Snow and a quick story

Well, it almost made it down here. The forcast is still calling for snow this afternoon, so maybe I'll have a better pic tomorrow. :)

So, I was sewing along yesterday, on my 8th block!, and ran out of bobbin thread. I discovered that the bobbin winder on my machine went kaput. What a bummer. I was on a roll.

Hubby: Why don't you just wind it by hand?

Me: Do you know how long that would take?

Hubby: Here. I'll do it.

Winding. Winding. Winding.

Me: (Knowing he is even less patient than me) It's going to take forever, I'll do it.

Hubby: No, no, it's okay.

Winding. Winding...

Hubby: Wait a sec. I'll be right back.

God love him! He comes back in to my office carrying his power drill! Holds the bobbin on the end of the drill, and whzzzzzzz! Finished. Full bobbin.

A Room with a View

This is the view from my window this morning. It's 43* outside, with just a bit of sunshine spotlighting my piece of the neighborhood. Clouds are draped over the tops of the mountains, and the prediction is for snow flurries by this evening. A winter storm watch.

As I sit here with my cup of sleepy time tea, I can't help but check outside frequently to see if the clouds have moved forward in my direction. The idea of snow can still turn me into a kid! When we do get a few flurries, I run outside and turn my face to the sky, arms outstretched, smiling. It makes me happy to my core. A glorious spring day can do that too, as well as a good rain, and a beautiful bird song

I lived in Lake Tahoe for seven years, and one of the reasons I moved was that, although looking at snow falling beneath a streetlight at night thrilled me, shoveling the stuff by myself year after year was overwhelming.

Now, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. I admit that. The first year I would shovel the whole driveway and park next to the house. By the second year, I was parking at the end of the driveway and shoveling a path to the front door. One evening I shoveled the end of the driveway, and pulled the car in, happy to know that when I left for work the next day it would be clear. Well, I got up in the morning to discover that I had been plowed in by a 3 foot pile of snow off the street.

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for snow. I've put seed out for the birds, carrots for the rabbits, and sugar water in the hummingbird feeders. I'm ready. :)

Long Weekend

I can hardly believe it myself, but I am actually sewing the quilt blocks for the Soft Roses quilt. I guess I just had to wait until I got that particular wild hair, right? This is the one where you sew layers of fabric on top of each other, about a quarter inch from the edge, so that when it's done, and washed, the edges will fray, softening the edges.

I saw one made years ago and loved it. When I saw the fabrics bundled up I thought they were beautiful. I still like them, but if I were ever to make another, I would pick my own colors and patterns. It will be fine, I'm sure. Hopefully, I won't get bored with it, and put it away again!

We've been to a couple of matinees over the last several days. The first movie we saw was "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". It was almost like claymation, but the animals, and everything else, was handmade. All of the foxes were made with real fox hair, one hair at a time. Who is that patient??? Certainly not me. Anyway, it was a cute film.

The second movie we saw today was "Blind Sided", the true story of Michael Oher, a player on the Baltimore Ravens football team. We loved it! We especially enjoyed seeing the pictures of his "real" family at the end. The acting was excellent, by the way.

I hope you've all been enjoying the weekend!

Thanksgiving Day

So many things to be thankful for, not just today, but everyday. I'm thankful to God for taking my worries when I hand them over. I'm thankful for my three kids who are no longer kids. I'm thankful that they are all safe and healthy. I'm thankful for a husband that loves me, even when I'm not so loveable. I'm thankful for my family and friends who are accepting, and even though we rarely stay in touch, we still know we're family.

I wish my kitchen was going to be FAT with family today, loud with jokes and laughter, football games on the TV, and loaded with way too much food. Hopefully next year we'll all be able to make that happen.

Love to you all. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

What's the Story?

Anybody know the story about this house that is down the street from the church in the rocks that I posted yesterday? I would love to know who owns it and the story behind the building of it!

Sedona, AZ

Sedona is incredibly beautiful. Even a raw image is spectacular. Driving along the Verde River, you can see Sedona, miles away, off in the distance. As you get close, there are red sandstone formations that glow with red and orange in the rising or setting sun.

Timing can be everything, right? To be on the sunnyside of the mountain helps. We should have gotten there much earlier, and with more time to explore. As it was, the dogs were alone in the motorhome, so we ran through town, raced from one end to the other, and decided that we would be back to spend more time. There was also some major road construction going on while we were there.

Sedona is said to be a very spiritual place, and there are "new age" spiritual healing businesses throughout the town. But really, who wouldn't be in awe, be inspired, connect with our spirituality in a place like this?
In the middle of town are all sorts of touristy shops, expensive eateries, and an information center that was jammed with people trying to figure out the best places to take photos, or the best jeep tour in town. Along the shops on the sidewalks were awesome metal statues.


A church built in to the rock.

The view behind the church:
Yes, we'll go back when we have more time.

All God's Creatures Sunday

Mmmm, so nice and warm here in the sun...maybe I'll rest here a little while...just close my eyes for a moment...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

SIMPLICITY

If you haven't checked out "Soaring Through the World in Pictures" that Heather started, you should. Photos from people around the world on weekly themes, by professionals and amateurs alike. It's fun, and gets you thinking about all sorts of subjects. Check it out; join us!

This week's theme is Simplicity. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what that means to me personally, or in my photographs. Believe me, I came up with all sorts of photos that, to me, portrayed simplicity. Then I started THINKING....always an uh oh.

I thought of this one:


Yeah, looks simple, right? But then I start thinking about what made that silt so deceiving; cracked and dry on the surface, but muck less than a centimeter underneath. The grass looks like simplicity, but it started a whole conversation with myself about the origins of the earth, and what it takes to make a simple seed grow somewhere, and photosynthesis, and chlorophyll, and all of a sudden it didn't seem so simple. At all.

Anyway, I love the idea of simple, and living simply. But just like trying to find a "simple" photograph, it's not so easy to live that way.

Friday My Town Shootout

This weeks theme, My Town's Premier Attaction, is brought to you by Kent . This is truly a great theme. All towns are known for something. Should be fascinating!!

Let's see. My towns Premier Attraction. Well, there's the fort.

I've mentioned Fort Huachuca in a couple of posts before. This is where intelligence training happens for all branches of the military. The fort employs 13,000 civilians, and is really the only reason why this town exists. This is a military town, and we're very proud of all of the people who serve to protect our freedoms.

Another "attraction" of my town is this:

Sierra Vista, Arizona, was the first city to have a McDonald's drive-through. It first opened its window on January 24, 1975, to be able to quickly feed many of the soldiers coming from Fort Huachuca, a military base located adjacent to the city. (from Wickipedia)

Then, of course, we are the Hummingbird capital of the United States! We're on a migratory path for these little creatures that can travel thousands of miles every year.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Jump Rope Dance

Sorry about the commercial in the beginning, but this is a MUST WATCH! AMAZING!

My Fish

Okay, here he is. Not sure why this wouldn't upload last night, but...

Doesn't he look HUGE next to the chickens??? Those are little game hens! Ha ha ha.

Missin' this place...

The line of trees in this photo runs along the river bank at our campsite. By the time we left to come home, all of the leaves were yellow and orange. Hey! Did I tell you I caught a FISH??? I DID! The only one we caught! It was a brown trout, about 10-11 inches long! So we made a big deal about how we were going to take pictures of what we caught so I could post here, but to tell the truth, by the time we got back to camp, we were so freaked out about how we were going to kill the fish, that taking a picture was not even a thought.

I've been fishing before. I have. And by the time we drove home, the fish were dead. no problem. Scale 'em, gut 'em, and fry 'em. But this day, we watched him flip around in the bucket, and slowly end up on his side, alive. I even called my neighbor (fishing guru) about how to "do the deed."

She said, "If you touch him and he doesn't move, he won't last long."

But you know what? I don't want him to suffer. Suffocating must be awful!!!

Me: He's still wiggling. Should we just hit him over the head with a rock?

She said: If you don't know where to hit him, it could be just as bad as suffocating. (At this point she had to explain to a fellow shopper that she was talking about fishing)

Me: Wuhl, should we cut his head off?

She said: I think you're putting waaaay too much thought into this.

I won't go into the gory details, but 3 knives later, we found one sharp enough. I am sooo sorry fishy! We went online that night and read about many different ways to "kill" a fish. None of them sounded great. But before we fish again, we will have a knife to be "oh so scared of!" Oh, and by the way...he was delicious! He he he. I did get a picture of him on the grill, but I can't seem to download it right now! Maybe tomorrow!

We've been home for two days and I am missing being out in the building on wheels, cozied up with Hubby & the 2 hairballs. I mean, we're still all together in the house too, but somehow it's just not the same. Oh, and I've figured out why people go "full time." Well one of the reasons, anyway. It's so they don't have to UNPACK! What a chore!!! It takes hours! I know, poor me, right? At least I got to go. And for three weeks! But it's all back to work now; billing, cleaning, yardwork, and those #%!@*^! tumbleweed!!!!

Mosaic Monday

Montezuma's Castle is just one of the places that we drove to see on our vacation. Actually, it was only about 10 miles from where we camped. The Sinagua Indians occupied these cliff dwellings for 300 years. Isn't that amazing???

Dang!

Having some issues with downloads on our mobile internet. What a learning experience. I do so miss looking in to everyone's blogs!!!
We'll be home on Saturday and, HALLELULIAH, will be able to check in on everyone!
Hope all is well with each and every one of you!
XO

FRIDAY SHOOTOUT

This weeks theme, Skylines, was chosen by Kate. I can't wait to see everyone's photos for this one!
This was taken yesterday from the top of an indian pueblo in Tuzigoot National Park. This is Verde Valley.

In this next photo, you can see the town of Jerome nestled into the mountain.

To see more My Town Friday Shootout members photos, or to join up yourself, visit here!

Jerome, AZ

Since we don’t have a tow vehicle set up for the building on wheels yet, we rented a car for a couple of days to tour the area around Cottonwood. Today we chose Jerome. Jerome is a peculiar little place, that used to be a copper mining town in the 1800’s. It has burned numerous times and rebuilt many times as well. All this week there has been a controlled burn on the other side of the mountain, making shots somewhat hazy.


I haven't touched this photo at all. This was the beginning of the days burn.

To get there, you drive from an elevation of 3100 ft up a winding road to 5500 ft. Hubby hates heights, going up or down. I should have offered to drive, I guess, but he probably wouldn’t have liked it any better if I had. If you continue up and over the mountain, winding your way through 158 curves, you will come to Prescott. Talk about a wild ride!

Once in town, it’s an uphill zigzag of funky little shops, an artisans wonderland. Loads of places to eat & explore. In it’s heyday the population was about 15,000 people (I'll have to verify that), all involved with the mine. Today, there are about 450 full time residents.

Here are some photos we took today…
You know I'm crazy for crows!

Many of the places we took photos of were abandoned buildings that probably have gone through one of the many fires.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow with some history of Jerome, AZ.

My New Favorite Spot

After talking to numerous people in the park, we FINALLY found a fishing spot that is not only beautiful, but, after a 20 yard walk along a cliff edge, is an easy fishing spot that we will definnittly (Heather) be trying out!

After finding this spot, in a different camping area within the Thousand Trails site, we MOVED!!!

Something to Ponder

I recently finished a book by Joyce Carol Oates called The Gravedigger’s Daughter. It took me about 2/3 way through the book before I really loved it. Then I was sorry to see it end. But…

There was a passage in it, page 429, which stopped me in my tracks at the time, and has been bothering my mind for about a week now. Here it is.

“A woman opens her body to a man, a man will possess it as his own.
Once a man loves you in that way, he will come to hate you. In time.
Never will a man forgive you for his weakness in loving you.”

I know it’s just a novel; that an author will write what he/she thinks makes a good story. But it has been bugging me. Not that I think the passage is a true one. Not quite. It’s not completely it. Thoughts have been worming their way through the nooks and crannies of my grey matter and here’s what I think might be more correct.

When two people are in love, living their lives together, open to each other, sharing who they are, inevitably a time will come when complete trust becomes a question. It could be from something said in anger, or feeling inadequate, jealousy. No matter. It’s not that he is weak in loving you, although aren’t we all to a degree when we love, as well as the most powerful? It’s that you know the others’ weaknesses. And in time, they know your strength and feel weaker because of it. I don’t know. Or maybe I’m just full of crap and have thought waaay too much about it. Yeah, I’m like that. And why would it bother me so?

What do you think about it? Maybe it has nothing to do with gender, and certainly is not true of all relationships, but on some level it was of one of mine in the past.

All God's Creatures Sunday

We've been taking LOTS of walks around the park here in Verde Valley. There are many trails, shortcuts, and roads between the different camping areas. It's weird calling it camping really. Because most (okay, all) of the campers are motorhomes, fifth wheels, or travel trailers, and it just doesn't mean the same thing.

I remember "camping" as a kid, with a sleeping bag, in a tent, with a fire pit, out in the open, cooking outside. You had people that were outside all day, playing, fishing, talking to one another. Not the same today, I'm afraid. Most people keep to themselves, probably watching television in their homes on wheels. Walking seems to be one of the only ways to still communicate with other people. We all try to make our little areas around our camp like home, like us. While walking the dogs last night, we noticed (the dogs did not) this kitty quite comfortably (until we stopped) sitting in the middle of the picnic table.

I've been noticing a woman painting a roadrunner on a toy hauler behind us. I remembered Scriptor Senex saying he loved roadrunners, so I had to go take a picture of it!

I noticed for a couple of days there was a picture of a roadrunner taped to the back, next to the painting. The picture is gone, the painting finished and sealed. After talking to the owner for a while, he told me this woman has painted the inside of the activity center in the next camping area over. On our walk today, we'll have to go check it out. Didn't she do a great job?