This Year in One Exciting Post!

 I don't even know where to start because it's been over a year since I posted anything.  Needless to say, I've been busy.  I guess I'll start with things that first come to mind.  Two things that I do all the time but don't have pictures of are singing in the choir and Ballroom Dancing with Gary. We have to drive out to Sun City to dance now.   I love singing and dancing.  They keep me joyful, happy and in shape physically and mentally.  

This is Gary and I dancing, have to get more photos.  It's hard to do on the dance floor

My Mom turned 99 on July 14, 2022!

 We celebrated at DBE and Lunch Bunch.  I had a cake made and had them put on it a photo of a koala that I took last time we visited Australia.  A week or 2 before her birthday, she wasn't feeling well, so I watched her more closely and realized that she would often think she's eaten, but really hadn't.  We went to the doctor, they did tests etc.  She is perfectly healthy, just needs to eat and drink regularly. That is my nursing diagnosis, not the doctors.  Now I go over to her house or have her at my house 3 times a day.  It's working out because she lives right around the corner and I have to eat 3 meals a day also.  My brother gives me a break on Friday so Gary and I can go dancing.  Sometimes Ryan helps out also.  This not eating prompted the doctor to order all kinds of home visits.  She had a nurse, a PT, a OT and a social worker who visited the home, covered by medicare thank the Lord.  It was actually a relief we passed and they stopped coming because we were both exhausted by their multiple visits.  I also got a bath lift and now help her take a bath each week.  We do elevator up and elevator down, it's a real kick.  She now has exercises to do to keep her in shape and her muscles strong.  She is amazingly agile and strong for 99!

 Lunch Bunch Birthday

 DBE Birthday

 All Mom's Cards which she loved.  She kept them on the table for a month then moved then to the window.  She looked at them with wonder and said, I am so blessed

 Flowers She Received

Mom and her bike

 

 Faye, Javier and Jules moved to Deer Creek

Deer Creek is about a half hour south of Payson, AZ.  Their property is almost 2 acres.  The south side of it is Deer Creek and the other side of the creek is Tonto National Forest.  They love it! At the beginning of 2022 Faye was still working 2 days a week at a school in Phoenix.  I had Jules for one day for home school science and the other day for Branches her home school group so I saw them a lot.  During the summer we had to plan gatherings, but they are only 1 hour and 20 minutes away.  This semester Faye is working closer to home which is great for her.  She is still teaching blind and visually disabled children.  They moved their chickens and other menagerie and Javier built a beautiful raised bed garden.  

Now every couple weeks Jules stays in Phoenix after Branches, spends the night and we do our science adventure the next day.  I drive her home Friday and sometimes spend the night at Deer Creek.  A couple weeks ago we met at a Scottsdale restaurant for them to pick her up.  Nathan, Maddy, Isaac, Niko and Jeremy and his girlfriend were able to come also.  What a great time of loud voices and laughter that was!  

 Jules sitting on the sycamore tree branch

 Faye and Jules under the Arch

Somewhere under the rainbow

    Javier enjoying the creek after rain or snow melt

Raised bed garden before planting

Swimming pool with neighbor kids

Faye working part time at Rye Country Store

Faye with home canned produce for sale at Rye

Path heading down to creek

Meandering Path to creek

 Hidy Hole one of many        

One of the many beautiful sycamores

What a place for a kid to grow up!

Now I am 12:  Jules Birthday July 15

We went up to Deer Creek for Jules birthday celebration.  Here's a sweet picture taken out in the bush where they set up a snack table

Family and friends

Jules blowing out candles

GreatGrandson Isaac

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 See How My Garden Grows

 Ah, I so enjoy my garden.  I love to have flowers, fruits and veggies growing all year.  Fruits are seasonal, but I do have flowers and veggies all year. 

Oranges ripen in January

 

I had a big crop of oranges this year.  I juice and freeze so that I have fresh OJ all year.  Plus I zest the peal and dry it for later and cut up and dry peals to make my orange rose black tea.  

 

Oranges with orange blossoms for next year

 

Some of my winter crops are snow peas, broccoli and tomatoes

A favorite time is when leaves drop off the apricot and peach trees in the fall.  Makes me feel that there are seasons in Phoenix.  Then in the early Spring the trees blossom and then leaf out

Apples from Mom's tree

Jules making applesauce

                                                                                        

Apricots are ripe in May.   Peaches in May and June (2 different trees).  Then of course the fun time comes, eating and canning the crops.  My Mom has an apple tree and we harvest her apples and put them up also.

Jules made applesauce this year and sold it at her Branches home school group at her business.  She made $34.50 the other day selling applesauce, focaccia bread and scrunchies, head bands, etc!  Anyway we get to make Jam, Syrups, Sauces, spiced slices, fruit breads and anything else we can think of.  The whole family get involved, plus friends if I can drag them into the fun. 

   

Peaches in May and June

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are my summer flowers.  Most bloom all summer

Mexican Bird of Paradise

Bachelor buttons

Spider Lilly

Zinnas

My trumpet vines are along my south fence and bloom all summer

Naked Lady blooms before leaves appear

Hum, not sure what you are

Yellow Bells

These took over my wildflower garden

Away from the garden and back to Deer Creek.  I spent the night this past Friday when I drove Jules back after a spend the night at Nana's (me).  It is late Sept now, still hot, but cooler up there the sycamore trees are green and we went to Roosevelt Lake and then Jakes Corner for lunch. 

Jules on her swing

It rained Friday so the creek was running.  Jules and I went out Saturday morning and looked for birds and butterflies while Faye was making breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc.  Every single pancake was eaten.  Ever had blueberry lemon jam, well it's delicious on pancakes! 

 

On November 6, 2021 we had our Union Jack DBE Garden Tea to raise money for the British Home, Az Friends of Foster Children and Pawsitive Friendships.  

Setting up kitchen

Kitchen during Tea, Addison, Faye, Jules, Ryan & Maggi

Most of the workers

Maggi and Carol taking a well earned break

 

 

 

Home School Adventures

 Some of the things we've studied in Fall of 2021 & 2022:  Simple machines, Birds, Crystals, Elephants, Chemistry & history of pencils and graphite, the Combustion Engine, energy and motion, Electricity and batteries, Hot Ice and Sodium Acetate, the Periodic Table, Electricity, Air Pressure, weather balloons, Black light and Bio-luminescent light, Animals that Glow, review Linnaeus 7 levels of living things, Christopher Columbus, the Vikings and early humans in America, Radiocarbon dating, Fossils, Light, Genetics and DNA

 

 

We went to the World Wildlife zoo as a fun reward.  We love the giraffes and the Lorakeets especially

Wall Hangout

We both just happened to wear Koala shirts on the same day

We pulled DNA out of a strawberry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clouds and Sunsets

The Heavens declare the glory of God, The sky's proclaim the work of his Hands.  Psalm 19:1

I love the clouds of Arizona!  It doesn't always rain, but oh what sunrises, sunsets and cloud formations we get to see.  The monsoons are awesome for clouds.  This monsoon was great for rain also.  At my Phoenix home I've gotten 6.6" of rain in July, Aug and Sept this year!  That is amazing considering that Phoenix's average total year rainfall is 7".

 

The Heavens declare the glory of God, The sky's proclaim the work of his Hands.  Psalm 19:1

 

Sunset in Phoenix

Sunset from my back porch Flagstaff

Sunset from in front of Mom's house

On the road to Flagstaff

Amazing Sky between Phx and Flag

 

 

 

 

Cloud formation driving up to Flag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DBE goes to Desert Botanical Gardens to see Chihuly glass

Rita, Alex, Maggi, Mom and Anne

I have seen all of Chihuly's exhibits at the gardens over the years and have enjoyed each and every one.   This was a delight to the eye. 

Maggi, Mom, me, Alex, Carol R and Helen

Knitting creations

  I've been knitting and crocheting tea cozys for DBE for 2022 fundraiser.  We have 2 kinds for sale for $20 each.  One is called the English Garden and the other the Union Jack.

If you are interested in buying one, let me know. I can make the English Garden cozy in small, medium or large.  The Union Jack will fit most except very small tea pots. All proceeds go to the British Home, AZ Friends of Foster Children and Pawsitive Friendships. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also knit for my church group.  We call ourselves the Knitty Witty Chain Gang.  We currently knit and crochet in Christ's name for babies who are being baptized, Justa Center (for homeless seniors), Hope Center for children and families and New Beginnings Parenting Center of Payson, AZ.  We are few but very prolific!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flagstaff is Cool!  

We have gotten so much rain up there. On the east side we have gotten up to 10 inches of rain (by the end of Aug), but the airport has received only 4 inches!  This is so typical Arizona. It can pour somewhere and a mile away, rain only a few drops. t's so wonderful to have rain almost every day when we're in Flag.  Even driving up to Flagstaff, most of the hillsides are green.  It was such a treat to see deer in the back of the townhouse.  One of the reasons that I love our place in Flagstaff is that it feels like you are out in the forest.  Elk Run townhouses sit in the middle of a golf course, so we have great sledding hills in the winter and plenty of room for the elk and deer, etc to wander by.  I've taken over ownership of my porch to avoid paying $8,000 which is what the HOA estimated it will cost.  I think they based it upon all the units, but many units have much larger decks.  So, we rented a sander and painted the deck with deck paint that I'm hoping will stand up pretty well to the weather extremes.  I'm also struggling with the furnace which is old.  Gary who is very handy has been trying to salvage this old heater.  It was working, but the fan was very noisy, so we looked it up and ordered a new one on line, then found out that we needed a capacitor.  Well, it didn't work so we called a HVAC company and they did the exact same thing.  We probably had a bad fan motor made in China.  I'm hoping it works now.  My guy who checks on things when I'm not there said that he tried it and it didn't come on.  I had the HVAC guy come again, he said it works and maybe Karl didn't wait long enough for it to come on.  Anyway, I've got to get up there and double check it's working before the cold weather hits. I will get a new furnace one of the next 2 summers  Never a dull moment. 

Deer in our Meadow at Elk Run Townhouse

Abert's Squirrel they have furry ear tufts in the winter