Random Pictures

 First Tulips in Dina's yard, just popping up...

A candid shot of Ellie leaning against a wall waiting for a volleyball match to be over so her team can play for the championship...and when they played....they WON!!

 A picture of someone I LOVE..Tristan...he will be TWO on May 1!

Doing something I love...knitting a "Prayer Shawl" and watching Ellie's volleyball games!

Spring in Arizona

I know that I have posted pictures in the past showing our (I do feel a little possessive about these owls) the Great Horned Owls nesting in a saguaro cactus and I was so happy and overjoyed to see them again this year!  I was thinking we would miss them because we were a month earlier than last year...however, we only saw the momma sitting in the nest... the little ones were not hatched yet!

Truth be told, I don't really know if this is the 'momma' or daddy...sure looks like he/she is keeping a good lookout for predators, doesn't it?  This was a transplanted cactus and it is right off the road...between the road and a side walk....and you can imagine all the "lookers" that stop and take pictures.  In fact when Scott left one morning to go play golf at the club, there were quite a few lookers below the cactus...and then one older man was riding a bike and he was so intent on looking up at the owl, that he went off the sidewalk and into the gravel and the cactus (we have bark dust in our part of the country...but in AZ, the bark dust is all 1/4 minus rock (gravel!!).  So Scott called me on the phone to tell me about it because he knew I was heading out on my bike for a little 10 mile ride...his words to me:  "just stop before you look up at the owl"....he knows me so well!!  I, too, could be getting up close and personal to those rocks!!  ha! (true story!!)

 

I can't help but "stop and smell the roses" while on my bike ride....this was a cactus in the neighborhood with all these buds

The same cactus the very next day...isn't it just amazing?  The beauty and splendor of this place in the desert is at times just breathtaking ... I am so in awe of the colors and size of the flowers of such little prickly plants!

I am not sure, but this looks like a "mutant" cactus arm to me...an interesting fact about saguaros and what makes this one so amazing is that it can take up to 75 years to develop ONE side arm...now how does one explain these numerous arms coming out?  

A ten year old saguaro might be only 1.5 inches high!  They can grow to be 40 to 60 feet tall.  When rain is plentiful and the saguaro is fully hydrated, it can weigh between 3400 and 4800 pounds!

These blooms will only last a day or two and then they start to dry up...so you have to be quick about taking that photo...

Do you remember last year I told you about all the "Cactus Cell Towers" they were putting in the neighborhood? (You can go here to read about it and see the pictures:  http://rememberthe4ws-colleen.blogspot.com/2010/05/there-are-cactus-and-then-there-are.html) Well, one is near our driveway..in the dessert, not near a house and it looks so real.  Apparently many of the home owners were up in arms about this "cactus"...don't know what all the fuss was about because really you can't tell by just looking...and apparently neither can the gilded flicker...because one morning when Scott and I were leaving the house, there was this flicker just 'beaking' away at the cactus...I sure hope it is smart enough to figure out not to come back a second time!!  They live in the saguaro cactus...they all look like they have had golf balls hit into them...nice round holes and all compliments of the gilded flicker!  And actually, these man made cactus do have holes in them...just trying to keep it real!!

Lots of bunnies on the Mirabel golf course!  One evening about 5 pm I joined Scott in the golf cart as he played about 6 holes of golf...some of them seem to be quite tame and let you come right up to them...kind of "up close and personal"!

Whoops, hit the bunker...happens to the best of 'em, right?  Just wanted to show you the view as I sat in the golf cart...such a magnificent site...I can see why he likes to golf...he does enjoy the beauty...and it really doesn't matter what course he is playing...he looks at it as "God's Country"...always comes home to tell me about the wild life (like the 6 foot rattlesnake that was across the cart path!  yikes!!) or coyotes...or the time he met a bobcat...yes, he does have stories to tell...but then he also shares the cardinals he has seen, or an unusual flower or plant...me?  I would rather be on the bike and enjoying those sites then hitting a ball and trying to get it into a little hole!  But that is just me!!

Side trip to Palm Springs

Scott has been waiting for the building permit to come through for the Tualatin Yogurt Shack and he said it was going to be a couple of more weeks...nothing to do, so he asked if I wanted to go to Scottsdale and I jumped at the chance to get away and maybe see some sun!  And we were so blessed with sun...in fact it was record breaking sunshine temperatures while we were there...but you know, in the desert, it doesn't feel as hot as it does at home or say...in Texas or Florida!

And we also decided to give our friends, Randy and Gail Hurt a call and see if we could visit them for a couple of days.  They stayed at our house for a couple of months this last winter and were now in Palm Springs...I know Scott was looking forward to playing some golf with Randy!  Scott has known Randy since grade school...they just went to different universities...Randy is a retired high school math teacher...and now he and his wife are vagabonds...leaving the state of Oregon every year around October and heading to the sun country...we spent two nights and three days with them...sure enjoyed reminiscing and sharing stories and laughing a lot!  They are fun people!!

sitting out on their patio in the evening

 There was still snow in the mountains...however Palm Springs was getting record high temperatures while we were there, so I am sure the snow is now a thing of the past.  We spent one evening traveling through town and visiting their numerous "yogurt" stores, just to check out the competition, you know!!  and I think Scott and I decided our design and what we had to offer the public was the best of the ones we had seen!

Oh, I have to tell you about a town called Quartz Site...absolutely nothing in this town except a Burger King and a Carl's Jr. and a little shop that had rocks for sale....except come January and February there are 250,000 motor homes and travel trailers that are in this little town...just parked anywhere in the desert they want...about 600,000 people we were told and the lines are out the door at these two fast food places....I guess people stop there, hook up for water and garbage and use it as a home base and then go off and do some traveling to the neighboring cities, like Palm Springs etc.  For $148 for 7 months, they get the water hook up and garbage...not a bad deal I guess if you like that sort of thing.  We were just shocked to see so many parked side by side and couldn't figure out the attraction...and we discovered...there isn't an attraction at all!

Blazer Game in the Suites!!

Wow!  My FIRST Blazer game ever and it gets to be in the suites!  How sweet is that?  So the suite is at the top of the Rose Garden, there are three TV's and then of course the BIG screen in the center above the court that is so easy to see and watch the game from there.  Just a few people were in our suite...and not much noise, so it was quite enjoyable for us "older" folks who really don't like loudness!  They offer free food in the suite and drinks too!  ...let's see, there was some sushi, some asparagus wrapped in a philo dough (yum!), popcorn and then Pizza Hut Pizza...Dina and I opted to order a sandwich with pasta salad that we shared and they didn't even charge us for that!  The Blazers were playing Cleveland and really I was feeling sorry for the team, cause they were getting wooped badly!  Dina told me it would NOT be appropriate for me to be cheering for the other team!  Needless to say, we left before the game was over, and I took a shot of the score board as we were leaving.  The Blazers did end up with 111 points I believe.  And if we would have stuck around to the sweet end we all (everyone in the Rose Garden) would have been given a coupon for a free chalupa at Taco Bell...that's okay, we figured we could do without that, but really wanted to get out before the crowds...I would even go again if I could sit in the suite!

Dina, Jamie and Scott...they are looking happy to be sitting in the suite...

View from the top where we are sitting!

Snapped this shot as the group was getting out of their seats and leaving...poor Cleveland!

Boys will be boys

It is about 5 PM on a Tuesday night....Ellie and Scott have volleyball practice, so Dina and I decide to head to Costco because she needed dog food... as we are piling into the car, Jalen insists on meeting us at the top of the driveway.  So we pull out of the garage and are heading up the driveway and what we see is a little 3 1/2 year old boy standing on top of the pillar post with his pants down at his ankle and pee-ing onto the grass!!  I grabbed my camera out of my purse and Dina tried to hurray and get a shot of that...too late, he was done.  Dina tried to tell him to put his pants down so we could get a picture...his reply was classic, "NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!"  What a hoot...he still looked pretty cute up there on top of the pillar.

Hair do dads

 I have some felt and I have some dies to cut flowers and other shapes...and I also found a blog that made some hair accessories and I knew I was in craft heaven!  I do have three grand daughters you know...so I am always looking for ideas to spruce them up...here are two of the grand daughters modeling the hair pieces...and then the little brother could NOT be left out of the pictures...so he too donned a little elastic hair piece...because he has so much hair (only it is really short!)  too funny....

And this last one was made with silk material...I cut it into circles free hand, then I used a cigarette lighter (had to borrow from Dina ...she uses them to light candles) and held it close to the fabric...it melts it a bit and curls the edges inward...gives it a neat effect.  Then I hot glued each circle together and finally ended with some beads...we decided this would look really good with a pin attached....this idea came from the same site as the previous post. 

So that is it for the crafty segment of this blog...

A new Scarf

I seem to be doing blog hopping these days...you know, you find one site and that person mentions something...and there is a link, so I have to check out the 'link' and then off  I go...into the world of blogging and if  I can remember where it even all started I am lucky...but this site has some pretty cute things...and this scarf was one of them...so I was at JoAnn's fabrics and decided to pick up some pretty green flannel...there is nothing like a soft warm flannel around your neck on these windy chilly days.  Now don't get me wrong, I love knitting scarves and wearing them too, but flannel...so soft and nice.  And this one has a little twist to it that I thought was unique...if you are going to make one be sure to read the directions (which are NOT hard), however she did make one mistake and I didn't catch it...cut two pieces of flannel 60 inches long.  Then cut four inches off both ends of ONE piece of flannel.  On the piece of flannel that you just cut off 4 inches, you are going to add a 3 inch by 20 inch gathered piece of fabric.  Well, hello...when you add three more inches to that one piece and sew on the 4 inches that you cut off, then that leaves the second piece (the back of the scarf) a tad bit short....like 6 inches short...so just use your noodle when following her directions)

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/01/gathered-flannel-scarf.html

Isn't it cute?   And don't you love the little gathered section?  I think these would make lovely gifts...so many different colors to choose from also....so check it out and I bet you too will be spending hours looking through her site and finding all sorts of things you might just want to make.!!