Colors Meet Sky

Each day I go outside and see the peach faced love birds and goldfinches on the sunflowers in my garden. I am surprised by joy anew when they suddenly fly all at once, their bright colors meeting the blue sky. The sky above the sunflower patch is filled with bright yellows, reds, greens, and blues for a couple seconds of awe and delight. I've tried to take pictures, but am not fast enough. You'll just have to imagine it in your minds eye.
These are some of the tiny Goldfinches. They love the tiny little seeds they get from the dried sunflowers. This picture even shows one of the seeds that they like so well. They are much smaller than the sunflower seeds we eat.
This little guy is really getting into it!
The Goldfinches almost are invisible among the bright yellow sunflowers.
The parrots are bigger. They bend and make the sunflowers dance as they hop from one part of the sunflowers to another.




I have been enjoying summer and time off work. May was very busy. We enjoyed Kirs, Rob and the kids visit and had a great time with Max and Maxine from Oz. I will get back to both of those visits in future blogs. Then came the end of school which was very stressful this year because our AZ schools have had major cuts in funding. I decided to come back another year even though I will have 2 schools. We nurses fought the good fight, but too much had to be cut. It was a very sad and depressing time. We had our grandsons Niko and Maceo (Faye and Javier's 2 youngest) for 3 days in early June so they could have a get-away in San Diego. We rode bikes, played in the ditch, went to see the movie "UP" with the boys. The last week or so I've got to spend quality time with Ryan. That is a whole long story in and of itself. First of all he was in a car accident. The wheel from another car came off and hit the wheel of his car. Of course the driver, had no license and prob no insurance. The driver fled the scene on foot and the police are allowed to take up to a month to make the report. However, as bad as that was, he wasn't hurt and it got him to finally realize that he was in financial crisis and could no longer support his girlfriend who chooses not to work (or is always going to but never does). He told his girlfriend to move out and she broke all his vinyl record collection before the police arrived. He decided to move from his apartment due to bad karma, a gas leak, no hot water because the hot water heater was venting in the kitchen (the gas company shut it down) and a landlord who never follows through with promises to fix stuff. So we started looking for a new apartment. He wants to live downtown to be in walking distance to his 2nd job at the Dodge Theater in downtown Phoenix. He found a studio he likes and can afford. It has wood floors, a tiny kitchen, but is actually large for a studio. He will save about $100 per month. It looks south into downtown and is a couple blocks from the Dodge Theater. Next week we will help him move into his new place. Things are looking up!

Fun with "My cousins, the boys"

We had several get togethers with Faye, Javier and "the boys". It is always great fun. Here Dilly and Rowan (you see only her hand) are up in the boys tree house.
Nathan takes the kids on a wheelbarrow ride, almost as fun as Disneyland!
A treehouse and wheelbarrow ride, what more could you ask for?
This was our first gathering
Niko, Maceo, Rowan and Dilly playing with the Fisher Price toys I saved many years for my grandchildren. I also have Leggos and a several boxes of blocks. I love getting them out when the kids are here.

Wearing Nana's Hat

For the love of Trains!

Dilly loves trains and anything else that has wheels. He especially loves Thomas the Train which he actually got to ride on later when they were in Utah. We rode a number of trains while they were in Phoenix. Dylan's eyes would get big and his mouth would open like an "O" in excitement and adoration. We rode the light rail in Phoenix to go downtown and see the sights. Actually the guys, including our friend Chris, were going to go to the NRA convention and see the exhibits but there was a 2 hour wait just to get in. They ended up joining Kirs, Rowan and I for lunch instead. The light rail has always been crowded every time we ride it, but I'm not sure how many are paying customers because no one ever asks to see your tickets. They are going to raise the rates in July and are thinking of selling the naming rights!
I set up the train at home when everyone else was at the store. We really had a fun, exciting time. Rowan was the engineer and Dilly the tunnel (he stood over the track) and conductor. At first Rowan would speed up so fast or reverse directions without stopping that the train went off the tracks about 40 or more times. All in all she was a great engineer. I had steel wool in the box for cleaning the tracks (the kids asked me what it was for and I told them). At one point when I was talking on the phone, I looked over and there was Dilly rubbing the steel wool on the tracks and sparks were flying 6 or 8 inches in the air! I dropped the phone and ran over and turned off the electricity to the tracks. We had our own little train fireworks compliment of Dilly.
We also rode the train at Encanto Park Kiddie Land. After riding this train Rowan and Dylan pose in front of the engine. Being at Encanto Park reminded me of fond memories. Encanto Park with its lagoons used to be the only place with water (except the canals) in Phoenix. We went there a lot when we were kids so Mum could sit by the lagoon because she was homesick for water, any water. Encanto park is very large and is a great place to explore as a kid. There are many bridges going over the lagoon, you can rent a boat or just explore the park. My favorite place in the park (other than Kiddie Land) was a large area where there were tall reeds. There were tunnels and paths through the reeds like a maze. It was really fun like finding your way in a jungle and trying to find the way out. We played chase games, pirate games and I had my favorite route. I know that area is no longer there, I suppose for safety reasons, but we really had great times in that maze! Kiddie Land has been revamped, but much is the same as when I was a kid and our kids were kids. We've had many a birthday party there over the years. The carousel is exactly the same, the train has a new engine, but most of the track and train is the same, the roller coster has the same track, but has been changed into a dragoon roller cooster instead of the plain one we had.
This is Kirs, Rob and the kids riding in the train at the Scottsdale train park.
This is the train at the Scottsdale train park.

Grandparents tour

Kirs, Rob, Rowan and Dilly were here from India in mid May. I took 5 days off school! We had a great time doing fun kid things. We went to the Children's Museum which was like old home week because this was one of their favorite stomps when they were staying with us last fall. We went to the Train park in Scottsdale. Here Dilly and his Dad are riding on the carousel. He wasn't sure he liked it at first, but he did ride it twice, so I guess it grew on him.
This was a train museum which was an engine and train cars used by 4 different Presidents. Dilly was very upset because we left this big train w/o it going anywhere. This is a hand cart in the museum.

Rowanisms: I need to wash my hands I was rubbing woshin (lotion) on them. When spitting at Dilly while saying "Swiper no swiping" (3 times like Dora the explorer says), Kirsten says, I don't think Dora does that! Rowan says, " Well I do!" Being a pirate, "tiber me shimbers".
Dillyisms: Oh, tay! DaDa let's dough! MaMa hold lellow parpar (parrot). DaDa, wide (ride) twain. RoRo dak my base (Rowan take my space). HaHa gan now (Hungry again now). TeTe TaTa (teeter-totter). Cincinlela (Cinderella)

Erika and Del together at last and other miracles

Erika loved her husband, her garden and flowers in that order. She is from Germany and might have moved back to Germany when Del died, but she wanted to be buried with him. I am her neighbor across the alley and have been close to her especially since Del died about 5 years ago. We shared our love of our gardens and flowers. She fell at home and was found by the mailman who also checked on her. She eventually had a stroke in the nursing home, I think because she was so mad because they wouldn't let her go home. She gave me medical power of attorney when she was in the nursing home and went into hospice when it was clear that she would never regain consciousness. The sad thing is that I found her unconscious and had to convince the staff at the nursing home that she had had a stroke. She died May 5 at Gardner Home which is a beautiful peaceful home run by Hospice of the Valley. I took the picture above today, it is the lettuce in her garden. When I was over there our neighbor was trimming the dead wood out of her citrus trees. He didn't know that she had died and she didn't think he liked her very well! People are very surprising. Our mailman, bless his heart, has visited her all through her illness and he was the hero in going out of his way and finding her when he noticed that she hadn't picked up her mail.

Floyd, the mailman, called me the other day and said, "I took a watch of Erica's to get repaired and I think she would like to be buried with it. Would you go over to her house and try to find it?" Well, I went over there found the watch, her wedding ring and looked in her closet for a dress she could be buried in. I was looking through all her dresses and saw this one you see below. It is a beautiful green with a scarf and attached to it just as you see here was a hand written note that said, "funeral home". I was so touched and so was Julian. She made all her own clothes and I'm sure she made this also.

This is a picture of Erika, taken at Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner and we were really in the background so the resolution isn't very good. This past Christmas I gave her an amaryllis. She called me and invited me to come over at the first glimse of a bud, again when it started to open and several times when it was at its most beautiful. I also had one in my house which I started later than the one I gave to Erika. I was impatient with all her calls, but happy to share her joy in the flower's beauty. As it turned out mine didn't bloom at all and if I hadn't taken time to go over to see her's I would have missed everything: her joy and the flowers beauty!

The Ugly Duckling Parrot

Julian called me at work the other day when I was up to my neck with the swine flu, had just heard from the doctor at the hospice home where my 90 year old neighbor was near death and reeling while trying to figure out how we nurses will handle 2 schools next year. Well the story he excitedly told me on the phone, made up for all those problems. He said that a little yellow parrot was eating from the feeder like you see in this picture. He was just eating away and stuck his head so far into the feeder that he couldn't get it out! He tried to get out but couldn't. There were sparrows on the feeder with him then and they shaked the cage trying to help him get loose. A larger parrot came up, stood beside him and pushed with his body and foot until the yellow parrot's head popped out! I realized later when I was taking these pictures that he has one injured foot that he cannot use. He said that it was the most amazing thing and it definitely was the shining light in an otherwise crazy and depressing day.