happy dance

After two and a half weeks of "live-in" company (and somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 pots of coffee) and five out of the past six days "on the road" I am happily home alone today. Laundry never felt so good.

We've been going a a hectic pace with a trip to Serria Vista for the ping pong tournament, Tucson to set up our camping trailer, four trips into the city to participate in the Native American pow wow at Phoenix First Assembly pastor's school, along with returning Tracy back to the city after his 25 day visit, all working around Jay's work schedule and taking care of animals at home.

Sigh....Home, Sweet-Sweet, Home.

time to get up

Lily loves to help get Jay out of the bed in the morning.

dancing with the homeless

Our favorite homeless person has been staying with us the past couple of weeks. The other evening Tracy entered the kitchen wearing his cowboy hat, looking a lot like a character from a John Wayne movie.

ping pong prattle

Saturday Jay and his son, Tim, entered a Ping Pong tournament in Sierra Vista together. Tim's wife, Kerry, and I went along as spectators. Our boys did a great job although they didn't wear home any medals.


Action photos are challenging for me; my camera and my skills limit what I can produce from sports shots. I was determined, however, along with lacking anything better to do, to press the shutter button enough times to capture the day. The lighting was in my favor and Tim, known as "the dancer" among the ping pong club, proved an entertaining subject as he bounce, jumped, and kicked his way around the table. During the slow times I had fun sluth-shooting photos of Kerry and Tim as they interacted throughout the day.

chilly, silly, sweet

While the temperature plummeted outside yesterday I decided to warm up the kitchen with some baking. We had been invited to dinner with our friends, Ron and Lura, to hear about their recent trip to New Zealand. My assignment: desert.

Wednesday night I asked Jay what desert he would like. He suggested a banana cake with "coconut glaze" like his mom used to make. The banana cake part wasn't a problem but I had no idea what "coconut glaze" might be. I acquired the needed recipe with a quick call to Jay's mom in Indiana...butter, brown sugar, milk, and coconut, mixed together, spread on the hot cake and put under the broiler for 2 or 3 minutes.

While the cake was baking I noticed two Humming birds feeding on the blooms of the Rosemary outside the dining room. I grabbed my coat and camera and braved the cold to capture a photo of those quick little creatures.


As quick as Jay got home from work we piled in the car and headed two miles up the road to Raindance Ranch. We shared a wonderful meal accompanied by adventure stories from down under.

The highlight of the meal was the large squash Ron had brought home from the market. It was a huge Hubbard squash like the ones he remembered his mom growing in their garden in the Midwest during his childhood years.

We had all kinds of ideas of what could be done with such a large shell.

Good food, good friends, in a cozy warm kitchen. It was a sweet ending to a chilly day.

mountain magesty

It still amazes me how many different looks the mountain has depending on the light. Two nights ago I looked out the dining room window and saw it had a golden hue. A few minutes later as the sun went down the rocks and cliffs turned to grays and browns.


Last night was a more typical color for the Superstition Mountains at sunset, a rosy pink.

puffy

Puffy white clouds against a blue sky interrupted my morning tasks, luring me outside with my camera and begging to be the backdrop for some cactus photography.