March-ing on

Cannot believe it is March already. If we were going to Alaska, we'd be leaving in six weeks. So it is good we are not.

I need some sand for my backyard work, and I still need some more flat rocks to interlay among the flagstones. So, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go gather some of each. Peggie came with me and we went into the washes and mountains north of Oracle and into the San Pedro valley. It was a beautiful day, 60's, blue sky, and we discovered the wild flowers are blooming. Lupine, desert marigold, filaree, and of course, golden poppies. Hillsides covered with them. Peggie took some photos, maybe she will add some to this post. We upset a Harris' hawk and he really squawked at us. Maybe we were close to a nest?

We attended the last in this season's TSO concerts. Mozart and Beethoven. Very enjoyable.

This coming week will be busy. Peggie has four scheduled events in six days, and I have to get my haircut and prepare the trailer for summer travel.

Oh, and we did have some wind the day before the rest of the country had tornadoes. It blew our tombstone rose off the wall. We have to figure out how to get it back up. Beats the heck out figuring out where your house was blown to.

Okay, enough for now. Stay well, Karin. You will need your strength later.

Ramblin' man

No focus today. It has been a while since either of us posted, so it is time to write.

The quilt bomb was declared a success. The YouTube video hasn't exactly gone viral, but has about 2000 views and has spawned at least one copycat already. The museum was so delighted, they have decided to remove the installation and make the pieces a permanent part of the museum collection. Peggie's group has "officially" made history!

Now she is engaged in her online class on abstraction. If you thought abstract art was what toddlers do with finger paints, you were wrong. There really is a lot involved in properly executed abstract art. The good part is that she gets to spend hours in the studio. That can't be bad.

Meanwhile, I am trying to get that re-landscaping work done. We acquired some adobe blocks many years ago when some friends were moving. I just got around to paving a section of the yard with them last week. I am not breaking my back, or acting like there is a deadline. I work when I feel like it and stop when I get tired. I am sitting in the shade, sipping lemonade, reading, listening to birds, and watching lizards between moving shovels of dirt and placing of rocks. I have noticed a pair of birds in the yard which I have not been able to identify. They must be strays. Probably up from Mexico. We have several hummingbird feeders up, drawing a nice crowd of colorful hummers. Even the woodpeckers and finches are finding ways to get at the nectar.

We've been to see a couple of movies. There is an experience that has changed in our lifetimes. As a kid I could see a double feature on Saturday afternoon for a dime. Usually, at least one of the films was black and white. You could go in, find a seat and stay as long as you wanted. Meaning they didn't clear the theater between shows. If you came in after the feature began, you stayed until you got to the scene you remembered came on again. Even if there was another movie in between. The phrase "this is where I came in" originated from that experience. Most people would then get up to leave. But you didn't have to. You could watch the entire movie again. But, one other thing. The theater, 500 seats or so, was always more than three quarters full. The first run movies that were shown in the evening might be so popular that they sold out. Go to the movies now and you get a theater that is one of a dozen in the same building, 200 or so seats in each, and it is more than three quarters empty. Fewer than thirty joined us for an early afternoon screening yesterday. But the seats are way more comfortable, they recline, have cup holders in the arm rest, and are arranged so that nobody's big head can block your view of the screen. They clear the theater at the end, so don't arrive late, and a ticket costs more than a dime. Where I used to get two full length features, a cartoon, a newsreel (remember those?) a box of popcorn, a coke, and a candy bar for a quarter, now I pay (senior discount!) $5.25 for one feature, no treats, and I have to watch advertising until the previews (more advertising) start before I get the movie.

Today is the first cold (under 60) day in a long time. It is too cold to work outside without a jacket, and too warm to work with one. Oh well, I have some good books and a few magazines.

Quilt Bomb

To help kick off the Arizona Centennial display, "100 years, 100 quilts" at the Arizona Historical Museum, a group of fiber artists decided to award the display with a quilt bomb. They arrived outside the museum at 10 pm the night before and wrapped trees with fiber art.
 

For some more information and pictures of the installation, check out  Mary's blog 

A Sneak Preview

This is just a sneak preview of something brewing. Stay tuned and all will be made clear....

Happy Birthday, Arizona

One hundred years old today, but still just a baby at third youngest in the family. The signing ceremony was the first recording on film in the White House. Still, we get no respect around the country as everyone celebrates Valentine's Day, a made up holiday that nobody even understands.
Except Hallmark and See's. They understand it.

And, it's SNOWING!!!!!!

We're baaack!

Patty Larkin was amazing. She writes all of her songs, and plays a mean guitar. No, the guitar was as nice as any other, but she creates a lot of music from just the one instrument. There was no band. The venue was a small storefront converted for performance. There were 100 seats and fewer than a dozen were empty. She told stories between songs that were funny. When the condensation started dripping from a vent in front of the stage, she added song lyrics about it.

We also went to a place called Red Tanks where ancient graffiti (rock art) tells the story of a mountain lion pouncing on a bull elk, two coyotes (or wolves?) in the act of making babies, and other images of unsure meaning. The creek was running just enough to make a pleasing sound and to fill the pools with clear water to reflect the red cliffs.

Greg showed me a place where I could gather some flat rocks for my patio expansion project. We watched the moon rise into a beautiful clear sky, then the next morning I woke up early enough to watch the beautiful sunrise into a partly cloudy sky that came afire in oranges and pinks. It was 20 minutes before I could see clearly again. The sun is BRIGHT!

I have to go now, those rocks won't get out of the jeep and into the back yard all by themselves.

Rocks generally like to stay in one place for years at a time. They take Newton's Laws very seriously.

reporting in

We just haven't been adventuring lately.

Peggie began an on-line class to learn abstract art. It is a full class and requires a lot of time to complete. She is stressed to be in unfamiliar and uncomfortable zones. That is the whole idea. In the end her comfort zone will be much broader.

I have been slowly redoing the back yard. I am taking dirt from some places and putting it in different places. I will, eventually, move some big, heavy rocks from one place to another. I will, eventually, lay some adobe blocks on the patio. I have pruned some trees, fixed the leaking water system, and gathered some of the many small stones I will, eventually, need when I re-lay those big, heavy rocks. One of the things I had to do was break up a chunk of spilled concrete the builders left behind. After some attempts with the tools I had, I succumbed to the common advice for DIYers everywhere, I got a BIGGER hammer. Yep, not much that can't be done with a big enough hammer.

We are taking the weekend off to go see Patty Larkin perform in Sedona. I intend to get some rock-laying tips from Big Greg. Maybe I could get him to come "show me how it's done."