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.
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