dance of the seasons

Yesterday every time I went outside dressed in my up until now Arizona uniform (shorts and a sleeveless top) I said to myself....this is a bit chilly....I wish I had sleeves on.

(3:00 in the shade)

Today, newly clad in a shirt with sleeves, I ventured out and thought...my, I wish I had my jeans on.

November 5th and I think I can feel fall in the air....

dancing at dusk

Last night I took the tripod and camera to the patio with hopes of capturing the light changes on the mountain as the sun set.

I took photos every 5 minutes and was surprised how quickly the whole process was over.

Next time I think I'll try every 2 minutes.

Good-night mountain.


After the last shot of the mountain I walked to the west side of the house and photographed the sunset.

weekend waltz

This past weekend we accidentally stopped at a neighborhood garage sale (accidental because we were just making a quick trip to the bank). We found some excellent treasures. Here are some of our bargains put to a 3 count of a waltz


1 (very fun red bicycle bell)


2 (muffin tins)

3 (yard tools)


1 (stud finder)

2 (bike helmets)

3 (extension cords)

1 (stuffed Scooby Doo that says I wove you. My husband was wearing his Scooby Doo t-shirt when we went to the sale)


2 (Trek mountain bikes loaded with accessories)


3 (bar stools)

dance of the snowbirds

It happened virtually overnight (or so it seemed).

One day our little community had a population of 42,000 and the next thing I knew it had exploded in population to it's wintertime numbers of 77,000. That's about 35,000 people who flock to this area to escape the cold winter chill.

I first noticed the increase when I visited the post office. It was well after the noon-time rush but there was a huge line of patrons waiting. I decided to do my farm market shopping and stop by the post office later. When I went to the market I found it was so crowded with people it was like an obstacle course and it was necessary to wait my turn to pick my produce out of the bins.

Here's what Wikepedia says about Snowbirds....

Snowbirds are typically retirees, and business owners who can afford to be away from home for long periods of time or have a second home in a warmer location. Some snowbirds carry their homes with them, as campers (mounted on bus or truck frames). It used to be that snowbirds were the wealthy who maintained several seasonal residences and shifted residence with the seasons to avail themselves of the best time to be at each location.

A significant portion of the Snowbird community is made up of RVers. Many own a motorhome for the sole purpose of traveling south in the winter. Often they go to the same location every year and consider the other RVers that do the same a "second family". There are places like Quarzsite, Arizona that have been labeled "white cities" because from a bird's eye view all the motorhomes cover the landscape in white and then in the summer are gone.

Photo by Wikipedia

Although I haven't had much chance to interact with our new feathered friends I had already noted that the elderly people I have met in the community are typically friendly and happy. They aren't in a rush and enjoy talking. I guess if you need to double your population happy and friendly people is the way to go.

javelina hoe down

The first few days we were camping I was very careful not to leave "smelly garbage" in the trash outside our tent...but then one day I forgot. We had friends join us for lunch at our campsite. As we combined our foods to create a yummy lunch of tuna-avocado salad sandwiches I discarded some avocado and tomatoes that had passed their expiration date. I believe the smell of these rotting veggies wafting from the plastic bag tied to a chair in our campsite was responsible for drawing the wildlife to our tent at 2 AM in the morning.

I awoke to a bump in the middle of the night. Then there was a crash. As I nudged my husband to see if he was awake and aware of the intruders, I heard the plastic container with our food stash being overturned and emptied. As my husband removed his hunting knife from the mesh shelf over our bed I began praying in tongues. I pictured a bear devouring our food and then searching the tent for desert. As we felt around in the dark trying to locate the keys to the truck we heard our visitors begin to squabble over our garbage. Their noises changed from huffing and puffing to snorting. I relaxed a bit when my husband announced that our visitors were javelina and not the bear that I thought.

Photo from Wikipedia

Once we located the truck keys we were able to startle the large rodents out of our campsite by hitting the alarm button. We exited our tent, plugged in a spotlight, and joined our tenting neighbors who had been awakened by the rumpus. The men started out on a javelina chase armed with one hunting knife, two handguns, and as many rocks as they could find. They chased the garbage thieves through the woods and away from our campsite.

After a bit my husband returned and we gratefully climbed back into the warmth of the sleeping bag to finish the rest of the night.

The next morning, in the light of day, we found our uninvited guests had not only consumed our garbage but two loaves of bread that had been in our food container.

The moral of this story: always removed the smelly garbage from your campsite before going to bed.

Sedona Shuffle

On the weekend we had a free morning so we headed to Sedona with our friends Jessie and Renalee.

Since I had never visited Sedona before, we did a quick tour of all the "must see" spots including the Catholic Church built on the side of the mountain

and bell rock ...
It was a beautiful day, the views were stunning, and the company very enjoyable.
Next time we visit Sedona I'd like to explore some hiking trails....with my camera, of course.

dancing in hiking boots

We camped this past week at Camp Yavapines in Prescott, Arizona. Although much of our time was spent at meetings celebrating the Feast of the Tabernacles the last morning of our stay my husband and I took off adventuring around the campground. After a short time we saw our friend Jessie had climbed up to the top of a hill. Not to be outdone, we set out through the brush for the same hilltop.
The brush we climbed through was dry and the seeds and stickers from the weeds quickly found their way into my boots..... a stop to clean the pickers off my socks was necessary.

There were interesting things to discover.... lots of colors of rocks and colorful lichen growing on them...

as well as the typically camera shy lizzards...

not to mention a rugged mountain man posing at the top of the hill.