Catch up from Christmas

Steph is back home in Indiana safe and sound.  Got home in between snow storms which was well timed!  Loved having her for another day, gave us a chance to introduce her to a Sonoran hotdog!  She ate it and smiled but kinda think she may not order it again--hey, its a Tucson thing!

 

We did go out for "Dim Sum" on Sunday.  Who would think you could get real, Cantonese dim sum in Tucson.  We consumed a lot!!

We went biking another day on the Santa Cruz bicycle trail.  Perfect day for biking.  Will modified one of his bicycles for Steph.  It worked but I'm not sure she was exactly comfortable as we couldn't get the seat down far enough for her.

This is a picture I stole from Tammy's Facebook page.  Doug, our youngest child, turned 40 this Christmas and Tammy surprised him with a party and had this cake made for him.  A couple of close-ups to show the detail.  The bottom layer is suppose to be a replica of Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book," and the very top is recognizable buildings in Shanghai's sky line.  Amazing cake.  Tammy said it was very tasty besides being a work of art. 

We are still recovering from the thought that our youngest child is 40!!

tropical Arizona and Steph

I know it is awful weather in a lot of the country right now but it is great in southern Arizona!  Indianapolis airport is expecting a bunch of snow, major storm headed through tomorrow--the day Stephanie was planning to leave!  Southwest gave her a no-hassel chance to change her flight, so we get to keep her here for another day until the storm blows through!!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Day at home with Stephanie.  Best present ever is having her here with us.  Doug, Tammy and Lia in Shanghai and we miss them but I'm thankful for what I can get!

Wayne and Judy Massey are sharing Christmas dinner with us.  It is so right to spend Christmas with them as we spent many Christmas's together back in another life when we all lived in Minnesota and our kids were kids at home!  They just arrived as snowbirds in Arizona from snowy Wisconsin  and will be around for a few months.

 

Christmas crackers and all.

 

Facetime with Lilliana

Tammy and Lia are in Shanghai now with Doug.  We got to "Facetime" with them last night and just had the best time "talking" to Lia.  She is use to communicating via Facetime and she definitely responded to our voices and faces.  The little picture up in the right hand corner of each iPad image is what she sees. . .and we were all mugging to get her to smile.  Which she did, plus babble to us, wave by by. . . and look at us like, "you are really weird."  She is a honey.  So are her Mom and Dad.

 

Stephanie's here!

Did I mention Stephanie!?!  She's here.  Enjoying her through the holidays.

 

She's raiding "my" fruitcake.  Doug knows how much I like good fruitcake and I've come to count on him sending me one every year.  I do share.

Emma

We always get tickets for Arizona Theater Company's productions downtown at the Temple of Music.  Last night we went to see thier production of "Emma" and it was a delight.  Based on Jane Austen's, Emma and set to music it was so well done.  There was not one character that wasn't perfect--that's what we thought anyway.  Guess it could be characterized as a "chick-flick/play" but not really--Will liked it a lot.  Just great theater.  We went with our friends Jasper and Susie and Stephanie and enjoyed dinner at MetroGrill before hand.  In fact, we were almost late and scooted into the theater at the last minute because we sat at dinner too long.

 

Rainbow

 

Driving down Ina Road and looked in the rear view mirror and spied this full rainbow.  We've been getting rain yesterday and today and its very welcome.

 

 

Rain in the valley, but that means snow up on the mountain!  Snow on the Catalinas down to 5000 ft.  Ski slope should have enough snow to open for Christmas week. Have to give credit to my friend, Connie for this great picture! I stole it off her Facebook page.

 

Rain and Korean BBQ

Its raining today in Tucson.  In fact it rained off and on all night.  So welcome although it brought us a (I know, its all relative) cold front for a few days.  So was a good night to go out to eat.  We went all out for a Korean BarBQ and ate ourselves until we were stuffed!!  Tammy, I think you would have liked this place.  We had not been there before so we did the works.  New place to take some out of town guests--I just put it on my "new favorites" list.
  I can see snow up on higher elevations of the Catalina Mountains.  First time this year.  Just rain down here in the valley.

cold and snowy Iowa

This is what we woke up to in Orange City at Les and Helene's house!!  Little bit too chilly for our Arizona blood.

But it wasn't too cold to go to Lamars, Iowa to the Wells Blue Bunny ice cream store to have a big dish of THE best ice cream.

When our plane landed in Arizona we got rid of those winter coats asap.  Nice quick trip, Gram is doing well, fun to catch up with friends and family and enjoy a bit of an Iowa holiday.

Christmas time in iowa

Lights all around town. . .and that little dusting of fresh snow makes them all look pretty nice.

We went to church this morning by watching the service on tv with Mom in her room at Whispering Heights. Calvin CRC broadcasts the Sunday service on the local cable channel so she can stay connected. They even get a bulletin to her on Saturday so that she isn't missing a thing. It was just too cold and wintery to try to take her out today so this works great for her.

A trip to the midwest

We decided it was time for a visit to Will's Mom in Iowa as she just celebrated her 91st birthday. Wouldn't you know we'd pick a snowy weekend in the midwest to leave sunny and warm Arizona. Quite the shock to our system. We flew into Sioux Falls, SD, picked up our rental car, drove thru the snow flurries to spend our first night in Brandon, SD with Pete and Alice Haan.

So fun to see these guys. We arrived mid afternoon and talked non stop until we all went to bed at 10:30. Alice did stop long enough to fix us an amazing roast beef dinner. Then up the next morning to visit some more before it was time to scrape the snow off the car and head for Rock Valley.

With all the reminiscing about years gone by and our kids growing up, Alice found a couple of items she had saved over the years. My kids use to spend a good amount of time at their house in North St Paul and apparently they drew some pictures--it must have been Christmas time--which Alice apparently laminated and then had on her refrigerator for a long time. And then she kept them all these years. So sweet--I recognized that distinct artwork in a flash. Alice has so many treasures in her house.

Workshop in Oracle

 

Yesterday I drove about an hour north and east of Tucson to the little town of Oracle, tucked in the foothills on the north side of the Catalina Mountains for a workshop to learn more about glazing my pots.  It was a good workshop, learned all kinds of new tricks and techniques and had a good day.  Also met up with some other local potters and met a great bunch of new ones--not new potters, new to me!

   I learned all about the artist community in Oracle that has roots back in the 60's when a bunch of budding artists and arts faculty members from the U of A settled in this "remote" part of Tucson--they were the hippies of the time.  Well, remnants of that group from Ranch Linda Vista still remain as many went on to be well established in their particular discipline.  Oracle has an interesting Arizona history all its own, with the group of miners, cowboys and ranchers that lived there.  The old "Wilson Ranch" is now split up into parcels of varying sizes and uses.  One of the horse barns from the original ranch is now converted into an artist cooperative space and used for events, gatherings, exhibits, and community space.  That is where the workshop was held.

 

One of the delightful people I met and was able to get to know was Joy Fox McGrew who is one of those artists that settled here years ago and lives in one of the old ranch houses (not the one behind her here, however--that was the guest ranch house.)  She has installation pieces at various locations around Tucson and was such a delight to meet.  During our lunch break a group of us went across the street to visit her personal studio plus the local gallery next door.  She has been known to dig her own clay out of the hillsides around Oracle and incorporates all kinds of found objects and metals into her sculptures.  This particular one is maybe hard to see but happens to be pretty much all out of clay. 

Tis the Season

We started the Christmas season in Tucson with a night at Tohono Chul and their annual lights in the Garden.  Tohono Chul is a favorite spot for us in Tucson, and if you have visited us I am sure we have taken you there.  Its a wonderful public garden with a restaurant (they now call it a Bistro), couple of gift shops, gallery, green house and lots of trails to stroll--wonderful place and it is close to our house. 

Last night they had everything covered with white Christmas lights so it was magical.  Then they had various groups throughout the park playing their kind of music which adds to the ambiance.  Best one last night was Domingo Degrazia and troupe (if the name is familiar, yep he is the son of Ted Degrazia) and his eclectic brand of Spanish guitar. 

Only in the desert

Odd picture but hard to see with a flash, or night picture, but it is a "snowman" only made out of tumble weeds and decorated with lights.

Pretty in Pink

All dressed up and invited to a brunch.  Lilliana is really stepping out in style.

Lets see. . she must be almost 16 months old now.  Such a little lady. I miss her.

Another Day

We went over to the Nature Conservancy property near Patagonia to see what we could find for birds there, and to hike the trails. The Sonoita Creek actually comes to the surface and begins to flow here. Its also known for the huge native Fremont Cottonwood trees that flank the creek. They are mammoth.

We sat at this spot for a few minutes just enjoying the sounds and views around us when a couple of deer came up the stream toward us. We stayed very still and they came surprisingly close before they got wind of us and bolted.

Thanksgiving at Patagonia

Beautiful Sycamore

Enjoying Thanksgiving holiday at Patagonia. I cooked my turkey on Monday with all the trimmings and packed it up and brought it all along. We have been eating it all week and had plenty left for another big meal on Thursday. Pumpkin pie lasted until today! However, tonight we went into town for pizza at "Velvet Elvis." This is a Patagonia icon. Its even been written up in Sunset magazine. Upscale pizza and calzones and imaginative salads. Yummy.

We took a drive on some back roads to find the ghost town of Harshaw. Not much left from the 1880's town but the cemetery remains and is so interesting. Its on the side of a hill and still maintained by someone! Among the overgrown weeds and broken down markers, there are modern grave stones. Some are old sites with deaths from the early part of the century with modern grave markers. Obviously family around to care. Also it was highly decorated, we're guessing left over from recent Dias de la muerto (Day of the Dead).

And then there are the birds to watch

Sonoita Creek Preserve

We hiked about four miles into the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area which is a permit preserve next to Patagonia State Park. Sonoita Creek is one of those few precious perennially flowing waterways in Southeastern Arizona. We felt like we had the whole thing to ourselves as we did not meet another person although there were other cars in the trailhead parking lot.

All the colors of the Southwest palette are there!!