Arts and Craft Sale

My first attempt as being a vendor worked out pretty well.  I made money, not a fortune, but enough to pay for my clay.

I decided to try and sell my favorite jack rabbit jar.  It was the first item bought!  Now I know what I need to work on.

Blooms

Here are just a few shots of nice blooms.  I hope when I get back from Japan in 10 days that there will be an explosion of cactus flowers.

Sightseeing in Phoenix

Last week we had a fun day with my aunt and uncle.  We headed out at 6:30 a.m. as it's a two hour drive to get to central Phoenix.  The first thing on our agenda was a tour of the Ping golf club factory.  I would highly recommend this tour, and I don't even play golf.  It's so popular I had booked our March reservations back in October.  Then we headed to the State Capital building and enjoyed learning a bit more of Arizona's history.

My attempt at a selfie with the state seal.  Of course I am leaning backwards over the railing which is how people who take selfies die.

Then we headed to south Phoenix to Lolo's Chicken and Waffles.  That was a real fun restaurant specializing in southern cooking.  Very popular but worth it.  Next year we will try to do more things in Phoenix.

Quick Trip to Mexico

Or so we thought.  The drive into Nogales was just under two hours, problem free.  We parked the car in a lot on the north side of the border and it cost $4 to park.  As we entered the border building we just walked right through.  No one even looked at us and no one stamped our passport.

Nogales looks very similar to a lot of Latin America.  Broken down, a lot of rock, people just milling about, hot, music playing loudly.  And there is even that very familiar smell that always reminds me of the cities in India.  I can't quite figure out the source, but I don't like it.

Did some shopping and headed back to the border crossing.  There we waited in line for 75 minutes, with no explanation or signage as to why this took so long.  Hundreds of people in line to cross.  That alone makes me think it will be a long time before we head to Nogales again.

Madera Canyon

When I agreed to go on this hike I misread the elevation gain and thought it was about 1000 feet.  It would be tough but I could make that.  Turns out it was 1800 feet of gain.  No wonder we were both complaining and struggling.  The canyon was very peaceful, cool, and relaxing.  But really there were no birds.  All we've ever heard about was the great birding at Madera.  We must have been too high up or in the wrong spot.  We did see a squirrel.

One tree had flowers, other than that just a lot of brown and green.

Saddlebrooke's Big 5

Just like Africa has the Big 5 animals everyone wants to see, we have the same thing here in SB.  Rather than the elephant, lion, zebra, giraffe, and rhino our goal is to see a bobcat, coyote, javelina, jack rabbit, and rattlesnake (well, not all of us want to see this one).

This morning on our morning walk/animal hunt we saw nine deer, several "normal" bunnies, a juvenile roadrunner, a Gila woodpecker (I think, since this one is very similar to a Ladder-back), and a curve-billed thrasher, plus lots of people walking dogs.  None of the Big 5.

Tonight we are celebrating my aunt's 75th birthday.  In honor of her and the abundance of lemons we have I made a lemon-blueberry cake.  And with this we'll try the lemon meringue ice cream I made.  At least one of the desserts should work out.  Everything has to be lemons around here when it comes to baking!

The cake came out much better than the photo!

Less than five weeks to go

It's hard to realize that we'll be leaving this 80 degree desert in five weeks.  Some snowbirds stay for one month, some two, and we enjoy three months here.  The only thing we really can't do here is take strolls in the evening because it gets dark by 6:30.  And I mean dark!  There are no street lights where we live and if you don't know where you're going, you'll never find it.  So evenings we are a bit housebound.

                        

                     

Some views of the beloved Saguaros while on a hike deep in Catalina State Park.  I know the men on the hike were hoping to see a rattlesnake, but I was not.  Now that it's 80 degrees, and warmer, this is the time to watch out for rattlers!