One of our neighbours is having her unit painted in the living room, dining room and kitchen, so I went home with her to see the job in progress, and meet her female painter.  The painter says it will take her 2 days which is very fast.  Looks good already.

Cathy and I had planted geraniums out at the entrance gate of our complex, I thought it was way too cool in the soil for that, but oh well, we did it anyway as the plants had been purchased by another lady.  I discovered on the internet that they don't like either their leaves or flowers wet either, and today I found out that they don't like to have wet roots, hey there, live and learn.  The watering system isn't turned on as yet, so we have to water them by hand with watering cans til the water starts.  I hope they don't get blasted out of the ground at that time, either.

A contractor is widening the pathway to our unit, and we will have green shrubs beside that widened pathway to make a bit of a privacy screen for our front door.  Hope that is an improvement for our unit, we plan to put the barbeque up at this level, instead of having it down below on the "lower main" floor.  Should be quite handy to have it right outside the kitchen where we cook, less travelling involved to use the 'barby'.  And we hope to have a wee private place to sit outside in warmer weather.  As it is now it feels a bit like sitting out on the roadway when you are outside our front door.

We bought a lovely unit, but it's right on the junction of two busy roads, without thinking about a nice place for us to sit outside.  At least we have our camping outings, and we both walk in the daytime outside if the weather is good.   But this should be an improvement for us.

Rain, rain, go away, don't come back another day!!!

As you can tell we still have lots of showers, not that many heavy downpours, and not really very cold, but chilly and grey, so very grey.  Temps daily around 10, 11 celsius or so.  BRRRRRRR.  And we are off camping next week, too.

Just heard from neighbours down south at our park that they have 80 - 90 degree temps, and are glad for the wind when it arrives to cool them down.  There are perhaps only 10 or so folks left there in the park now.

Due to our hasty move of houses/move out/leave town/play music weekend down there we left some stuff behind that we should have brought home like our microcube amps, and we also left batteries in some things, and left some food products on the shelves that might not enjoy the intense heat of summer down there.  Ah me, I might have to catch a package air and hotel deal and fly down to address those things.

Lary is planning to head off to Ontario to visit his mum soon, and tonight is our first flute circle evening, hope a few folks come share the music with us.
Should be enjoyable.  It will be the first Friday of every month til we leave for down south once more.  We hope to establish a routine and get a regular group meeting together.

We found Utopia Bakery, right in the heart of downtown Chemainus, and had a nice soup and sandwich meal there, used up one of our gift certificates from the Beer and Burgers night; we always enjoy Chemainus as it's small and rural, with the most lovely picturesque murals on the walls of many buildings there.  It's maybe 45 minutes south of Nanaimo and part of the drive there is along pretty scenic country roads, with frequent views of the seashore.

I believe there are almost 30 murals now, scattered around town with yellow footprints on the sidewalks leading you around town to view them.  And the gift shops are wonderful too, we bought another nut rattle from a store there which carries quite a few world music things, another thing that caught my eye was the Tibetan bowls, but I resisted for the moment.

There is a big Belgian horse and carriage if you want to ride around town too, it's a sawmill town that is still pretty active, but of course these days the BC mills are a shadow of what they used to be.

And recently a couple of mills in the interior of the province had very serious fires, they think it was combustion from the sawdust generated while milling pine beetle killed wood.  What a shame, there were some deaths, and of course people badly injured as well.

That's about all my news, though I will report on how the flute circle goes later on.

Where did April go? It's nearly May......

Sunny at the moment, but as they say, wait a while.....It has been off and on rainy and grey, cloudy and chilly since we got home, though we have been out for walks and other doings in between rain showers.  Not much of it is heavy rainfall, but it keeps the temps down and the days grey and somewhat dull and drab.

Over the weekend on Saturday we went out with friends to a pub for a beer and burgers benefit for the Child Development Center, it was enjoyable, and we came home with a gift basket, some fresh chicken breasts, yum yum, and some gift certificates for a bakery cafe down in Chemainus.  It's called the Utopia Bakery Cafe, and is Dutch.  Chemainus is a mill town that has been transformed by many many historic and natural history murals, and is very attractive because of that, and a very nice theatre that kind of anchors the town.  So we will have to go down and investigate that soon.  After the fund raiser we went back to friends for coffee and cake.  It was a lot of hard work done by Long Lake Chiropractic, and I think a lot of folks bought some nice merchandise and had a good time too.

Sunday we started by meeting our camping friends for breakfast at the Qualicum Golf Club, they put on an inexpensive and nice buffet, and then we had a walk along Qualicum's pretty seaside.  Nice fresh air and good to stretch our legs too.  Great to catch up with friends at the same time over breakfast.  Later we attended a seniors trade fair which was interesting.

Not much else remarkable, except to say that the wildflowers are blooming all along the bypass highway here in town, a friend Jet and I walked along a few days ago, from the Northfield Road parking lot we headed north, and there were fawn lilies, shooting stars, some other pretty things like Oregon Grape in bloom, and Jet even found a trillium, which I convinced her not to pick.

Sister Sue's renovation of her kitchen/dining room is coming along fine, it's a huge job as she had the whole thing ripped up and transformed from a pokey small awkward  kitchen- taking out walls and encompassing the dining area into a large new kitchen with a nice island eating area, all bright white cupboards, from Ikea.  The walls aren't painted yet, they will be a soft greenish yellow I believe, but it's all coming together wonderfully.  Flooring was installed, and new countertops and sinks to come as yet.

Our niece Gill will be married in Victoria at the end of July, she lives in Dubai, UAE, they are arriving with Tristan's mom Mrs H in tow this coming weekend, and they will be here for a night, then off to Victoria to stay in the rustic, very rustic family cottage for a night or two, and check out the wedding venue which will be outdoors in the meadow at the lake.  The church is downtown in Victoria, and the reception will be out at the family lake, so the logistics of all that with some international and out of town guests will be very interesting.  They promise to transport folks from the church to the lake for the reception, and back later to their hotels, which is quite a distance.  Luckily she has a wedding planner for the logistical challenges, as they aren't living here on the island.

Our front garden is very pretty right now with pale pink flowering rhododendrons, pink heather, pieris, and other pretty shrubs like azaleas springing into bloom gradually.  It's a pretty time of the year on the wet coast, as everything springs back into green life once more.  We can still see the sea in glimpses from the house, but later as the deciduous trees get more and more leaves on them, we lose a bit of our view.  There are both wild and domestic rabbits that hop around wild in the townhouse complex gardens, and at times the deer stroll through to make a meal out of our gardens too.  We share things with them, often the deer come later in the evening when we have the blinds closed.

Lary and I have decided to host a monthly flute circle, so this coming Friday night we will have visitors to get together and play and enjoy our beautiful flutes.  We hope that people will come, and we plan on holding our get togethers monthly, first Friday of the month, 7PM, like Annie does down south.  Perhaps that way we might have some regular get togethers to play our flutes, and develop the Nanaimo Flute Circle as a regular event on the Nanaimo music scene.  That way we can also utilize our home, as we can meet either upstairs or downstairs.

That's it for now.

Phone call from the past

Well what do you say when your ex husband calls after 35 years?  Hello seems a bit inadequate, but that's how I responded when he called this morning.  It was a call totally out of the blue, he and his wife of many years now live here in Nanaimo though he is originally from Vancouver.  He is still interested in motorcycles and sailing.  I am not.

Seems he's moving and wants to get rid of lots of stuff, and some of the books he had about sailing were written by friends of my parents, or else gifted to us from my parents.  So I guess he kept them til now.  Nice of him to return them, however.  I'd like to sell them myself, as we are also trying to downsize what we have here in the house.

We went out for lunch down to Duncan, and while we were gone the books arrived, so guess we won't see each other for another 35 years or so.
It was truly a bit surreal, but there you go. 

Had lunch at the Good Company Steakhouse in Duncan, the first get together for our camping group, the restaurant is now run by a young Dutch fellow who is very personable, and the food was good, and plenty of it.  Service also good for our table, but another table waited nearly an hour for their meals.  Erg.  It's pretty hard to handle a big group smoothly for a kitchen I guess.

Good to see everybody once again, after that we headed down to Victoria, I wanted to pick up some books from a series I am reading currently, by J.A. Jance, the Joanna Brady series about a crime fighting sheriff from Cochise County, near Bisbee, Arizona. 

Russell Books in Victoria has super used books, one of the ones I bought was the Publishers release book before the public distribution, so that is interesting.  I had never seen one of those before, and it said not for public sale, but I guess that limitation had expired long ago, as the book has been out since 2003 or so.  No art work on the cover, not sure if the story was edited after that, but oh well, at least I get to continue with the series I am enjoying.

It was a lovely sunny day here on the island today, everybody is saying that the cool spring is long and warm weather is slow arriving.  I agree with them.

That's it for now.

Feels a bit weird to get home

Well we spent a nice night with our pals Sal and Russ in Sooke, and we licensed and picked up the truck, so we both drove home to Nanaimo in separate cars on Friday as we stayed overnight with them.  It felt great to be home again, but of course after a long interval away we had some catching up to do.

 The dock area down by the water in Port Angeles, Washington on a foggy morning.

It had been quite foggy in Port Angeles, so we couldn't see the majestic Olympic Mountains, but catching the afternoon ferry at 2 PM was so much easier than catching the early morning one after 3 or 4 days of travel, it worked much better for us.  And we spent the whole 1.5 hour voyage aboard the Coho Ferry visiting with a couple who also winter in Desert Hot Springs at a nearby park, and live in Victoria.  They were Enid and Drew.  Small world indeed.

All well here at home, it is a nice home that we are very proud of.  The spring flowers like heather and pieris are blooming, and the pale pink rhododendron too is starting to bloom, but hey it's only mid April, and March here was rather chilly, so a lot of things normally blooming at this time of the year aren't ready yet.

 Nanaimo is pretty in spring time

The trees at the front corner of our complex are totally bare so far, but the neighbours beside us have a magnolia that is trying to bloom already.

Saturday we headed back down island to Brentwood School to meet our California cousins from Dana Point, there was a memorial sculpture unveiled in honour of our Dad, and I hadn't seen it, neither had the Californians. 

My aunt was a first cousin of my Dad, so also enjoyed seeing the newly installed sculpture, which is an eagle, with its wings wrapped around its front.

The four of them, and my sisters Sue and Jen, together with Lary and myself had a pleasant lunch visiting and catching up with the latest with them all.  Such a pleasure to keep in touch.

Sunday morning found us out with our Sunday morning group of friends for breakfast and at lunch there was a luncheon for Veterans, so we attended that too.

Today I was working on my I Pad trying to get it going and our pals Jet and Harold came over, he was helping Lary with our RV batteries, and Jet was helping me with the I Pad, trying to get that going for me.  Big help to us both.

Left our park late on Sunday evening

Well we had a very hurried last few days, with a flurry of activity, both in the old place and the new one.  Up stairs and down stairs is what I remember most of all, then very hot as we did our final pack up into the car.  New place was summerized by previous owners, so no air going through as all windows and doors covered by styrofoam, we crept about in the lights, and put things kind of everywhere.  It was very warm, nearly 90 degrees.
Wendy and Dave came over to see our new abode Sunday afternoon, and at the last minute we decided to bring our newish bed from the old place to the new place using Dave's truck, and the newish end tables seem to have migrated to the new place too.  The other stuff got swapped into our old place, and the old place duly cleaned and washed up for possible sale or rental in the late fall.  Thank heaven to Dave for his truck, and his help moving the furniture too.

Not sure exactly where we put all our stuff from the shed, but most of it went into the new place, not at all well organized, just inside the house.  The new house seems to use the bedroom as the access to the outside area behind the wind wall, so we will have constant traffic past the end of the bed.

Put the new bedspread on the bed, and that was kind of it, things went in to cupboards, perhaps not the right ones, but away nevertheless.  There are things that we want to change already, but that can wait for a while.

We left Sunday evening around 7 PM, into very heavy traffic westward toward Los Angeles, it was Sunday of Easter weekend, so roads were very busy and we were stalled quite a few times in extremely heavy traffic. Decided not to cross the desert up through Yucca Valley and across Mojave Desert, instead opting for Hwy 10 west, then Hwy 210, then I-5 north.

We got as far as Pasadena, dropped and flopped into bed, and Monday we were in warm shorts and A/C weather as we headed northward, arriving in Williams, CA, a small town, where a very friendly Highway Patrol officer directed us out to the Coast Mountains foothills for a pretty scenic drive along winding rural roads, beside bright green rolling hilly pastures, and pretty flowering dark, dark pink trees along a creek.  Cattle country.

We had a visit to nearby Maxwell, in honor of brother in law Ian Maxwell, and snapped photos of everything 'maxwell'.  I will attempt to post some photos, the most remarkable of which was a flowering cactus in a front yard right in Maxwell.

 Lary, Di, Judy the ranger at the San Jacinto Monument, Annie,
Marty, Chip and Barbara - we played our flutes on Easter Saturday up on Highway 74, in the midst of our moving from house to house.

 Some scenes from the small rural town of Maxwell, California

 These cactus flowers were the size of cereal bowls, an incredible sight.

 Likely the stage line doesn't use horses any more.......

Looks as if brother in law Ian opened an Auto Parts store.

The next night found us in Cresswell, just south of Eugene, Oregon, and it had been pouring rain most of the day, somewhat disappointing as we had been in shorts and sandals up til then on our northerly homeward trip.

Tonight Wednesday we are in Sequim, near Port Angeles, tomorrow afternoon we will catch the Coho ferry over to Victoria, and head out to visit our friends Sal and Russ in Sooke, pick up our truck, and head home.  Again today it was raining, sometimes heavily, though tonight here in Sequim it is heavily overcast, so not that cold. 

Just seems chilly to us sun worshippers fresh out of our sunny desert winter.  We have heard that southern California today got heavy rains, too which makes us feel a bit better.

We broke our journey today by stopping in an Indian Casino near here for about 1.5 hours, and playing the slots, Di nearly recouped her investment, Lary lost about $20.  We are not big gamers, that's for sure.  About $20 - $40 is our typical daily expenditure when we are in a casino.

Welcome to the 'wet coast' once again.  It's either overcast or raining, green, green and there is moss on the trees here on the Olympic Peninsula.

I think I may continue the blog once we get home as I am enjoying my journaling experience.



Happy Easter to you all

Today has dawned as innocently quiet and sunny as yesterday was blustery and blowy.  What a land of contrasts the desert truly is.  And the speed with which it changes is also mind boggling too.

Well Happy Easter to you all, and have a lovely one.

Love and hugs, Di and Lary
xoxo

Took some things to the new place today

This will likely be our last post til we get home, as we're turning in the modem tomorrow for our internet, and moving house.  Today we had a chance to put 3 carloads of things into the new shed over at the new place, so we did that, and it felt great to get started.  They are working like furies to get out of there for us in a timely fashion.

Coffee and donuts today was a very reduced crowd, only a few of us.  Went to Home Depot and got a swamp cooler cover, it's like Air conditioning but cheaper.  And the unit needs to be covered when not in use, as it allows dust and grit into the house if not covered up.  Put some of our things in the shed at the new house, 3 carloads of boxes, then we went up and had a swim, even though the wind had come up and it was quite windy there in the pool.  Met a nice lady called Judy from Centralia, WA.

Came home, showered and went over to Dave and Wendy's for ham dinner, and to celebrate Wendy's birthday a few days early, dinner was yummy, and we always enjoy their company.

The positive surprise is that Lary managed to get a bit of paint on his bird, it's not nearly finished, but at least some paint is on.  The bird is not on his permanent stand, nor does he have his legs on as yet.  We bought a very pretty manzanita burl to mount him on when he is completely finished.

The wind was howling tonight, and the dust and grit was flying around, the gusts were up into 60 and 70 MPH speeds, so quite violent.  I think that wind is pretty typical in springtime around here.  April often seems the same each year in that respect.

We went to Walmart on the way home from Wendy and Dave's and bought a new shoe rack and a new rolling rack to hang clothes, we suspect that the new house doesn't have anywhere near as many cupboards as we have had here, so we are preparing for that eventuality.  It feels weird to think about leaving our cozy home here and moving, even if only one street over.  We have become very fond of our small winter home, and the friends here on our street that we have met and gotten to know a bit, too.

So bye for now, we will likely not blog for a week or two, but thanks for following us during our sunny winter down south.  After Lary paints more on his bird I will photograph it again, and post it then.  Stay tuned for that after we get home.

Glad I have my sunshine quotient stored up, I will need it once we make our way northwards into the chilly and grey weather.  Ah me, springtime on Vancouver Island and the Wet Coast.  Can't believe my tan, it will soon be rusting away into happy memory.

Cheers for now,
D

I keep losing days

Pack, pack and more pack.  That's the mantra that we are following these days.  It has been windy, dust swirling everywhere, the packing boxes outside are full of gritty stuff once we haul them inside, and our shed is quickly filling up with packed boxes waiting for moving day.

And we are taking things off the walls to move to the next house.  And painting the holes that we leave behind when we remove the decorations.  Hmmmm.

Transfer of funds went smoothly, as did paperwork here at our park to transfer the new place into our names.  Park is emptying out as the snowbirds go north, but there was concern recently when we all heard that the mountain passes like the Siskyous were snowy that day.  Hmmmm.

Nanaimo weather was holding this week at 8 degrees, and overcast or rainy, and here we are in the 70s and 80s. More hmmmm.  And soon to be 90s....

Not much interesting to tell about packing, just to survive it and come out smiling after it's all over with.  Distant move or short move, it's almost the same thing really, stuff out, clean, stuff in at new place.  End of discussion.

 Here is the handsome fellow

Lary has been carving furiously trying to get it done, and now the blue jay is sealed, and ready for painting, which won't happen til we get home I guess.  He doesn't have legs yet, but his eyes make him much more realistic, as does the woodburning on the feathers.  Big project.

Had a nice swim a day or so ago, unusually for our park the ladies chatted in one group together, and the men chatted in their group together in the pool, it was odd.  Normally we all mix together. Today the pool was closed for the day so that the bottom of the wall enclosing the pool could be tiled, it had become discolored, and didn't look nice any more, and tiling from the ground up about a foot seemed a good solution to the problem.

So far in a day they completed 3 walls of the 4 to be done, and also did the walls in the covered area where the hot tubs are located.  Will be nice when it's finished.  Don't know if it will be shut again tomorrow.

We are trying to think ahead to if we manage to sell the current unit, or have to rent it out.  The sales down here in our park are often "turnkey" which means you bring your suitcase and can basically live in the unit, it's furnished right down to dishes, cutlery, sheets, towels, pots, pans, TV and furniture of course.  So that is what we are coping with, decision making about what to take with us, (the new stuff we have acquired), and what to leave behind, (the basics that we inherited when we moved in).

Of course we have changed all living room furniture, bought a new bed, new TV, had the painting done all throughout the inside, even the ceilings, changed the drapes to verticals, and for that we get to list it for nearly the same price we bought it at, 3 years ago.   Hmmmmmm......

Win some, lose some.  We'd like it to get sold, but there is steep competition here in our park and elsewhere too, and part of me wishes we keep it to rent to family and friends so they could come and visit and enjoy our nice park and area in the sun zone down here.  Realistically we have to shoulder the costs of maintaining 2 houses, paying the monthly costs, and the other blah blahs.

We'll see what the passage of time brings us.  Meanwhile pack pack pack, and my thoughts are turning to friends and family at home, not long now til we hit the road ourselves.

Hope you enjoy the bird photos taken today, with the bird carving how to book in the background of the photo.

Palo Verde tree bursting into bloom in the Walmart parking lot a couple of days ago.

Drum circle at Crystal Fantasy last night

Last night a friend Terry and I went to the drum circle downtown at Crystal Fantasy, it was fun, there weren't as many people, maybe 15 or so, but that way it seemed a bit less intimidating and the wall of sound wasn't as high.  After a while we shrank the circle so we were nearer together and that felt good.

There was also the spunkiest little girl, I dont' think she was more than 5 or so, and she was picking up the drums and just playing away, she was fearless, and also had a great sense of rhythm.  So darling to watch, and she also played the tambourine, and a small percussion egg that Scott has.

It seemed as if there were more women than last time.  Again we played for a solid 2 hours, does the spirit good to pound away on the drum.  I also took a high ceramic flute that I played, but only did one piece.  Seemed pretty good, but kind of high, a small D flute.

There was also quite a creative young woman with a hula hoop, and in all that cacophony she danced with her hula hoop, just outside the drum circle, it was very interesting.  Another young woman arrived at the end of the evening with her pit bull, he seemed friendly enough, seems that all comers are welcomed there.  You just come in the door, grab some kind of instrument and start drumming with the others.  Some even just observe and enjoy the sounds.

The art on the walls is so attractive, it makes it a very pretty performing space if you have to be indoors.  There are some lovely interesting items for sale in the store, I was admiring a djembe drum that Scott has, and he has some percussion things, some rainsticks, thunder makers, tambourines, and a few other neat music items.  The metaphysical area of things in the store doesn't pull me so much, but it's interesting to look at, and some of those things are very pretty as well.

After that we went to Desert Hot Springs, to the first spa up high on Palm Drive.  They hold karaoke evenings, Thursday to Sunday each week, and Terry likes to sing there.  We met her friends Donna and Dave, who also sing.  Til 11 children are allowed in the bar which seemed weird to me, as there is food from the restaurant for sale, then they have to leave, and it's adults only. 

The DJ is Scotty, he is very friendly, and all the people singing seemed to really enjoy themselves, he creates a safe atmosphere where again everybody is welcome, and applauded, too.  Good bad and even ugly can all get in on the fun, and there is no charge, though we left a wee tip for the DJ.

Fun night, but now this morning it is hitting me that we need to move our stuff and get organized for the move to the new house, and maybe for renters in our current unit.  Yoicks.

And it is getting very warm outside too, which fogs up my thinking a bit and makes me think of migrating like the birds toward the north.  Thank heaven for air conditioning, our new unit has a swamp cooler on the roof, which we will have to find out about.

boo hoo, our last flute lesson of this season

We had our last flute lesson with Annie today this morning, and we practiced for an event that we will be playing at soon.  It was fun, and nice to have Annie all to ourselves.  We gave her a new microphone stand, as the ones she has are a bit worn out.

After that we raced home so I could help with the weekly poker gathering here at the park, it's mostly but not exclusively men, and today even though many folks are leaving or thinking of leaving soon and packing up, there were 38 players.

We helped as usual though none of us plays poker, it was still enjoyable to be of help, and at half time we served free birthday cake left over from one of our park's owners birthday party, and ice cream, for which everybody pays $1.  The afternoon flew by until they finished, they play from about 1 - 4 Thursday afternoons.  It was kind of the end of their year, a few will still play the next week or so, but most will now head off to their other home, likely more north than here.

Poker players come from other parks, and then go to other parks in turn to play, it seems sad that they prefer to play cards inside than be outside on a lovely afternoon in the sunshine, but oh well.

After that we went over to our vendor's home to sign papers and arrange to do the transfer of the title etc.  We'll have to arrange to get insurance on the new place, too, and do a bit of running about in the next wee while, as we don't have much time left after that.  We have to visit the management company and arrange to pay the quarterly home owner association fees, too.  We'll be busy for sure.

Lary made stew for dinner, but he complained that it was tough, even after cooking for 3 hours or more.  It was flavourful though, which was nice, and he had added a sweet potato or yam, that was delicious.

I think I forgot to say that his blue jay carved bird is starting to look a lot more realistic, they put in the eyes yesterday, and they are woodburning in the details on the feathers, both on top of the body and underneath on the body and tail feathers.  Very intricate, and I can tell that it is an interesting if very labour intensive process.  As the jay is more or less lifesize that is a lot of work.  When the woodburning is done the work seems to just pop out into a much more realistic animal.  Lary wants to try doing a Kokopelli figure next, to carve it into a kind of low relief plaque of his own design, which should be very interesting and challenging.

Lary's previous carving instructor Vern had a dreadful and very serious accident recently, his car was smashed into on the I-10 freeway, and it was rolled several times.  His wife is hospitalized, her spleen was damaged in the accident, what a pity for them, it sounded very scary indeed.

Wonderful music evening tonight

We had a nice day today, Lary carved on his bird with the group, he and Dave put in the eyes in their blue jays, and together with the woodburning he has done recently, the bird is coming to life.  Wendy and I spent the afternoon together, and we came over and looked at our new house.  That was super, I see new things each time we visit over there.

This evening we went over to our neighbouring park, Catalina Spa and saw Sheila and Freddie Pelletier's concert, they are a very talented pair of Canadian entertainers who sing and play guitars.  Freddie has played in some very good bands, and his playing is excellent, he is an incredible guitar picker and player overall. 

Their enjoyment of each other comes across very clearly too, as does Freddie's nearly insuppressable sense of humour. When they return home after their winter tour entertaining through Texas, Arizona and California they hold a summer music camp in their small town in Saskatchewan.  I think it is Duck Lake, and the camp focuses on guitar playing, with both children and adult students.

They have great energy, and send off such friendly positive vibes, it's the end of the snowbird season here in the valley, and over 60 people were there to listen to the 2 hour concert tonight. Their CDs are available, they have recorded quite a number of them.  He often plays in a Chet Atkins style, but as we saw tonight, they can play music and songs from nearly any era, they did a number of spontaneous requests tonight, in a ton of different styles.  My favourite was the guitar song, Apache.  Sheila sang a pretty Karen Carpenter song which I loved.  The audience gave them a standing ovation at the end of the high energy concert.

I forgot to add that he clogs or plays beats with his feet while he plays the guitar, he has a piece of thick plywood that he has under his feet, and he taps loudly, it really enhances his sound.  So fun.  Sheila can yodel, it's very pretty.

Tomorrow we have our last flute lesson with Annie, then I will help with the poker afternoon here in our park.  They play weekly, this might be the last session for this season.

We bought a new house right here in the south

O M goodness, lost almost another week, how did that happen again?  We have some very exciting news, we heard about a house here in the complex that was newly for sale last night, Monday night.  So off we toodled, saw it, came home and decided it was for us, it was the first day it had been for sale.

So we marched right back and made a full price offer which they accepted gleefully, so as it now stands, we have 2 houses, we made the down payment today, and took a few photos.

The sellers are hot to go, they have an offer on another bigger house somewhere else in Desert Hot Springs, so we will be able to put some of our clothing in the new house before we leave.  Here it is below:

As you can see, it has a lovely private back enclosed area, and we should be able to sit outside back there most of the time we are down here.  Now I'll show you the back part, it even has a cook top outside.

You can kind of see that there is one part that is covered with a canopy, and another part that is open.  There is also an electrically driven sun screen that drops down at the side of the covered part, in case it's windy, or too sunny. 

So we should get a lot of use out of our new place.  The trailer is about 8 years younger than our current one, which we may either sell or rent.

The outside of the new trailer is wood, not aluminum, so that is a bit nicer than our current one, though it takes a bit more upkeep, caulking and painting it about every 5 years or so.

Now here's the cooktop part: behind the deck chair are cupboards, on the left side there is a cooktop that is covered, so you just lift the top and voila, you can cook outside.  The house has propane heat, and a swamp cooler which we know very little about, but it cools much more cheaply than air conditioning.  We may not even use it, due to the time of year that we are normally down here.  We'll see.

So you can imagine we are very, very excited.  We will be able to put our clothes and personal stuff inside it just before we leave for home, so that is very, very neat and exciting.

It is one road over from our current street, so the middle street, and a bit nearer the clubhouse and the pool, so that is great.  In the above photo the dart board is on the back (inside) of the large shed door, when the shed door is closed, you can leave out the entry door to the front of the house.  Our street address will be the same, just the lot number will be different.  New lot number is 104.

The stairway that you see on the extreme left leads into the bedroom, out front is the door access to the living room/ dining room/ kitchen combination front room.

I haven't got a good photo of the living room, the one I took was too dark.  I'll retake it and post it later.

Back to our week, on Thursday after coffee and our weekly business meeting the Entertainment Committee cleaned out all the kitchen cupboards in the clubhouse, which was a big job, but we were about 1/2 dozen folks, so it went pretty quickly.

In the afternoon I helped with poker, there were 35 players, I think.

The next day I attended a very interesting day long conference called a Call to Care, put on by the Catholic Church, but held at an Episcopalian church on Hwy 74, in Palm Desert, on the road that eventually goes up to Idyllwild.  It was fascinating, the first main speaker was Father Bill Faiella, who basically talked about how to live using your heart, how to forgive yourself and live in the NOW, not worrying about the past, nor fearing the future.  All very positive information. with very interesting references cited for further reading.  It was kind of addressed to caregivers, but all were welcome.

Then our flute teacher Annie was the other speaker, and of course she spoke about playing music as a healing modality, about playing from the heart, playing your own songs, and using music to heal, unite people, and bring joy and peace.

She played her flute withher friend Adolph for a kind of opening prayer, then she fluted with our friend Chip, it was just lovely.  During Father Bill's talk he asked her to play "discord" and up she got, and did that.  Then he asked her to play another emotion, a strong one, and she responded marvellously to that request, too.

The two speakers complemented each other very well, and smoothly, too.

In the afternoon we did a bit of drawing, chatted a bit about what we had drawn using the theme of peace, and then we had a drum circle, with every one of the forty or so attendees joining in with drum tops, cymbals, rattles, chimes, it was lovely energy and a nice finish to a very interesting and informative day.

The best part of it was there was no pressure, it was kind of peaceful and uplifting, and it was completely free, with both breakfast and lunch provided.

Saturday we went out to lunch at the Jackalope Restaurant on Hwy 111, Lary and myself, Chip and Annie.  Kind of a wrap up for our season together, the restaurant is lovely at this time of the year, they have beautiful gardens where you can sit outside in the warm sunshine, and eat your meal.  We had a relaxed time together, sat around after lunch just chatting, and it was lovely and warm in the sunshine.  In fact we were seated under a sun shade umbrella.  Temps likely in the high 70s or low 80s, the desert is warming up steadily now.

This is a picture of a lovely sculpture in the garden of the restaurant where we ate lunch with Annie and Chip, it's so sweet.  The theme of children is often repeated in civic art down here in the Coachella Valley, it's wonderful to see.

After lunch we went to La Quinta Art under the Umbrellas art show, and it was the last hour of that show, we met Dave and Wendy and chatted for a while, and about an hour later joined them for Jazz in the Gardens at El Paseo, the swanky area of shops over in Palm Desert.  The Gardens also has bronze sculptures of children playing, they are just wonderful, I adore them all.

The parking lot for The Gardens shopping center was very full, it's Fashion Week and all the fashionistas were nearby in tents, attending the rollout of the latest and greatest in the world of high fashion.  Not us.

For the first time ever we attended a Jazz music event that we didn't enjoy, in fact about 1/2 the audience left part way through the musicians show, it was 2 men playing guitars, another on a synthesizer, and the fourth playing the drums.  I'm not sure who they were but the audience showed extreme displeasure with the music.

We had a couple of glasses of wine and appies, and we stayed for the whole hour, but it was kind of painful.  They were loud and got louder, it wasn't typical for the type of entertainment that is normally featured on Saturday evenings Jazz, outdoors on the lawn of the Gardens.  Oh well, it cost us $12 each, and we got drink, food and yucky music not to our taste.  Win some, lose some.

Sunday Lary went down to College of the Desert street fair and bought a dark pair of sunglasses, bifocals for reading.  Then he carved on his blue jay, he is trying valiantly to get it finished, but it's a big project, he just bought a wonderful new carving 'how to do it' book, with both very detailed carving and painting instructions, so that is very helpful to him. 

He found it online at Abe Books, and it took 4 days to arrive, and was 1/2 the cover price.  It's a large hardback book, very helpful indeed.  It arrived by US Postal Service, wow, we are pretty impressed by the speed of the service, and they even deliver here on Saturdays.

Not sure what else we did but that leads us to Monday and the late afternoon when we first saw the house we then went back to, and bought, leading to more activity for the last 2 weeks of our stay here.  Lots of sorting out and packing up to be done now, though we only have to go 1 block or so with our possessions to move them, and we have the offer of a neighbour's golf cart in addition to ours, so that might be very handy indeed.

Today we got all sorts of congratulations on our new purchase, news travels like brushfire around here, we only paid the deposit on the house this morning when we went over to talk with the vendors.  They are very nice indeed.  They are from Washington State.

More soon, we are expecting to be in a flurry of activity from now on til our departure.  Thanks for reading.

Fun discovery in Borrego Springs area

Lary's hunt for a base for his bird carving led us to Borrego Springs, CA, a journey of 2 hours south toward the Mexican border. 

Borrego Springs is in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, a huge park that runs from Palm Desert near Palm Springs, almost down to the border with Mexico.  Its 630,000 acres, quite mountainous in places, is described as a valuable plant, animal, geologic and cultural resource.  One of the largest herds of endangered Bighorn Sheep in the US make it home, and in eras gone past it had a rich animal life too.  In prehistoric times it was a lake in some areas.

Borrego Springs view - and the explorer Juan Bautista de Anza

Lary's previous carving teacher Vern had steered Lary to a man down there, Rich at Manzanita Burlwoods, who uses manzanita roots and wood to make bases for many decorative items, so off we headed to stay overnight, meet him and get a base for the bluejay carving.  That was mission 1, and we found him immediately, and waded through his shop looking for the perfect base.  We found a lovely one, he varnishes the wood, it's very hard already, and we bought it.

Then off to discover more things, as we had seen huge iron sculptures all along the highway on our route Hwy 78 into town, wondering about them, who had done them, and why they were there. 

Turns out that the sculptor who created them is Ricardo Breceda of Perris, California, and the land they are situated on is called Galleta Meadows, owned by Dennis Avery, a benefactor who has allowed the huge oversized iron sculptures to be situated on his land.  Avery has several pieces of land, not all joined together, and the massive works of art and whimsy are there on his various acreages.  Most of them can be found using a very good brochure that the town of 3,000 or so produces to guide you.  Most of them are easily accessible from Borrego Springs Road, north and south, and there are places to park nearby, wander around and explore the free standing sculptures.

Ricardo has three different themes in his work, many of them are based on fossils from prehistoric eras when creatures roamed the valley millions of years ago, then there are some historical figures like Juan Bautista de Anza, the Mexican explorer who led an expedition through this area to San Francisco in the late 1700s, and there is a third more contemporary theme of the field workers who picked grapes in this area, and who were involved in the historic United Farm Workers boycott in the late 1960s.

Most of my photos were of the prehistoric animals, as I ran out of battery on my camera after that, very frustrating.  I luckily caught the one of the explorer de Anza which is located at the Chamber of Commerce, but I ran out of battery for the last ones, those of huge prehistoric tortoises, camels, tapirs and peccories, and then the Willys Jeep from the 1950s.

It was a lovely overnight expedition for us, a pretty scenic desert mountainous area, which we enjoyed thoroughly and would love to visit again, perhaps next year once Lary has his next carving project ready to mount.

Borrego Springs, a very small town, swells during the winter, snowbirds love its clear mountain air, its artistic feel, and the many winter events largely oriented toward a very artistic leaning community of people.  There are RV parks in and around the town, a few nice hotels, and there are pretty galleries, stores and events planned throughout the winter season, and of course there is lots of hiking and outdoor activity in the nearby Anza Borrego State Park for nature lovers of all kinds.

Lary and I visited the informative visitors center there in the park, it was well laid out with a lot of good material for purchase, and several movies of the park and its differing interests and charms.

From summer to winter in one weekend

How did I misplace a week I wonder? Hmmm. Well here it is Sunday evening and we have been rocking and rolling along, but I must say, l am in serious denial about leaving here soon, even though the weather at the moment totally sucks and the temps have plunged temporarily for this weekend, as chilly weather has moved in.

We were enjoying the lovely temps in the 80s when along blows a storm on Friday, sending the temps plummeting, and the rain chucking it down, with wind shaking our trailer now as I write this. We even had hail today!!! Just pulled up the kitchen blind, it's 10 PM more or less, and I looked at the outside temp, seems as if it's just above 40 fahrenheit, brrr, and here the wind seems to make a booming sound when it blows strongly like tonight.

Today we went down to Frances Stevens Park in Palm Springs for the Desert Art Center Art Show performance, and as we arrived around 11:30 it was raining so hard that the artists displaying their work around the grassy yard in the outdoor show were hurriedly packing up all their pictures and wares, folding up their 'easyup' shelters, all back into their cars. It had got very cold, and one lady told me that it was a repeat of Saturday's weather and hasty pack up then, too. What a pity for them all, nearly a total bust in their two day show.

Annie, Al, Brian, Gary, Lesley and Jim had planned to play flutes etc. for an hour first, then hold a drum circle. Lary and I were the only ones plus Chip who turned up for that drum event, and we had a flute concert almost alone, nobody else wanted to be outdoors as the wind swirled around, and the raindrops pelted them.

Of course the flutes don't play well when it's chilly outside, your warm breath condenses so fast when you play in cool weather that the flutes all quickly water out, and start to squawk and squeak, which is very frustrating indeed.

We were under a concrete canopy on a kind of patio, but with dreadful weather right outside us. I think they played valiantly to nobody for more than an hour - but when the wind shifted and the amps and flutes started to get soaked, they all surrendered, called it a day, and packed up to go home.

I should add that Lesley's voice while she played her guitar and sang was just lovely, clear, sweet and so pure, I loved her Hawaiian song most of all, she is so very talented, and her hubbie Jim works so well with her, as does the rest of the group of flute friends.

No drum circle happened, our poor drums would have been soaked with the tops sagging, not good for them at all.

Hard to think back to Thursday evening when we were downtown at Village Fest street fair in Scott's drum circle, nice and warm in short sleeve shirts, even in the evening from 7 - 9 PM, drumming away and attracting quite a big crowd of street fair viewers, and drum players too, from the viewers.

Scott from Crystal Fantasy sets out extra drums inside the circle of drummers, and the public is encouraged to come in, choose a drum, and join the drumming. There was a young boy drumming with his dad in our circle, he can't have been more than 6 or 7, both of them were just wonderful, energetically playing their drums. Several young children started drumming too, they were encouraged to do that, it was so sweet to see them with their faces lit up in wonder as they played along with the group.

Other drummers were Price, a very nice man, Gary, Dan, Scott- it was a smallish turnout, and our pal Terry drove us there, and played too. We drummed for about 2 hours, but this time I didn't smack my fingers so hard, the edges of my drum are pretty hard, so I am learning to be much more careful. I had sore hands last time after 2 hours drumming.

There is another drum circle at the Ace Hotel, it's at the full moon, outside on their patio, with lots of hotel guests and visitors watching, we'd love to attend that one too, but it may have to be another season that we do that.

After the drumming we carried our drums and walked through the vendors right to the very opposite end of Village Fest and back, my arm and shoulder were tired as my djembe drum from Africa weighs quite a lot.

Okay, to get back to our week, Monday there was a board meeting here, an edgy and contentious decision was made by a hair's breadth to keep the front entry gates open from November 1 til end of March during the daylight hours, it was a squeakingly close vote with the head of the board casting the deciding vote in favour of opening the gates.

Whew, the opponents are equally sure their point of view is correct, but what a chore to have to let the friends and visitors in all day every day by somehow opening the gates each time someone arrives there. There is no communication system with the gate here, no entry system aside from the clickers in our cars, and a touchpad at both gates, often very poor cell reception too, and many folks just plain don't have cell phones, so getting entry to our park with the gates locked can be so very frustrating.

Also the wear and tear on the gate is quite high when it has to open and shut constantly all day long.

Additionally it projects a fortress type of mentality in my opinion, and is very aggravating for the couriers, mail delivery people, and trades people entering the park on a pretty frequent basis. Very little has sold over the winter season, and I think that is one of the main reasons that is so. OK, I'll get off the soapbox now. (Smiling)

After the board meeting Wendy and I attended a bathing suit fashion show over at Catalina Spa where they are currently camping, nice fashions from the local business Glossy, who sells suits at $29.99 for all bathing suits, and there are some truly stunning fashions that she carries.

In particular the fabric is gorgeous down here, a huge choice of styles and colors. In this climate you certainly wear a bathing suit often.

Tuesday I had my hair cut, and later taught our friend Terry the basics of playing the flute, lending her one of mine, with a 'learn to flute' book that I have. We also had some plumbing repairs on our leaky sink drainpipe done on Monday, I hate water leaks, they are so frustrating to deal with. Plumbing work had been done almost a year ago to the day, and it was in that same area, but still we had to pay $75 for the service call, and the plumbers fixed the leak in a twinkle.

Lary and Dave carved on their birds on Weds. and Wendy and I went over to a bead dealer in Palm Desert, he comes to the desert and emails his clients, he rents a conference room in a biggish hotel, and stays for about a week selling beads. He is out of Kennewick, WA but is super well organized, it is so easy to deal with him.

He's also very amusing, he told me on my second visit this week, Welcome Back, and gave me a further discount for being a frequent 'sinner'. Made me laugh, he is so friendly and nice.

Lary and Dave are carving like mad, as they want to finish their birds, not have a UFO, (unfinished object), but it looks pretty iffy to me, they have no feathers burned in as yet, nor is there any paint on the bluejays.

Lary was just explaining all the steps to making, shaping and texturizing the feathers, there is lots still to be done, the jays are life size, good for working on, but lots more work than a smaller bird which they have done previously.

Lary is currently on the hunt for a suitable base for his project, there ia a man down in Borrego Springs who sells manzanita branches and roots, as well as lots of other things for lamps and other decorative uses, we would love to go down and get a base for the bird. We need to make contact with him before heading down as it's a 2 hour trip one way, and we don't want to find him gone when we arrive there.

We 4 had happy hour here Weds., then went out to a Mexican restaurant in Desert Hot Springs for dinner, with 2 for 1 coupons from Dave. Yum yum. I had fajitas which arrive on a sizzling pan brought right to the table.

Thursday we had coffee, donuts and a meeting at 9, then a flute lesson over at Annie's with all 5 of us, for 3 hours, then we kind of raced home and got ready to go to the Village Fest street fair to drum with the Crystal Fantasy group, which I already told you about earlier in the blog.

Friday I shopped with another lady in the morning for the park ice cream social to be held on Sunday, then in the afternoon we took Annie a red canvas foldable wagon that we had bought her for transporting her music equipment from her car to the performance locations, we hope it will be quite handy and helpful for her.

Saturday morning we helped set up the clubhouse hall for the corn beef and cabbage St Paddy's dinner which we attended that night. There were about 115 people attending, so lots of setup to do.

We ended up staying til the end of the dance at 10 PM, and doing a bit of a clean up, with a visitor Jeff, a son of one of the residents, he was very helpful.

I've been making pretty beaded bookmarks, they are on stretchy round elastic thread, the beads sit on the front cover of the paperback book, while the elastic thread is inside the book holding your place. Finding the right beads so that the elastic goes through can be challenging, and I used Wendy's model, one that she gave me a while back, which is lovely, for a pattern.

At the bead man's place I found what is called beach glass, like pieces of glass that you would find on a beach, kind of dulled by the sand and waves, they are very pretty combined with bead findings of silver or copper, and other treasures like wee turtles, penguins and small keepsakes for eye appeal.

That has been fun, likely as with most crafts you can't really make much money, but doing the crafts gives me a lot of satisfaction producing the works themselves.

St. Paddy's dinner and dance was fun, we sat with Mel and Ruth, Lynne and Roger, and Sharon, and the dance music was provided by the Van Horns, he is a local man who sings quite well, imitating many singers nicely, she is from the Los Angeles area, a long way to come to perform music at night.

Our park is very active and many folks dance when they enjoy the music from the live bands we hire for our dinner dances.  You can tell if the band is a success by the crowd on the dance floor.

A wow night of drums and flutes in the desert

Sunday night we had a wonderful night of drumming and fluting out in the desert at a friend's place about 20 km from us here, he is Al a flute maker, and a maker of drums and didgeridoos, as well as clay ceremonial pipes.

He has 2 big pieces of property, one is his house, and the second one near the first is a studio, workshop and a lovely space for performing that he has built for himself. Both lots are 10 acres in size, they are fenced, and they are outside Desert Hot Springs off Dillon Road in the desert.

We arrived about 6:30 PM Sunday and were invited into his workshop, the flute inventory there is stupendous, and he has lots of "didges in waiting", yucca stems being dried for didges. We could try out his new flutes if we wanted to. He is a flutemaker who does wood burned artistry on his flutes and didges, I have 4 of his flutes, and Lary has one, we both adore his flutes, their sweet sound is lovely, and they even smell good as they are made of fragrant woods like redwood and cedar.

He has a circular fenced area that is a sweat lodge area, and he had built a big bonfire in a firepit, we all sat around surrounded by wonderfully varied cacti and desert plants, as the sun set in the west, and we played our drums, didges and flutes.

Al had a 'mike' set up for flutes, and he and Annie played their didges, several people from our own flute circle were there, and some we didn't really know, but had seen at the Crystal Fantasy flute circle a couple weeks previously.

To our right were the lower hills of the Indio area, the Little San Bernardino Mtns, and ahead of us, far in the distance was the Palm Springs area with the magestic Mt San Jacinto behind it. The sun set slowly over Mt San Jacinto to the sounds of flutes, drums and didges, and the night was a bit windy but not with the chilly teeth it often has, and Al lit the bonfire and the desert sage smudges, it was just lovely.

Of course one by one the stars came out, with a nearly full moon, Al did a bit of throat singing, Annie chanted, then we 3 ladies Annie, Terry and me started to chant, Lary dubbed us the 3 Graces, it was such fun under the dark black sky full of twinkling stars.

4 of us played flutes one by one at the mike, Annie and Al played their didges, and there were perhaps 10-16 drum players at a time around the circle, playing a variety of drums in our big circle with the fire inside it, warming us up as the desert night crept in.

The energy but serenity too was magic, just incredible, calm but stimulating, peaceful and energizing at the same time. It became chilly but not cold, the enchantment quotient was way, way up there for this island girl.

I hadn't taken my flutes as the last time we played at an indoor drum circle we were pretty well drowned out by the drums, but this time the balance of flutes and drums was very different, and I found myself longing to play my flute and express myself to the night sky, so I borrowed Lary's special ceramic flute made by John Kulias, I think he is Meadowlark Flutes, it is an E flat flute, and is a lovely piece of ceramic art, as well as a very functional instrument. Its clear true sounds really spoke to me joyfully.

How it played out longingly to the stars and the night sky, it felt enchanted to me. I had a blast and felt so happy to reconnect with a flute, I had kind of tapered off my playing recently, but this was the kicker I needed, that longing to play had seized me, and wouldn't be satisfied til I played once more.

We took a friend Terry with us from our park here, she lives almost beside us, and enjoys the same things as we do, so we 3 had a very nice mellow time together, and with the larger group. Another Annie evening of enchantment. And it's not over yet, because we have several more flute functions to attend before we leave.

Hooray, there is an Art show this coming Sunday that Annie has been asked to play at, so she has asked her friends and students to join her midday downtown at Frances Stevens park at the Palm Springs Art Center annual show.

And this coming Thursday is VillageFest downtown, the usual Thursday evening downtown street fair, but this week it is also a drum event there, we can take our drums and play, the organizer Scott of Crystal Fantasy hinted that some Cirque performers may also be there in attendance. My oh my, the fun is just breaking out all over.

Friday March 30th there is another indoor drumming circle at Crystal Fantasy, the metaphysical store downtown, and April 3rd up at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto monument, high up above Palm Desert in the higher desert along Highway 74 there is an art show on Saturday. A friend of Annie's and now ours up there at the monument, Judy, a ranger, will be leaving her employment there, so we will gather to play for her, and play for the art show at the same time.

That will likely be our last time playing unless we have a final lesson with Annie, to hold us through the long northern summer without her kind and creative company and inspiration. She will be dearly missed until we meet again in November once more down here.

Fun at Casino night

Yesterday we went over to the College of the Desert to their massive street fair that is held every weekend, both days, from 7 AM to 2 PM. It was a lovely clear hot day, and we didn't get there til about noon, it was nearly impossible to find a parking spot on the campus grounds, but finally we found one and made our way over via their shuttle service to the sale area.

It is rows and rows of stuff, all new, and quite interesting - though by now we are pretty familiar with most of it. We bought some circle of fifths mousepads for our friends, one of the ladies there runs a stand that is mostly music themed merchandise, as well as selling Udder Balm for hands and skin. She had very kindly ordered the mousepads for us, so we picked them up. Then we strolled around in the hot sunshine enjoying the busy atmosphere, I guess by now people are thinking of returning to their more northerly homes, so making their last minute purchases.

I also bought a bunch of white ankle socks, you can buy them in packs of 5 pairs, for a great price. $5 for 5 pairs, what is not to like about that!!! My feet were pretty sensitive in the new orthotics, and I was wearing a new pair of running shoes as well, double jeopardy.

We sat and listened to the Inkakings, a musical group of South American musicians who play there every weekend, near the food court, they add such a wonderful ambiance to the street fair. All dressed in black with their trademark black felt hats, it's pretty hard not to swing and sway to their evocative sounds. My favourite musician has a double guitar, that is his guitar has 2 necks with different strings on each one, and the sound is incredible, the second neck must give him a whole new range of sounds. Yesterday there were 2 guitarists, and another one doing percussion. They had a massive set of pan flutes there, though we didn't see them being played while we watched them.

As they are located under a tree right in the food court area, you sit under big umbrellas (with any luck) and listen while you eat. Of course there are tons and tons of booths offering all sorts of food, both snack and beverage food, and lunch delights from many different areas of the world. Healthy, or not, there's a big choice.

The musicians have a tip jar out, which we always donate to, and sell their CDs. At least now they have a person who sells their CDs for them while they play.

We also bought some squaw bread, their term, not ours, it's a dark bread with molasses in it, kind of slightly sweet, and we both love it. There is one long row that is mostly fruit, vegetable and candy vendors, it's right over against the fence on the Monterey Road side of the sales lot. During the week the lot is used as a parking lot, so it's free for the market on the weekends.

We got shuttled out to our car when we were finished, and went to Costco hoping to pick up some dessert type of bars that I had volunteered to take to Casino night, but there was nothing of the sort there, so Walmart across the road had what we wanted, rice crispie type bars, brownies, and sweets that are finger food to snack on.

We had supper and then went to Casino night, at 6 PM we were among the first to arrive, and we bought some poker chips to use to buy our Bingo cards. Bob and Jo Ann joined us, another nice couple called Irma and Wally, and then Donna and Ruth, and Sharon near us. Not sure how many people were playing bingo but quite a few, and the caller moved right along, you really had to pay attention to hear what he was calling out, as the poker players were chatting across the room, and we were all having liquid refreshment, so the chat and comments got louder and louder, and the tension built up. Each strip you bought had 3 separate bingo cards on it, I played easily with 2 strips, a bit more of a challenge with 3 strips, and my final move playing 4 strips of cards was impossible, I couldn't keep up at all.

Lary won a few games, startling his neighbours by shouting out excitedly, and we all had lots of fun, and munched away on bowls of popcorn, and of course kibbutzed about.

A lovely evening, at the end of it we had the famous bars that had been brought by a few people, and they had cash door prizes, and cash prizes for the tickets you won when the games were played.

It was run by George and his wife Jean, and they did a great job. Very well organized, everything well in hand and well prepared in advance. It was just a pity that more folks in the park didn't participate, there were 3 or 4 big huge poker tables, I think they played Texas Hold'em, and quite a few of us playing bingo, but our hall can hold a lot more people, and it was a ton of fun. Our hall holds about 150 people seated, I believe, and there were nowhere near that number present last night. Apparently George has been organizing these Casino nights for some years now.

We whizzed home on the golf cart, with our empty plates from the snacks we had taken, and decided that it was lots of fun and we'd definitely do it again next year.

The full moon was shining brightly low on the horizon, the stars twinkling in the black night sky - and all seemed well with the world.