Tuesday 23 February- Morning in the desert

We all slept in. I got up at 7 and for me that was sleeping in. Will was already awake and so I went and chatted with him until Tony came to get him up. They had had quite the adventure getting here last night. the map that they were using was not all that clear and when I saw it I understood why they got a little confused.Mary and Ron got up a little bit later too and came out for breakfast at around 920. they really are amazing. 93 and 89 and still going strong.

Tony started to get Will up and realized that the door to the washroom was blocking the lift so Will could not quite fit in so after a small conference with Ron, Tony took the door off and I helped him put it out of the way in the storage room under the stairs. It was Heavy.

We all sat down to breakfast and had a lovely time. Mary and Ron love to meet new people.

After breakfast Will, tony and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and Mary and Ron went to the store.

It was a lovely warm day. back to summer for us.

We walked down East lost Gold Circle to the entrance to Lost Gold Estates and took a picture of Will with some cactus. Tony parked Will and took a few steps away to get a picture. Will's chair started to roll toward a cactus. Well if it wasn't so scary it would have been funny. After we both jumped and stopped his forward motion into the cactus we all laughed.

We walked around to South Lost Gold Circle and followed it up the hill. I was pushing Will at the start but fairly soon I gave it over to Tony. It is a steep hill. When we got to the top we stopped for a breather and all enjoyed the views. Will hadn't even broken a sweat. The development has a wall all the way around it and that was a topic for awhile. Tony had to push Will across a gravely road for a little while but we made it and Tony got his workout for the day.

There was alot of water around after yesterdays storm. We saw a small rodent running around but could not quite make out what it was. It was fast.

Bunnies, and birds, lots of birds. We even saw a red bird. Turns out it was a cardinal but before I blew this photo up there was much speculation and looking in the bird book when we got home. Turns out that Tony is also curious enough to look these things up.

My first Cardinal. Very exciting. I was so glad that the weather was warming up and was more like what we all thought Arizona should be like in February.

Monday 22 February - and The Rain and the Thunder

I woke up at 5 and looked for the weather channel.
It did not look good.

I had thought about going for a walk today up a trail into the mountains but looking at the outside I figured I would find something to do inside. Came downstairs and worked on the blog. Had my cup of tea and was making good progress when it really started to rain. I even heard thunder. Mary and Ron came down and we had a lovely bowl of porridge for breakfast. Mary said 'Into every life a little rain must fall' . She is so cute. During breakfast the skies opened up and there was lightning and thunder and rain like you would not believe.

Ron went out to move furniture In out of the rain and I went out to help him. I have not seen rain like that since Winnipeg and some of the summer storms there. During the rain we could not even see the mountian but after it stopped and the clouds cleared away we could see that there were waterfalls on the mountain. quite extraordinary. I think that this has been one of their wettest springs

in years.

After breakfast Mary and I did the crosswords and Ron went to soak his foot and change his bandages.

For a moment the sun came out and Mary and I went for a walk. We brought an umbrella with us in case it rained and because we had the umbrella it did not. shortly after we got home it did start to rain again. Mary and I listened to a little music after supper and sang along with some good old tunes like glowworm, yellowbird and Happy trails.

They never play Roy Rogers any more.

The sun came out and we had a rainbow that was lovely. then we noticed that the mountain seemed to be two ranges of mountains one behind the other. And there was snow on them! We were all amazed.

The pairs Dance was on the olympics and we all enjoyed watching the Canadians get the gold. they put on a great show and deserved to win the gold.

We had been expecting Will and Tony, some friends of Dennie's to come at around 930 0r 10 but they did not show until around midnight. we got them settled and all went to bed.

Sunday 21 February To market to Market.

It was raining when I got up. I worked on the computer and am now caught up with the blog so will now start on the Arizona trip.

Uncle Ron said that we should be ready in case the weather got nice and we would go to the market. Well the weather did get nice. Just as we were going to leave Tom called, their son and so they chatted with him for awhile, they love talking to their kids.

We went to this market that is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It is made up of three very long large sheds that are connected at each end. I only covered two of the three and that took an hour. I picked up a few things for the kids and grandkids.

Mary and Ron were looking for a booth that sold leather sandals. They would work better for Uncle Ron's toe right now.

We had lunch at the eastern buffet, a smorg with mostly chinese food but it had sushi and kappa maki too so I loved it.

On the way back home we looked at open houses. There was one that was lovely and one that was smaller and not as nice. But they both cost about the same. By the time we got home and settled it was almost dinner time.

I saw some rabbits again and got their photos. They are much smaller than our jackrabbits. Real cute though with white tails.

We had dinner and then Ron read the comics to us. We traded jokes for awhile before going in to watch the olympics. At about 930 we all hit the sack. We are such party animals.

Saturday 20 February - dancing and church.

I woke up early and went for a walk. It was cloudy and cooler so I did not take the longer walk but stayed close to home. I need to get a long sleeved shirt as all I brought with me was summer clothes. Silly girl. The clouds were sitting on the mountain and it was very pretty. Down here when it rains everything gets green very fast. When I got here the green on the mountain was only up to the base of the hills. This morning it was up past the hills and starting to climb the mountain. I tried to get some photos of the sunrise. It reminded me of when we were kids and my dad painted a desert silhouette mural on the dining room wall. He was pretty accurate really. Went back inside for a nice warm cup of tea. The desert is quite cool when the sun is not out.I was on the computer going over my pictures that I had taken the day before when Mary and Ron came out for breakfast. We had porridge, with bananas and raisins. Yummy porridge. after cleaning up from breakfast I went back onto my computer and Ron and Mary were listening to music.

I looked around the corner and found them dancing. How sweet is that? Married over 65 years and they still dance.

Of course they didn't dance for long and Ron was very careful not to let Mary step on his sore toe.

We listened to Lloyd Barleen and George Staerkel, country style singer

musicians. Ron made some reservations at a concert that is coming up at the Apache Junction Opry. He already has tickets for A celtic evening which sounds terrific.

We had lunch and then watched the olympics. It was raining off and on so decided that a walk today was not such a good

idea.

On the way to church we stopped off and picked up the tickets for the concert and to look at an open house in the neighbourhood. It was quite large with three bedrooms and a spiral staircase in the master bathroom going up to a little room that could be used as a study or something, but you could only get to the room through the bathroom in the master bedroom. I actually did not like it that much and I don't think Uncle Ron did either. Church was about a 15 minute drive from there and was very nice. St George's church has 4 masses on Saturdays and 5 on Sundays so we went on Saturday. Next week I want to get some photos of the stained glass windows as they were lovely .

They brought the southwestern feel into the church.

After mass we went for waffles. there was a storm over in the west and the clouds were very interesting.

When we got home there were puddles on the patio so it must have rained quite a lot when we were in church.

19 February Friday afternoon Arizona

There seemed to be a lot of activity around us what with the house being built across the street, the yard maintenance guys busy cleaning up the yard, and Sara came in and did the floors. Ron and Mary went to soak his foot and I went on the computer. I am so close to finishing off the trip that I took last year with Maureen. I wanted to get that done before I started the Arizona blog. After all the activity had finished we sat outside in the warm sun discussing life. I saw bunny rabbits and more birds. trying to get some good photos but it is hard.

Dinner was a stir-fry and then Mary and I chatted about her career as a stenographer and her work with ducks unlimited as the office girl friday. She recalled that one of her jobs was to get and open the mail and one day a little parcel came in.

When she opened it she almost fainted as it was full of little birds legs. It seems that, back when she worked there, the government had a program that the farmers would get paid a penny or a nickel a piece for killing predatory birds that would harm ducks and chickens and other game birds.

So birds like crows and magpies the farmers would kill and cut their legs off and send them into Ducks unlimited for payment. Well that was the last time Mary opened any little packages that came in. That was no longer in her job description.

We all watched the Olympics for awhile.

We all go to bed about the same time 930ish. and I was ready for bed too.

Friday Morning 19 February

I woke up early and went for a walk before Mary and Ron were up. The sun was shining and the sky was blue and it was warm. Like summer. It was great. I walked down the road looking at all the different kind of cactus and plants. I will have to look them up in a plant book. There were lots of birds there that I had never seen and a few that I had.

I tried to get a few photos of birds but was not very successful.

I need to

get a camera with a better zoom on it. I walked for about an hour and had a lovely time.

I could have walked the road a lot faster but I kept stopping to take pictures. When I got back to the house the yard maintenance fellows were there and I wondered what time it was. The sun was starting to get nice and warm on my back but I didn't think it was too late.

Mary and Ron were up and just starting to make breakfast when I got back. Mary was cutting up the bananas and Ron was making the porridge.

We had a lovely oatmeal porridge with bananas and raisins. It was very good.

After that Mary and I went for a walk. I was happy to go for a walk and see the neighbourhood.

We chatted about man-eating cactus and the views which were lovely. She told me about Bob, her brother, my father, and how he was always in trouble when he was little.

He liked to see how things worked and so would take things apart all the time. It was only natural that he became an engineer.

We talked about Phoenix and Edmonton.

We just talked and chatted and laughed a lot about a lot of things.

I was always stopping to take pictures and Mary said that she should take a picture of me so I set her up with the camera and got myself into where I figured I would be in the picture and she took it.

Considering that she can't see, it turned out perfect. Heck she got a better shot than lots of people who do see.

I told her that she could be on the verge of a new career as a photographer.

By that time we had walked the circle and were back at home. What a nice way to spend the morning.

We came in and Ron told us that we had to go and get Mary's hair done so we had a quick lunch and headed off to the hairdressers. They greeted Mary like she was a long lost relative and she beamed at their attentions to her. While she was there I went to get some stamps for postcards. Ron ran into some people from Edmonton and was chatting with them when I came out of the grocery store.

I had also picked up a few groceries. Then her hair was done, she has such nice hair, silver white. I told her that I want to have hair like hers when I get older and that I am starting to get some white hair now. She thought that was funny that anyone would want white hair but then she thought yes she does have lovely hair. She is such a positive and fun loving person. we went home and relaxed for a little bit after such a busy morning.

Day one in Arizona

Back in October of 2009 Uncle Ron and Aunt Mary invited me down to visit with them in Phoenix. I would love to go. When? in February 2010. Ok. this would be great. Get away from the winter in Edmonton in February. YES. I am there. I am your girl. February the 17th was my original flight date but the flight got cancelled and I had to rebook in a hurry as Mary and Ron were expecting me.I called my cousin Maureen and we booked a flight the next day.

I got as far as Calgary as the weather was not

cooperating and neither was

the American customs lineup. What I mean to say is that the line up was long, very long, so between the flight from Edmonton to Calgary being delayed 30 minutes and the impossible long line up I missed my connecting flight and had to rebook again. Air Canada gave us a hotel voucher, a meal voucher, and a 1-800 number and told us to rebook ourselves. Now I thought that this was rather odd as they were right there.

I had a Harvey's veggie burger

and went to the Acclaim hotel. There were 10 of us who missed the connecting flight and 3 of us ended up at the hotel. Ron who was going down to his parents place to pickup a boat and RV

and drive them back to calgary and Tim who was going home to Phoenix from a computer job in Saskatoon. Ron told me about the couple who if they did not get a flight would miss their daughters wedding the next day.

I told them about Tammy from Grand Prairie, who had paid 700$ for a massage therapy conference training and that if she was not in Sedona by 8 am the next morning would be out the money as there was no refunds and you could not be late.

The Hotel was about 7 minutes from the Airport and was very nice. Brand new.

I rebooked my flight and called Uncle Ron with the news. He had arranged for a friend of his to pick me up and now he had to make new arrangements again. They live about 40 minutes outside of Phoenix around Apache Junction and so a cab would be expensive.

His friend had to go on a trip so could not pick me up but he said he would figure something out.

Gave me a number to call when I got my luggage and wait to see who picked me up.

The hotel was very comfortable but I did not sleep well. woke up about every hour. I got my wake up call at 430 and I was already awake and getting dressed. The restaurant opened at 5 and wanted to get a cup of tea for the road. Bumped into Ron and Tim and found out that they did not sleep well either. We all caught the 530 shuttle and got our selves checked in for our flight. I stopped in at the duty free store and picked up some Lindt chocolates for Uncle Ron and Aunt Mary.

The lineup for the US customs and Immigration was not long at that time of the morning.

It moved fairly quickly and after my pat down I was joking with the security people about the chocolates. They said they were not allowed to go as they would melt in phoenix. I laughed. Then the next security man said he might have to eat one to make sure that they were in fact chocolate and

not some prohibited substance. If I wanted I could forget them there. I asked if that might be considered bribery? But seriously, they were all very professional and pleasant and it all went quite smoothly.

Ron got his bag searched and poor Tim got the full works. He said he always got the full works.

The plane departed on time and was it was a smooth flight. We flew along the mountains and went right over the Grand Canyon so I guess I could say that I have seen them now. there was also this very large lake. Uncle Ron thought It might be Mead lake so I will have to check it out on Google earth.

Uncle Ron and Aunt Mary picked me up at the Airport and they looked great. We drove out into the desert past saguaro cactus and Superstition Mountain.

When we got to the house they gave me the tour and showed which room I would be calling home for the next three weeks. It was lovely with a very comfortable bed.

after lunch I showed Mary and Ron that I had 5000 songs on my computer and Mary and I sang a few from the 50's to entertain Uncle Ron while he loaded the dishwasher. How much is that doggy in the window, Moon river, Swinging on a star.

They just don't write songs like that any more. I like the oldie songs. They were fun to sing along to and the lyrics were not that tough. Rubber tree plant and You are my sunshine. We had a great time. Ron wanted to know if I ever listened to all of them and I said probably once a year but I do have my favorites that I will listen to more often.

After lunch Ron had to soak his toe. He had minor surgery on an ingrown toenail and so has to soak his toe twice a day in epsom salts and put his foot up for at least a couple of hours. Mary and I went for a walk once around the circle. It was so interesting. All kinds of new plants and sights. Mary is such a good hostess she kept me entertained the whole time with stories and tales of her youth.

when we got back they watched some TV as the olympics is on. I went to work on my computer trying to finish off the Irish trip that I had taken with Maureen their daughter last year.

Their yard is very eco friendly, no grass to water or mow, just low maintenance desert type plants. Some cleaning up needed to be done of some of the grasses and palmy kind of plants and Ron said that the yard maintenance guys were coming tomorrow. He also had his cleaner coming as he wanted to get the floors cleaned. Heck I could have done that but it is a deal that Ron has with Sara.

We chatted and had a light supper. I was bushed so went to bed pretty early even for me.