Early Morning Musings

 Good morning! What do you do at 4:30 a.m. when your body thinks it's done sleeping? You write a blog post!

It has been a whirlwind of a week with Emily, Deb and Paul here for a week. They left yesterday morning and all made it safely back to Boston. Whew! Travel has been a bit chaotic lately, as you may know, but they didn't have any problems. Emily bunked in with me and it's kind of fun having a roommate.

Yesterday, after they left, I continued on to the Sew What sale (for the Coachella Valley Quilt Guild, hosted by The Lunch Bunch). Wow, there were a lot of donations of fabric and notions! The lobby area, separate from the big sale room was a zillion balls of yarn for sale. The colors were enticing but, luckily, I am such a lousy knitter that I was not tempted.

Speaking of quilts ... This is my latest Philanthropy donation.

You may have seen this quilt before while in progress. It is my first bigger quilt that I machine quilted. I have been sending them out to be long armed quilted, but that is too expensive for me to give away. I bought another machine last year ($35) and the ladies here helped me put on a walking foot and I was finally able to quilt it in Amherst! I hand sewed the binding here. Orange still is not my favorite, but it was donated fabric as was the mostly black backing. I had the greys and peach fabric. The Lunch Bunch donated the batting. They buy a huge roll of batting and as long as you're donating the quilt to Philanthropy, it's free. 

{The yellow quilt in the background is my mother's quilt that I made for her in 2002, when she was still snowbirding it. When she was back in Quincy, she had the citrus colors of Palm Springs with her. There are all kinds of citrus trees planted by original condo owners here. The back is covered with family pictures over the years, so she had us with her when she was in Palm Springs. That quilt was longarmed by Timna Tarr who is quite a quilting celebrity. She has designed fabric, written a book, and won many quilting awards, including being the main star at the Houston Quilt Show.}

Thanksgiving was a lovely, mostly quiet, affair with our friend Elaine. I say mostly quiet because as we were still sitting at the dinner table chatting, we suddenly heard, "BOOM!" My first thought was that a car had hit the building. It soon dawned on me that it had been an earthquake. As Mom was saying, "It's all right, it's over now ..." the silent aftershock appeared as if we were sitting on rolling waves. It was over quickly, but I was definitely scared. Apparently there were 3 earthquakes, the largest being 3.8 on the Richter scale. The locals barely notice such activity. I had no idea that there are many different sounds associated with earthquakes because I had only experienced silent tremors. Some people told me they have heard a moving train sound.

Sunsets can be spectacular in the desert. This photo was taken as we entered Trilusa in Cathedral City for an amazingly delicious dinner of Italian cuisine.

Friday night we went to the Palm Springs tree lighting ceremony. The hot chocolate was better than ever with whipped cream, marshmallows (which I declined), and shaved chocolate (which I will always gladly accept!). The cookies were festive and divine as always. I limited myself to one madeleine with sprinkles. Sorry, no cookie pictures. 

I asked Mom to show off her red blouse. The 63 degree temperature was chilly for her so we were glad she wore her parkah!

Emily and Deb had a good time with us at the Frances Stevens Park in PS for the tree lighting. Paul was camera shy,  but he was there with us. Afterward we had a delicious dinner at the Gastropub.

Speaking of sweet things, I couldn't resist taking a picture of this dessert at Willy's restaurant. At this point, we had eaten so many wonderful meals that we shared two desserts for the five of us. After the tree lighting, Mom and I shared a sandwich -- restaurants give you too much food! At every meal, we ended up bringing half home as left overs. It did make it easy for lunch, but I felt as if all I did was eat! 

Consequently, last night we had mini won tons in chicken broth. No frills, no leftovers! (Insert laughing emoji here.)

The girls completed a thousand piece puzzle! It's by Sandra Boynton.

Did I mention that we went to the Cabazon Indian Powwow last Sunday? It was at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. I got a couple of short videos of the Grand Entrance but I'll be darned if I can figure out how to download them here. Sorry. Below is some of the beading I saw.

And some regalia. I was too timid (believe it or not) to ask if I could take pictures of individuals wearing their amazing dresses and regalia. They were splendid!

Since it was my first time, we had to go to the Fantasy Springs Casino. I won $87.61! And, yes, I did bring the money home.

This afternoon we will be going to the 7th Day Adventist Church to hear Handel's Messiah. It has become a tradition for us to enjoy with Lorne and Elaine. It's an amazing performance with musicians and singers and they invite the audience to sing along. 

Now it's only a half hour until CBS Sunday Morning -- one of my all time favorite shows. It is aired at 7 a.m. here. Maybe I'll make coffee.

Now that I'm finally over my 10 day cold, this will be my first time at Bloom in the Desert (UCC church). I'm trying to not be a 'Christmas and Easter only' Christian. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and beyond. Please know that I am sending good thoughts your way. This is just my way of having a conversation with you. Cheers!

PS I Love You

 Much like New England weather, Palm Springs has been all over the place from high 80s to 62 F. today. We have had many days of sunshine and a couple of days of rain -- some of it torrential, which is unusual for the desert.

I was thrilled to have a warm welcome from The Lunch Bunch, aka the quilting bunch yesterday. I was able to bring a donation that I thought I had finished ages ago, but there were a few stitches that I finished here. It's hand quilted, so no problem. Here is the front.

And the back.

Elaine and I went to the LaQuinta Arts Festival on Sunday. We lucked out because it did not rain (it had rained the previous two days). It was nice and sunny and not too hot. I thought these glass sculptures looked like Chihuly's sculptures at the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Arizona (Taliesin West).

Photo below of Chihuly sculpture at Taliesin by Mary D'Ambrosio Boylan

More from LaQuinta Arts Festival. No, I didn't wear camouflage ...

Of course, there were many more artists and types of art but since this is my third year, I didn't take as many photos as usual. (And I think I'm totally out of cloud storage. It wouldn't let me upload some photos to My Google Photos. This should be interesting.)

This is a particularly good year for oleander. This hedge screens the road on the other side.

View from Arizona Rest Stop

View from Another Arizona Rest Stop, Looking at New Mexico

Breakfast Cafe/Diner

New Mexico Rest Stop View

Outside PA Motel. There was a row of a half dozen of these firebushes, but the others were covered by cars.

So that's about it. Mom and I have fun finding new places to have lunch. We did go to iHop for brunch one day since their pancakes are Mom's favorite. 

I hope you are all having fun. Happy Thursday!

Viva Las Vegas!

 Last Sunday, Emily and I flew from Boston's Logan Airport to Las Vegas. Deb had flown from Boston to Palm Springs and she and my Mom flew from Palm Springs to Las Vegas. That was the beginning of our Sunday to Thursday Las Vegas Girls' Vacation! Deb had arranged for two rooms at the Circa hotel and a scooter for Mom. She also made a reservation for a poolside cabana and Emily made reservations for us to see Piff the Magic Dragon.

Below is the "ceiling" on Freemont Street just outside of our hotel. It really is open air but the photovoltaic cells give the illusion of a ceiling. The blur at the top is a brave soul ziplining. They seemed to zip in packs of four but this guy was a little slower so I managed to catch him. They go really fast!  It was 111 F. when we arrived but the temperature went down on successive days.

Our hotel was really super cooled so when we went outside there was a big contrast. We went to other casinos to go to their restaurant or to just sight see.

Below is the view from our room on the 25th floor. If you look to the right of the space needle, you can see a gold hotel. It looks shorter than the Hilton hotel to its left, ha ha. Yes, there is a giant T on the top.

This is the view from the 50th floor at the Circa. It's from their Legacy Lounge -- they don't even let you onto that elevator unless you have a reservation. We had a lovely drink and I tried to not look like a hick on my way to ladies' room. Passing the bar I noticed the selection of very expensive cigars in their own glassed in humidor. There were a couple of guys smoking cigars at the bar but their ventilation system was so good that we didn't smell the smoke over in our nook of comfy chairs and tables.

And the view at night from our room.

This is the Mega Bar at the Circa. I think there were 50 seats (I didn't actually count). At one point, I was playing the poker machines there and the bartender just kept giving me vodka and soda. They were really weak, luckily, but refreshing!

The art below is possibly the most photographed in Las Vegas. The bums are particularly shiny from all of the people patting them. Guys love to be photographed ... well you know how.

Outdoors on Fremont Street, there is an hourly evening show with very loud music. Each day there is a different artist (or maybe it's different every hour, I forget). This featured Katy Perry's music.

And here we are in the cabana at the Stadium Pool which sported air conditioning, paddle fan, wide screen TV, and a myriad of towels, water, and eating utensils. We ordered a sumptuous breakfast burrito from our server, Andrea. Her 'uniform' was a very skimpy bikini. Luckily, the bar area where she got the drinks was air conditioned even though it was outside. Oh, and there was a live DJ overseeing the music. That's when I gratefully took ear plugs from Deb.

 

My babies at the Stadium Pool.

Our server, Andrea is on her way to replenish drinks.

We were SO happy to not be on these seats in the full sun!

Throw in some wonderful meals and a smattering of gambling and there you have it! IMy first, and probably last, time at roulette, I won six in a row! It was Deb's money but she insisted on sharing in the winnings with Emily and me. It was fun.

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On June 18th, the Jones Library finally broke ground for their expansion and renovation project. It has been ten years in the making. Below is the Jones' mascot, Sammy. He is named after Samuel Minot Jones, the Library's first donor.

And BLAM! Its Summer

 Or how we went from the high of 79 to 91 F. overnight. Apparently, we have had 11 Saturdays of rain. Needless to say, everything is growing like mad. I was able to harvest my lettuce starters after about 3 days!

Today was better than yesterday when I had a guy come to clean out my dryer hose and vent. He "inspected" it and said, "That will be $249." It had been represented to me as $179, which I was prepared to pay. He said I needed the "deep brush" cleaning. I asked him to leave. I'm going to use Butch, the handyman that Ann is sharing with me.

Today I started off with an oil change and they said I don't need a brake job. Honda of the Desert had sent me an email saying it was time to check the brakes. I'm trying to avoid the Honda dealerships on either coast since their goal always seems to be to sell me more services. Naturally, I want to keep the car in as best shape as possible, but I don't want to do something before it's remotely needed.

From there I went a bit further into Hadley to the Esselon restaurant to have a lovely brunch on their patio. Meanwhile, it was warming up but not too hot outside. I had a fabulous breakfast egg and sausage sandwich on ciabata bread, with a mashed potato patty, and fresh green salad with lots of carrot shavings. Unfortunately, the darn mosquitoes decided to make me their brunch. As far as I know, I only got one bite.

Then it was reverse direction (toward home) and on to Whole Foods. Yep, their artistic food displays won me over and I got some watermelon hunks, green olives with lemon slices, and other stuff. My fave was "sushi" which was veggies wrapped in lettuce and a thin rice wrap. Oh, yes, I splurged on a pre-

Catching Up Time and How Was Mexico?

 

    

Yes, the quilt is still  pinned. I had two (count 'em) machines out of commission. Now I have one working but haven't been able to try it out. I've got to quilt this (sew through the three layers). I have never dealt with these colors before -- the pumpkin is way out of my comfort zone. But it was free and this will go to philanthropy, possibly with a teenage recipient.

Here's my wee sign for the Hands Off rally at Palm Springs City Hall. I'm told about 3,000 people showed up. I don't know if that's an exaggeration, but there were a bunch of people there! This was about 3 weeks ago, before we went to Mexico.

Here's my friend, Eric. He made really good signs. With the God comment, he was imitating those horrible Westboro "Christians" who would not only harass gay people every chance they got, they even picketed at funerals of LGBTQ, hurling insults at their families.

 

The POTUS sign is also Eric's.

April 7 On the Copper Canyon Tour

I found out I do like Dos Equis!

Our first hotel room in Phoenix. The patio was nice. Then we crossed into Mexico at Nogales.

Bathroom Art

April 8  Boat ride on the Sea of Cortez.

Private Funicula 

Views from the boat.

Lots of bird poop makes the white.

Mom enjoyed the ride almost as much as I did. The dinner was primarily seafood and it was delicious!

In the morning, before the boat ride, we learned everything there is to know about creating pearls in oysters. 

Carlos, our oyster guide, is standing near a net full of oysters. They have had a small bead inserted into the oyster. The net will be submerged in the Sea of Cortez. They have to plant them deeper due to the ocean's warming. The oysters like the colder water. Unfortunately, there is less food for them at that level. So it takes longer to grow the oyster/pearl.

It was quite a walk down to the oyster shack where the primary occupation is scraping barnacles off the oyster shells. Barnacles can make it impossible for the oysters to open their shells to eat.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the art in the hotel lobby.

April 9

Need I say more?

April 10

Waiting for the train to the Copper Canyon. The train is in the background.

After the grueling (long!) train ride, we boarded a bus to get to our hotel at the edge of the Copper Canyon. Here is our first view at about 8,000 feet. 

 

 

This is the view from our hotel room. 

I really enjoyed the view from our balcony.

April 11

The woman is showing how she makes her baskets while our guide tells us of  the fibers and pine needles are gathered for the baskets. (Yes, they have pine trees with LONG pine needles.)

April 12

The next morning, I found the mist to be beautiful.

I enjoyed the view and did some hand sewing. I wasn't interested in zip lining, a hike, nor the cable car across the Canyon. Mom did that. (That involved getting on a bus again to get far enough down the mountain to go to those playgrounds. I rested.)

April 13

Central Cultural Museum in Paquime

Then it was back on the bus to go to a potter's house, where she was going to demonstrate her art and give us lunch.

Yes, there is a pot under that fire. The pot was covered by a bigger pot. This is an original kiln. Below, Lila the artist is on the right. Camilo, one of our guides -- and interpreter -- is on the left with the black over the shoulder pack.

And this is the lunch the artist 'made' for us. No, that's not lasagna. It's seven layers (another woman counted them) of tortillas with a bit of tomato on them. And, of course, rice and beans. It's a good thing she's a sculptor. Her work is beautiful. Her cooking is not.

And I'm out of pictures. Aren't you glad? 

One thing they didn't tell us is that in order to re-enter the US, the bus driver had to unload all of the luggage for a search. That meant that we had to bring our luggage across the border -- which was 1/4 mile away.  We had two small suitcases, two large suitcases, 2 canes, 2 purses, and two walkers. Our guy organized a Mexican guy to help us, but he only took the two big suitcases and he dropped them at the door. He could not cross the threshold into the US. We finally got through customs and waiting outside sitting on a wall waiting for the bus. Finally our guide said we could go across the street and wait near the convenience store. Luckily, it was overcast because, in all we waited over 2 hours for the bus. 

So it definitely was an adventure, but I now know that 7 hours on and off a bus each day is too much for me. I also realize why a lot of the people there think we are rich Americans. Because compared to them we are VERY rich. It made me count my blessings.

I am too tired to proof this. I'm in the middle of packing to return to Amherst and I've been up since 5 a.m. Maybe a nap is in order ...