Sunday 28 February - Last Day of the Olympics

It was raining when I woke up at 530 am.

I made myself a cup of tea went out and saved the paper from sure drowning. It is a good thing that they put them in plastic bags. Then I moved the patio furniture so that it would not get soaked. what a busy morning. After that I did yesterdays blog and started this mornings.

As I pause while writing the blog I look outside the windows and see steam rising from the walls and rocks. I believe that they used to call that dragons breath. We used to get it in Comox after a rain and the sun came out and started to warm everything up. but here the sun is not out so I am a little confused about where it is coming from. I figured it out. the hot tub.

I think I have to get a banana bread recipe to use up some of the ripe bananas that we have here.

Saturday 27 February Morning till Night

The morning was warm like summer with the prettiest sunrise. All pink fluffy clouds. Mary and Ron slept in a little as we had a late night on Friday. I worked on the blog and my photos from the day before. I actually got some pretty nice shots.By the time Mary and Ron were ready to have their breakfast I was ready too. They had porridge and I had shredded wheat.

After breakfast Mary and I had a lovely walk around the circle. I brought my camera along hoping to see roadrunners agianbut did not. Took some photos of flowers instead. In a couple of days there are going to be hundreds in bloom. I could see all the buds getting ready.

We also had some young girls out riding their motorized scooters. They were visiting their family on the other side of the circle and were very pleasant and careful when riding past us.

I asked them how fast the scooters would go and the told us only ten miles an hour. Well Mary and I decided that that was not too fast, after all young children can run that fast especially little boys. We went back to the house and went in to watch the Olympics with Ron.

At lunch we talked Olympics and church. St George church has 4 masses on Saturday and five on Sunday. We could not go on Sunday as the Olympic hockey game for gold between Canada and the US was on so it had to be Saturday.

The men’s curling started at 4 on Saturday and there was a mass that started at three so we had worked out our schedule.

After lunch we phoned Nancy and said Happy Birthday belated. We had not phoned yesterday which was actually her birthday but she being the gracious person that she is forgave us and chatted for while about all the goings on in Edmonton and with her party that was going to happen that night.

We headed out to church and Ron thought that he would try a new road to see if would get us there.

It did not so now we know don’t use that road. We did get to church with time to spare so I took some photos of the stained glass windows. They are very pretty.

The church was quite full and they opened up the back section for the overflow. Even though they had the fans going, it was still a little warm in there. It is a very busy church.

We did leave a little early as Mary was no feeling very well but when we got outside and into the breeze and fresh air she was soon feeling better.

On the way home I noticed that there were little purple flowers growing along the roadsides. I wondered if they might be lupines. In Texas they have bluebonnets in the spring and the fields are full of them. These looked similar only smaller. I will try to get back down there and get some photos.

Uncle Ron said that it was the greenest he had seen as normally all the ground that was now green would have been dirt brown.

When we got home I got some pictures of a humming bird in the back yard, a Costas Hummingbird.

We got back and settled in to watch the curling. It was a good game with great shots by both the Norwegians and the Canadians. We decided to have our supper of lentil soup on tv tables so we could watch the whole game.

In the end Canada won gold. We all stood when they played the national anthem and sang along. It was fun.

Tom phoned and they chatted for while and we watched the Olympics some more. Then Ron called Joanne and they all chatted too. Then we noticed the moon was full and Mary and Ron went out to look at the moon.

It was a beautiful evening, like summer, and I tried to get a shot of them watching the moon arm in arm but it was so dark it didn’t quite turn out so I took another shot with the flash on. Why is it that when we see the moon it is large and when we take a picture of the moon it is small?

We watched a little more Olympics skaters and bobsledders and decided it was late enough. Another really nice day.

Friday 26 February -3 Road runners!

After lunch Mary and I went for a walk around the circle and we saw two road runners. Of course I did not have my camera with me. The first one was down by where the circle meets South Lost Gold Road and the other one was on the other side of the circle from Mary and Ron's. At first I could not believe my eyes. I got all excited and Mary got all excited and she said that she actually couldn't see well enough to see it and that I could tell her that I saw an elephant and she would have to believe me, that's how good her eyes were. We both laughed at that. So my witness that I saw a road runner was actually not such a good witness after all. We continued our walk and low and behold there was another one in someone's yard. They were bigger than I thought they would be and lighter in colour. I will have to check and see if there is a difference between the sexes. So I saw two roadrunners today. It was great. We got back to the house and told Ron and he thought that was great too.

Mary and Ron watched some olympics and I downloaded all of the pictures that I had taken on my walk earlier and photoshopped them. I put a new album on facebook and then it was time for dinner.

We had just finished dinner when, miracle of miracles, a roadrunner was in Mary and Ron's yard and we all saw it! Three road runners in one day! Again I did not have my camera handy enough. We discussed about the fact that just that morning we had talked about roadrunners and that maybe all we needed to do was talk about some creature that we wanted to see and it would appear. We decided not to talk about cougars.

Ron had tickets for us all to go and see Tomaseen Foleys Irish Times, a concert of celtic song, dance and storytelling over at the Methodist church. It was marvelous. The Irish story teller, Tomaseen Foley, was funny and the music and dancing were really good. We picked up some CD's and got home at around 10 pm. Checked out the latest happenings at the olympics, Canada had another gold in Mens relay short track speed skating and decided at 1030 that we were bushed. It had been a really wonderful day full of surprises and laughter.

A Lovely Long Walk on Friday February 26

The morning was lovely and warm with not a cloud in the sky. Mary had an appointment today to get her hair nails and toes done today so I went for ride to the shop and walked home from there.

First I mailed some postcards, picked up a few more

and some stamps and then got something to drink.

I went outside and heard some birds in a tree behind the store.

Now I have to explain the trees around here. They are so thick that you can't see hardly anything that is in them. When I got closer I realized that there were probably twenty birds in that thicket of a tree and some of them were quite large too. I did manage to get a few pictures that I might be able to use to identify what kind of birds they were.

The temperature is around 73 F and it was lovely summer weather.

In preparation for my walk I had applied a generous amount of sunscreen on and had brought my hat to keep my face out of the sun as much as possible.

There was a path that followed the road almost all the way home so I was mostly on that.

It is about one mile to the gatehouse and two miles more from there so I figure that I probably walked about four miles as I kept leaving the path to investigate things.

Right along the path I found a cactus with a bundle of sticks in it.

Well I thought maybe it was more than a bundle of sticks so I stuck my hand carefully through the spines and spikes into

a little opening and pointed my camera down towards the bundle. I am short and the cactus was taller than me so I was reaching trying not to get too scratched up

To my great delight there were three blue eggs inside. That was exciting and well worth the few scratches on my hand.

A little further down the path was a low bush with a fluffy flower that I found out from the 'Wildflowers of the Desert Southwest' book at Mary and Ron's was called a Fairy Duster.

A very appropriate name. There were different flowers everywhere. I could make my own book of all the flowers that I saw and took pictures of. I did get some great photos I

think. I used the photos when I got home to find out what they were in the wildflower book.

I was keeping a list of birds and now I could start a list of wildflowers that I had seen while in Arizona.

We need to find a cactus book so that I can find out the names to all the different kinds of cactus too. It is amazing the variety of cactus. Long sticks sticking out of the ground, barrel, saguaro, prickly pear and many more.

There were also paths that went off the main path and I went onto a couple of those too.

They went up into the hills and I found out what was looking so green.

Lichen. After it rains the lichen spring into action, as it were, and grow like crazy, for a lichen that is.

It comes in all colours as right beside the rock with the bright yellow green lichen was a rock with the blue, black and orange lichens too.

Also there were little plants about the size of mown grass but with tiny flowers on

them.

I heard so many different

bird sounds out there I

thought that there must have been a hundred birds in the bushes around me and I could not see any of them.

I left the little path and went up a hill and got a

good look at the terrain.

That was when I heard this little chirpy chuffy noise coming from a tree.

I went toward it slowly and eventually narrowed it down until I found what was making that little noise.

A hummingbird. Just sitting there waiting for me to take a

picture. I really do need a better zoom on my camera. It was lovely.

I wondered if there was a nest around but I did not see

one.

I was, by that time, halfway down a slope and

didn't want to walk all the way back to the little path so thought I might just continue down into the wash and follow it along to the road.

I found some scat. maybe to an exotic animal like

a coyote or a bobcat?

It was quite small so I voted for bobcat.

Continuing down the slope I soon realized that it was was getting very steep and rocky so I skirted around the slope and found myself in a boulder and rock filled wash, along a subdivision with a fence.

The rocks were put there to prevent erosion during rainy periods. I climbed over the rocks and boulders and worked my way over to the road.

There were Gambels Quail all over the place.

There was also a lemon tree growing in someone's yard with some of them hanging over the wall I really wanted to go and pick one but I resisted the temptation. Can you imagine. A lemon tree.

I followed the road down to the gate house and talked

to the man there for a minute. They feed the quail in the morning so there were usually lots around.

The path kind of disappeared for a little while but I just walked on the road side till I found it again.

It was getting quite warm out now. The road was on a gentle and steady rise towards the mountain.

I continued to stop and take photos and wave at people driving by.

They all smile and wave here. very friendly folks. I saw a hummingbird investigating a stone wall. I am not sure why he would be checking the wall as there were no flowers there, but he was lovely and I got a picture

of him.

It took me two and a-half hours to walk three and a-half miles.

When I got home Mary and Ron were just starting lunch and so I joined them and shared stories of the birds and flowers I had seen. They had taken the short cut home and that is why they did not pass me on the road.

I still have not seen a road runner.

Ron said they were not seen in this area very often. Well I still have a week to go so you never know.

Thursday evening in Arizona

Mary and I had a great time reading the wildflower book. There were words in it that I had no idea what they meant, so finally I got my computer and looked a few of them up. While doing that I put on my Itunes and played oldies from the 30's and 40's and Mary and I sang along. She remembers lots of songs.

Bajadas - a slope at the base of a mountain that is formed from eroded sand and gravel.

Mesas - is spanish and Portuguese for table and refers to that formation in the landscape that rises up from the land with steep cliff sides to a flat top.

Tohono O'odham - is a native tribe not related to any Irishman that I could find out about.

Arroyos - is a dry channel that intermittently has water in it after it rains and is also called a wash, or dry creek bed.

after we had learned all of these things Mary went with Ron when he had to soak his foot and change his bandage.

I went on the computer and worked on the blog. At around 5 I started dinner and we ate at around 545. Just salad, garlicky mushroom potatoes and pork with broccoli and corn. Dessert was chocolate brownies with strawberry frozen yogurt. yum.

The olympics today was exciting. The Canadian girls hockey team won gold. I hit the sack early and didn't get to see all the skaters.

25 February Thursday - So long Will and Tony

Awake at 5. tea and blog. that seems to be my routine here, or anywhere for that matter.

Got a few photos of the sunrise. It is warm outside again today. at around 7 30 I poked my nose into Wills bedroom and he was awake. we looked up the weather in Sedona and found out it was going to be getting cooler so we looked at temperatures in tucson, Flagstaff and phoenix too.

If it gets too cold up in Sedona they will go down south to Tucson.

Tony came in and I departed so Will could get ready.

I got the table ready for breakfast. We all had Ron's world famous porridge. Will and Tony thought they might get away after breakfast but there was so much to do. We had to talk about second cup versus starbucks. We had to put the door back up in the bathroom. They had to get their things packed up and then go on the computer to write a few emails. By the time that was all accomplished it was practically lunch time so they stayed for lunch too. We had penne pasta and salad out on the patio.

It was so nice. We

sat out there for a while and chatted in the warm sunshine about the olympics and road construction in this area. Then they had to go.

Tony had already packed just about everything. The only thing left was to transfer Will into the passenger seat and load the wheelchair. With goodbyes and see you laters said they drove off for their adventures in Sedona.

Mary and Ron and I went inside and although we had plans to go for a walk we somehow ended up reading the flower book. Will and Tony had brought Ron and Mary and I a desert wildflower book and I found out that the flowers in the patio are desert verbena. How exciting. It is going to be such a useful book.

Wednesday Evening- Artichokes

We got back to Mary and Ron's and found out that Mary had a little bit of a faint earlier that afternoon so was not feeling well and was laying down. We started to make stuffed artichokes at about 5 and once Tony figured out the newfangled oven we put them on to roast far an hour around 6 pm. Will was chatting with Mary and Ron and they were all having a great time. talk turned to construction methods and the olympics. We have been kind of watching what is showing down here and we have been keeping pretty much abreast of the latest medals for Canada. We checked the artichokes at 7 and they needed to be cooked some more so put them back in for another 30 minutes. At 730 I checked them, basted them and I put them in for another 20 minutes with the convection oven on this time. at 8 they still were not done so I put them in for another 20 minutes at a higher temperature. at 830 I served them. Will and I had been chatting with Mary while Ron and Tony watched the Hockey game. the Artichokes were only just done and was maybe not the best dish I have ever made but we managed. Desert was great. Icecream. we were all bushed and Will said good night right away. Ron, Mary and Dennie stayed up to watch a bit of the olympics but around 10 called it a night also.